The teenager who stabbed 39-year-old Kristie McBride in a street brawl in Wollongong two years ago could be eligible for parole in February next year.<\/p>\n
Three other teenage girls were also sentenced in the NSW Supreme Court in Sydney today after previously pleading guilty to manslaughter.<\/p>\n
They had been charged as part of a joint criminal enterprise.<\/p>\n
Justice Richard Cavanagh told the court the Crown had accepted the manslaughter plea because the offenders were acting in self-defence, although with “excessive force”.<\/p>\n
The brawl erupted on the evening of November 22, 2023, when a group of teenage girls armed with knives arrived on Wegit Way, Warrawong, to confront another group that included Kristie McBride and her sister, Carly McBride.<\/p>\n
The confrontation had been arranged on social media and quickly escalated into violence.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kristie McBride was remembered by family and friends after the fatal Wollongong attack. (Supplied: McBride family)<\/p>\n
The court heard the main offender, who was 15 at the time and is now 17, stabbed Kristie McBride three times in the space of two seconds.<\/p>\n
Ms McBride died nine days later in hospital.<\/p>\n
The teenager was sentenced today to four years and three months in prison for manslaughter with a non-parole period of two years and three months.<\/p>\n
Her sentence will expire in February 2028, but she will be eligible for parole in February next year.<\/p>\n
Justice Cavanagh said although none of the other teenagers stabbed Kristie McBride they acknowledged their participation in the brawl.<\/p>\n
The second teenager, who was 15 at the time, was sentenced to three years in prison with a non-parole period of one year and 10 months, and is already eligible for parole.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The four teenagers were charged as part of a joint criminal enterprise. (ABC Illawarra: Kiara Martin)<\/p>\n
The third was 14 years old at the time and received a sentence of two years and 10 months, with a non-parole period of one year and eight months.<\/p>\n
She will serve the remainder of her sentence in a juvenile facility and will be eligible for parole in June.<\/p>\n
The fourth was also 14 years old and received a two-year community corrections order, allowing her to remain in the community under supervision.<\/p>\n
Justice Cavanagh said the brawl had its origins in a falling out between the two groups but the “original motive is not really known”.<\/p>\n
He told the court the group chat created on Instagram named “The Big Yappers” was designed to “direct insults and threats at each other”.<\/p>\n
He said it degenerated to “sexual references \u2014 threats of rape and homophobic slurs”.<\/p>\n
Teen conflict spirals<\/p>\n
Court documents noted three of offenders bought kitchen knives from a supermarket and unwrapped them in a shopping centre bathroom in Wollongong.<\/p>\n
A fourth member then joined the group and they caught a bus to Warrawong.<\/p>\n
The documents outlined that Carly McBride armed herself with a metal baseball bat, while another in the group grabbed a plank of wood, another a sock filled with tins of cat food, while Kristie McBride grabbed an object that could not be identified in footage from the scene.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The brawl involving up to 15 young people occurred at Wegit Way in Warrawong. (ABC Illawarra: Kiara Martin)<\/p>\n
The fight was partially captured on footage taken from two phones.<\/p>\n
The documents said Carly McBride ran towards the offenders and hit one on the head with the bat.<\/p>\n
The main offender thrust a knife into Kristie McBride three times in two seconds.<\/p>\n
Two of the offenders discarded their knives as they fled, while one was still carrying a knife when police officers stopped them.<\/p>\n
Paramedics were called and took Kristie McBride to hospital where she was placed in an induced coma.<\/p>\n
She died nine days later from complications of her injuries.<\/p>\n
Sentencing considerations<\/p>\n
In his sentencing Justice Cavanagh acknowledged the grief and feelings of deep loss experienced by Ms McBride’s family.<\/p>\n
He reiterated the main offender was only 15 at the time of the stabbing and the others ranged from 14 to 16.<\/p>\n
He said they were “very immature” and “susceptible to peer pressure”.<\/p>\n
He referenced the group chat as an example of their “reduced capacity to engage in rational and mature thinking”.<\/p>\n
He said the main offender believed “she was defending herself or another person, but her conduct was not a reasonable response in the circumstances”.<\/p>\n
He highlighted that three of the four had experienced significant disadvantage and trauma, including family conflict, violence, sexual abuse, and unstable care arrangements.<\/p>\n
The judge said rehabilitation should be central to sentencing young offenders and several had actively engaged with schooling, counselling, and behavioural programs while in custody.<\/p>\n
He said it showed increasing maturity and a willingness to address their behaviour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The teenager who stabbed 39-year-old Kristie McBride in a street brawl in Wollongong two years ago could be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22809,196072,43,1202,37957,196070,44,70230,44163,196071,196073,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-358889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-brawl","tag-deadly-fight","tag-headlines","tag-instagram","tag-knife","tag-kristie-mcbride","tag-news","tag-sentenced","tag-stab","tag-teen-brawl","tag-teenage-girls","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}