{"id":783135,"date":"2026-07-06T18:15:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T18:15:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/783135\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T18:15:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T18:15:28","slug":"court-told-razor-scooter-used-to-murder-axe-wielding-man-near-newcastle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/783135\/","title":{"rendered":"Court told ‘Razor’ scooter used to murder axe-wielding man near Newcastle"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Supreme Court jury has been told a Razor-branded scooter was the murder weapon in a violent clash involving an axe-wielding man north of Newcastle.<\/p>\n

Kane Flanders, 32, has pleaded not guilty to murdering 38-year-old Ash Morgan at Raymond Terrace during a street brawl in the early hours of April 9, 2024.<\/p>\n

\"Kane<\/p>\n

Kane Flanders is accused of murdering Ash Morgan in a street fight in 2024. (Supplied: Facebook)<\/p>\n

Emergency services were called to Cambridge Avenue about 2am, following reports a man had been found with serious head injuries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Gonna get chopped’<\/p>\n

In his opening address, Crown prosecutor Brendan Queenan told the court Mr Morgan went to the address armed with an axe.<\/p>\n

The jury heard the alleged victim was angry about people taking his phone and drugs.<\/p>\n

“Mr Morgan was smashing a letterbox and there were smashing sounds,” Mr Queenan said.<\/p>\n

“There was yelling and people saying be quiet and one voice was Kane Flanders.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The crime scene after the alleged murder involving an axe and a scooter. (ABC Newcastle: Bridget Murphy)<\/p>\n

Mr Queenan said a witness would tell the jury Mr Flanders challenged Mr Morgan.<\/p>\n

“He asked, ‘What have you got on ya? Have you got a f***ing pole on ya or something?'”<\/p>\n

The prosecutor said at that point Mr Flanders asked the witness for assistance.<\/p>\n

“Hurry up bro. Get me that little machete \u2026 this [guy] is gonna get chopped,” Mr Flanders allegedly said.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

An axe lying at the crime scene of\u00a0an alleged murder in Raymond Terrace. (ABC Newcastle: Ross McLoughlin)<\/p>\n

Mr Queenan told the court the accused said, “I am going to take this f***ing guy’s head off”.<\/p>\n

He said the altercation spanned several minutes and was caught on CCTV and filmed on a mobile phone.<\/p>\n

Alleged threat to kill<\/p>\n

Mr Queenan said as Mr Morgan walked away, a witness handed Kane Flanders a Razor-branded scooter.<\/p>\n

He said witnesses heard heavy noises before telling Mr Flanders to get off Mr Morgan.<\/p>\n

Mr Queenan said Mr Flanders only left after a man repeatedly said, “Kane, that is enough”.<\/p>\n

He also described the scene that confronted police when they arrived.<\/p>\n

“Ash Morgan was lying in the middle of the road,” Mr Queenan said.<\/p>\n

“[A woman was] lying on top of him crying and screaming.”<\/p>\n

“[The officer] saw a timber-handled axe on the road at Ashley Morgan’s feet.”<\/p>\n

\"Exterior<\/p>\n

Kane Flanders is on trial in the Newcastle Supreme Court. (ABC Newcastle: Robert Virtue)<\/p>\n

Mr Queenan told jurors Mr Flanders spoke to police at the scene.<\/p>\n

“The accused said, ‘He had an axe, he come at me, he clobbered me with an axe,'” the prosecutor said.<\/p>\n

The jury was told a witness would give evidence that Mr Flanders swung the scooter after Mr Morgan ran at him swinging the axe.<\/p>\n

Self-defence issue<\/p>\n

Defence barrister Stuart Boeving did not make an opening address, but Justice Des Fagan told jurors “self-defence may be important in this trial”.<\/p>\n

The judge said that would leave the jury open to returning a verdict of manslaughter.<\/p>\n

The trial is set to run up to five weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Supreme Court jury has been told a Razor-branded scooter was the murder weapon in a violent clash…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":783136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,1108,1300,1913,2968,44,1158,370299,208473,1109],"class_list":["post-783135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-court","tag-death","tag-fight","tag-murder","tag-news","tag-police","tag-razor-branded","tag-scooter","tag-trial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783135","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=783135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}