Teen Sentenced for 'Heinous, Unprovoked' Killing of Friend Was ‘Addicted to Stabbing,’ Court Hears

• Abddullahi Ahmed Iyow, 19, died a month after he was repeatedly stabbed by a friend in the southern Brisbane suburb of Acacia Ridge.
• An 18-year-old man pleaded guilty to the slaying at Brisbane Supreme Court on Monday, April 7.
• “I was addicted to stabbing because of my past trauma,” the teenager said in a pre-sentence report.

A teenager in Australia has been sentenced to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to stabbing his friend in “virtually unprovoked circumstances,” according to multiple reports.

The 18-year-old defendant, who cannot be named due to youth justice laws as he was 17 at the time of the offense, stabbed Abddullahi Ahmed Iyow three times in the abdomen with a large hunting knife on May 17, 2024, The Sydney Morning Herald and ABC News reported. 

The incident took place at around 2:30 p.m. local time in the southern Brisbane suburb of Acacia Ridge. Iyow was rushed to the hospital and underwent surgery but died the next month due to infection and organ failure, the outlets added.

On Monday, April 7, Justice Rebecca Treston told the Brisbane Supreme Court the defendant had stabbed his friend after an altercation in which Iyow broke his phone. “It could hardly be considered to have provoked your response. [The victim] was on the ground when you repeatedly stabbed him,” she said, per The Sydney Morning Herald. “You inflicted violence when the victim did not fight back.”

The defendant — who will have to serve 70% of his sentence in detention, per the Sydney Morning Herald — had complained that the damage to his phone would cause him to lose his drug dealing contacts, ABC reported. 

The court heard that he physically assaulted Iyow and pushed him to the ground before helping him back up. Crown Prosecutor Chris Cook said moments later, the teen stabbed Iyow numerous times for “no legitimate reason.”

CCTV footage played in court shows the pair walking together in a park before the teen began waving the knife around, according to the outlet. Police car footage also captured Iyow lying motionless on the grass as the teen was then arrested.

“This was a violent murder that occurred in broad daylight,” Cook said, per ABC.

Justice Rebecca Treston regarded the teen’s offense as particularly “heinous,” local outlet 9 News reported. 

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Justice Treston said the defendant arrived in Australia at the age of seven after his family fled war-torn Somalia. He had been diagnosed with severe conduct disorder and antisocial traits, per 9 News. The teen was not in education or employed at the time of the murder.

The court also heard that he was a daily user of cannabis and prescription medicine. The defendant was reportedly intoxicated at the time of the attack.

The teen didn’t have a prior criminal history but told a psychiatrist that he was previously involved in gang crime, according to ABC, including a kidnapping incident.

In a pre-sentence report, the court heard that the teen admitted that he thought fighting was “entertaining” and that stabbing people was “joyful,” the outlet reported.

“I was addicted to stabbing because of my past trauma,” the report quoted him saying, per ABC.

His sentencing comes after he pleaded guilty to murdering Iyow and other offenses, including threatening violence toward a member of the public who tried to intervene. 

He was due to be sentenced last week, but proceedings were postponed as he was attacked in the dock.

One of Iyow’s brothers was charged with assault following the incident, and this had to be taken into consideration in the judge’s sentencing.

“The protection of the community is a matter of great significance in a case like this,” Treston said.