Teenager cleared of killing British woman in Australia
A teenager has been cleared of murdering a British woman who was stabbed to death during a break-in at her home in Australia.
Emma Lovell, 41, was killed while fending off two intruders in North Lakes, Queensland, on Boxing Day in 2022.
The mother-of-two, who emigrated to Australia from Ipswich in 2011, died of a single stab wound to the heart.
The man, who cannot be named because he was 17 at the time, was found not guilty of murder after telling Brisbane’s Supreme Court that he did not know his fellow intruder had a knife.
Justice Michael Copley, who heard the case without a jury, also found him not guilty of a malicious act with intent and unlawful wounding, but guilty of burglary and assault.
Another man, who also cannot be named because he was under 18 at the time, was jailed for 14 years in May after pleading guilty to murder.
Lovell’s husband, Lee, who survived the attack, broke down in tears outside of the courthouse and said his family had been “left with a life sentence”.
“I think the verdict is a bit of a joke. I just don’t feel justified for Emma one bit. That’s not how I thought today was going to go, to be honest,” Mr Lovell said. “I’ve just got to suck it up.”
The court heard that the Lovells were woken up by the sound of their barking dogs at 11.30pm and tried to fight off the intruders.
Mr Lovell was stabbed twice in the back and kicked in the head during a “physical struggle directly outside the front door”, which then moved to the front lawn, where his wife was fatally stabbed.
CCTV footage was shown in court of the intruders approaching the Lovells’ front door, when the accused turned and looked at his co-offender, “H”, who was holding a weapon, ABC News reported.
Prosecutors alleged that this was the moment he would have seen the knife, arguing that the accused therefore had knowledge during “all of the offences that his co-offender was in possession of a knife”.
However, Justice Copley said he could not be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant knew that “H” was armed.
The judge also found he could not be sure to the criminal standard that the man was “a party to this murder”, nor that he was a party to unlawfully wounding Mr Lovell or committing a malicious act with intent.
He will be sentenced in December and was remanded in custody until then.