Audio of murder heard at Milat sentencing

21 May 2012, 6:33 pm   -   Source: AAP
David Auchterlonie. (Facebook)

David Auchterlonie. (Facebook)

Parts of a 15-minute audio recording of a youth's murder have been played at the sentencing hearing of his killers, who include a relative of Ivan Milat.

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Chilling audio of a youth sobbing and begging "don't do this to me" has been played at the sentencing hearing of his murderers, who include a relative of serial killer Ivan Milat.

As David Auchterlonie's cries and whimpers filled the NSW Supreme Court on Monday, Acting Justice Jane Mathews invited the teenager's distraught family to leave.

Earlier, his grandparents and parents told the judge of their great pain over the murder of David, who was tormented then attacked with an axe in the Belanglo State Forest on his 17th birthday on November 20, 2010.

Matthew Milat and Cohen Klein, both 19, have pleaded guilty to his murder, which occurred in the same NSW Southern Highlands forest where Ivan Milat murdered seven backpackers in the 1990s.

Parts of a 15-minute audio recording of the murder, recovered from Klein's mobile phone, were played on Monday. The transcript has gone into evidence.

Milat accuses David of having "dobbed" him in for stealing, adding: "You move I chop your head off. I warned you that I was a bit of a ****in' nut lately."

David was forced to lie face down in the dirt where he repeatedly denies doing anything, before the transcript records "sound of axe hitting Auchterlonie in head".

His grandfather, also named David Auchterlonie, told the judge of "the love I had for him" and "the hate for those animals who took him from me".

When he walked through David's bedroom to his own, he still clung to a habit of sliding his hand across the bed to check if his grandson was there.

"I say to myself, what are you doing? He's gone," he said.

His killers did not just murder David, they "terrorised and tormented him" and they deserved no mercy, he added.

The victim's father, whose name is also David Auchterlonie, recalled his son being wrapped in a white blanket when he was born and how, 17 years later, he had to say goodbye to him at the same country hospital when he was "wrapped again".

He had wanted to kiss his son goodbye but he could not as "he was now an exhibit".

"The pain my son experienced terrifies me," he said.

"The extreme violence exhibited towards David was not warranted."

David's grandmother, Sandra Auchterlonie, told of her distress at having to identify him at the morgue, saying she could still see "the fear impaled on his face".

"The hardest thing is vacuuming the empty room he had since he was a baby."

The crime was "barbaric, vicious, premeditated and cowardly".

She spoke of the difficulty at seeing David's strong grandfather being reduced to tears every time his name was mentioned.

David's mother, Donna Locke, said her heart had been broken, but she found comfort in wearing her son's jacket and hooded tops and listening to his music.

He had been a "gentle giant" who grew up to be so handsome.

While in custody, Milat sent poems to his mother.

In one he wrote: "Clouds roll in over light blue skyes (sic), Like darkness in a killers eyes" and in another: "lifeless corpse, Motionless and drained, another street has been blood stained".

In one titled "your last day", he says: "You just signed away your health, I can see you start to sweat."

It continued: "Hear the crunch of leaves and feet, feel your heart, skip a beat ... no hope kid this is your day, the day that you wont be found, Six feet under Neath the ground."

The hearing will continue on Tuesday.

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