Two Victorian men have been found guilty of murdering an 14-year-old autistic boy with an axe as he tried to fight off an attack on his stepfather.
Timothy "Timmy" O'Brien was killed after he followed his stepfather Peter Williams to a house in Scarsdale, near Ballarat, to investigate a reported prowler.
Mr Williams had been clashing with a cousin, Darren Wilson, 37, who asked a young woman named Rachel Curtis to lure him to the house, saying he wanted to bash someone.
The Victorian Supreme Court heard Timmy had bonded with Mr Williams after losing his own father, and preferred him to anyone else.
In victim impact statements, Timmy's family spoke of his loneliness when he was not shadowing the footsteps of Mr Williams.
On the morning of January 5, 2013, his mother tried to stop him from going to the Scarsdale address, but Timmy insisted, arming himself with a torch and a baseball bat.
After Mr Williams entered the house, Wilson leapt from one of the rooms, punching his cousin until he bled.
Timmy hit Wilson with his baseball bat until the man fell to the ground.
Wilson's friend, Joel Henderson, entered the house and, seeing he had an axe in his hands, Timmy also started hitting him with the bat.
Wilson, 37, and Henderson, 41, of Wendouree, then attacked Timmy with the axe.
A witness yelled: "Leave him alone. He is just a little boy."
Henderson was heard to say: "Die, c***, die."
Timmy received catastrophic injuries and died where he lay.
The two men pleaded not guilty to murder after their arrest, but a jury in December last year found Wilson guilty.
The verdict was suppressed until Friday, when a separate jury found Henderson guilty of murder after only a few hours of deliberation.
Wilson was jailed for 30 years and six months with a minimum of 26 years for Timmy's murder, and for inciting the murder of Mr Williams and another person.
Henderson will return to court for a plea hearing at a date to be set.
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