Declan Laverty murder trial: Final words of bottle shop worker allegedly stabbed to death are revealed by security guard during trial

A security guard has revealed the heartbreaking last words of a young bottle shop worker who died in his arms after allegedly being stabbed by a teenager.

Declan Laverty, 20, was ready to end his shift at the Airport Tavern BWS drive-through bottle shop in Jingili, Darwin, Northern Territory, just before 9pm on March 19, 2023, when he allegedly shot several was stabbed several times.

Keith Kerinauia, 19, allegedly stabbed Mr Laverty multiple times after he was refused service and fled the scene in a blue 2014 Toyota Camry.

Kerinauia has entered a not guilty plea on the basis of self-defense after police charged him with one count of murder and one count of aggravated robbery.

During the second day of his murder trial on Tuesday, guard Rifat Mahmud told the High Court in Darwin that he saw Mr Laverty being stabbed.

Mr Mahmud told the jury he shouted at the worker to ‘come back in’ as he held open the door to the store’s staff room.

The guard desperately tried to save Mr Laverty, who he said was lying next to the toilet and ‘bleeding profusely’.

“He put his hand on me and said, ‘Rifat save me,’” Mr Mahmud told the court in a report by NT news.

‘His eyes widened and he was bleeding from his mouth. He was choking, he couldn’t breathe.’

Mr Mahmud removed his shirt and used it to apply pressure to Mr Laverty’s wounds before beginning CPR.

The security guard also told the jury that he shouted for help before an elderly man entered the store and said of Mr Laverty: ‘poor thing… he’s gone’.

Paramedics arrived four minutes later after a customer – who was in the bottle shop during the alleged stabbing – made a triple-0 call.

Christel Shuttleworth broke down in tears as her panicked triple-0 call was played to the judges.

Ms Shuttleworth told emergency services that Mr Laverty was ‘not okay’ and that he had ‘lost consciousness’.

She was also heard reassuring Mr Laverty, who was still responding at the time, that an ambulance was on its way.

Ms Shuttleworth told the jury she felt uncomfortable the moment she pulled into the car park at the bottle shop.

She explained that Kerinauia “ogled” her while she was urinating in the bushes outside the store.

When she entered the BWS, she saw three other customers: a young indigenous man buying a piece of alcohol at the counter and two more leaving the cool room.

At that moment the young man she saw outside came into the bottle shop and ‘challenged’ Mr Laverty.

“It seemed like he enjoyed being hostile. He looked and smiled,” Ms Shuttleworth told the court.

“The deceased said to him, ‘Mate, you can’t be here without your shoes on.’ The young man reacted quite hostilely and challenged the deceased.’

She added that Kerinauia kept asking: ‘Why can’t I, why can’t I?’, leaving Mr Laverty visibly distressed and frustrated.

Ms Shuttleworth said Kerinauia threatened Mr Laverty, while Mr Mahmud added the 19-year-old said: ‘you white bastard, you can’t tell me to go away. What if I came in and stabbed you?’

Crown prosecutor Marty Aust told the court Kerinauia ran to his vehicle and allegedly armed himself with a large silver knife, described by witnesses as the length of a ruler, before returning to the store.

The prosecutor said Mr Laverty took a knife about 5cm long from his back pocket and took off his shirt as an armed Kerinauia approached.

CCTV footage showed both men lashing out at each other before Kerinauia was chased out of the store.

Mr Aust explained that Kerinauia made first contact, which he described as an “unsurvivable and fatal” 10.5cm stab wound to Mr Laverty’s heart.

The worker also suffered a second 3.2cm stab wound to the left side of his chest, as well as five other smaller wounds to his face, head and shoulders, the Crown alleged.

Mr Aust said Kerinauia had a small cut on the side of his face and a cut on his chest.

Kerinauia’s lawyer Jon Tippett told the court that CCTV footage showed Mr Laverty reaching into his back pocket where he kept his own knife.

He told the court the footage showed his client acted in self-defence after Mr Laverty with ‘enthusiasm’ pulled out his own gun and ‘lashed out’ at Kerinauia.

Customer Mandeep Singh, who was being served at the time of the attack, told the court on Tuesday that Kernauia did not appear “overly aggressive” when he entered the store.

He claimed he heard Kerinauia outside the store telling his friends, “There’s a white man in there, I’m going to stab him.”

Mr Singh told police he thought the 19-year-old was ‘talking nonsense’ and ‘trying to look tough’ in front of his friends.

From the car park, Mr Singh also saw blood flowing from Mr Laverty’s wound and Kerinauia fleeing the scene with a ‘smile on his face’.

He said the young man ran to his car and when he returned, there was a “flash” of a knife under the lights.

The process continues.