A psychologist who reviewed the case files of a 13-year-old charged with murdering another teenager says he was capable of understanding what he was doing at the time of the attack with a gang culture influencing his “moral code”.
The teenager, who is charged with murdering 16-year-old Reservoir boy Declan Cutler, faced a children’s court on Monday where a clinical psychologist testified that her analysis of the accused found he had adopted aspects of gang culture and adhered to an alternative set of morals.
Declan Cutler, 16, was killed in Coburg North earlier this year.
The psychologist said this was illustrated by the 13-year-old previously telling police the “allure of a gangster lifestyle” had enticed him into criminal activity and that he was willing to offend to “get rich like his gang affiliates”.
It was now open to the court, she said, to find the teenager was not lacking in the capacity for criminal responsibility, believing the teen had some understanding of what “was and wasn’t appropriate” before the alleged murder.
“He would’ve known at the time of the offence that it was more than being merely naughty,” the psychologist said.
The accused 13-year-old is one of eight teenagers charged with murder after Declan, known to his friends as DJay, was fatally beaten and stabbed on Elizabeth Street in Coburg North as he left a house party about 2.30am on March 13.
Friends of Declan Cutler leave a court on Monday.Credit:Luis Enrique Ascui
Police allege all eight accused teens – aged 13 to 17 – were involved in the killing. They remain in custody.
On Monday, more than a dozen of Declan’s friends and family members filled four rows of a children’s court to hear the psychologist give her evidence.
Some in the group were dressed in tops printed with the words ‘DJAY’S WORLD’ across their backs, and on their chests “In Loving Memory of Declan Cutler” emblazoned above his image.
The hearing is scheduled to run for five days and will determine whether some or all of the eight stand trial in a higher court.
The psychologist, who assessed the 13-year-old using files including school records and footage from his previous interactions with law enforcement, was told the teen had been interviewed by police numerous times since the age of 10.
She did accept that an earlier psychologist’s report had found the teenager had an “insufficient understanding of moral wrongness” during offending between January and June 2021 – the year before Declan was killed.
The hearing continues.
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