Tradies family slams despicable actions of those involved in fatal attack

The family of a fatally stabbed young man have told a court of their struggles with grief and slammed the “despicable” actions of those involved in the assault.

Cameron Smith, 26, was preparing to eat a takeaway dinner at the beach with his girlfriend when attacked by three others and stabbed in the chest near Seaford train station on November 25 last year. He was also kicked in the head as he lay bleeding to death.

Cameron Smith died when stabbed near Seaford train station.

The Supreme Court heard on Monday that three males and a woman confronted Mr Smith and his girlfriend, Natasha Stroumos, after two of them yelled abuse at the couple moments earlier over hostility dating back to a New Year’s party when Mr Smith inadvertently took the drink of a woman named Scarlett Taylor, thinking it belonged to his girlfriend.

Taylor, 21, Liam Casley, 19, and an 18-year-old man, who cannot be named while his case is before a children’s court, have pleaded guilty to affray. Prosecutors say they are not responsible for Mr Smith’s death.

Police allege another man, 20, murdered Mr Smith. That man has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.

After Mr Smith was stabbed and fell to the ground, Casley and the other teenager kicked him in the head, prosecutor Grant Hayward said. As the males fought, Taylor threw a glass bottle at Ms Stroumos and two passers-by and told them: “Get the f--- back.”

Cameron Smith’s sister Taylah (left); father, Michael; sister Chantelle; and mother, Michelle, after his death last year.Credit:Nine News

Mr Smith, a carpenter and talented runner, died in his girlfriend’s arms as the four young people fled. They were arrested in the following days.

On Monday, as Casley and Taylor appeared before a plea hearing, Mr Smith’s family spoke of their grief and the “despicable, disgusting” actions that took their son and brother.

Michael Smith said the world was poorer for the loss of his funny, talented and compassionate son, whose death had devastated his family.

Scarlett Taylor.Credit:Facebook

“His loss has ripped my heart out and smashed it into a million pieces. Sometimes I feel that the weapon that took him from me has pierced my heart,” he said.

Michael Smith said of the group: “Their actions against my son were despicable and disgusting and they are not human beings that I know.”

Cameron Smith’s mother, Michelle, said she often regretted that she and her son had swapped the night for their weekly dinner together. His death had left her with a “life sentence”, unable to work and a diagnosis of depression.

Sister Taylah Smith said she felt lonely, empty and numb, and that as a nurse she was haunted by not being there for her brother’s final moments.

“I help strangers for a living, yet I couldn’t help my own brother in his time of need. He was always there for me; where was I when he needed me?” she said.

Ms Stroumos said she and her boyfriend loved eating dinner on the beach and that over the following months she had flashbacks, sleep problems and exhaustion as her body had “shut down through grief”.

“I need him around and he’s not there,” she said.

Mr Hayward said Casley’s moral culpability was high for his “gratuitously violent act”, but the young man maintained he did not know Mr Smith was badly injured.

Defence counsel Sam Norton said Casley endured an abusive childhood, attempted suicide at nine, abused drugs and alcohol from 13 and was living an aimless life last year.

He had found structure during eight months on remand and hoped to rekindle a relationship with his grandmother. His lawyers want him to serve a community correction order with a limit on more prison.

Affray carries a maximum penalty of five years in jail.

Casley will be sentenced this month. Taylor’s case will return to court in October.

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Adam Cooper joined The Age in 2011 after a decade with AAP. Email or tweet Adam with your news tips.

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