‘LOVE YOU’: SON’S TRAGIC FINAL TEXT TO MUM
“I LOVE you mum, I’ve been stabbed.”
These seven words were the last thing 20-year-old former Chinchilla man Declan Laverty was able to send to his mother after he was fatally stabbed at a Darwin bottle shop on Sunday evening.
As the message flashed on her phone, his mother Samara Laverty felt her heart break.
“That is the last I will ever hear from my boy,” Ms Laverty said.
She knew her child was in danger, but 2600km separated the Cairns mum from her 20-year-old son.
“He was meant to come home soon for a visit,” Ms Laverty said.
“My heart and soul are broken.”
Ms Laverty described her son as a smart, funny and loving young man — now robbed of the future he may have led.
“His amazing life that he was just starting out his journey on will never be fulfilled,” she said.
“He will never fall in love. He will never marry. He will never be a dad. His life, his future, our future have been completely stripped away.”
Ms Laverty said Declan was a smart, loving and talented young man and a keen AFL player.
“He loved me, his sister, his animals, especially his dog Castiel and cat Cookie,” she said.
Ms Laverty said on Monday she flew from her Queensland home to Darwin but on arrival was confronted with further violence.
She said while at a Darwin supermarket she had a stone thrown at her back and was spat on and abused.
“I cannot wait to get my poor son out of this hellhole,” Ms Laverty said.
Mr Laverty’s father was sent a similar final message before his son died: “Love you, been stabbed”.
The man says Declan messaged him just before he died from stab wounds at the Airport Tavern bottle shop in Darwin’s northern suburbs on Sunday night.
Keith Kerinauia, 19, faced the Darwin Local Court on Tuesday charged with the 20-year-old bottle shop attendant’s murder as well as aggravated robbery and breach of bail.