A TEENAGER who was handed a knife during an ugly street brawl in Newcastle West and promptly used it to twice stab a man in the chest will learn his fate next month.
Coora-Jye Wieczorek, 18, has pleaded guilty to wounding person with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and common assault over the brawl that spilled from Hunter Street into Bellevue Street about 3.10am on May 22 last year.
Wieczorek, who remains behind bars, did not have to appear in Newcastle District Court on Thursday when his matter was adjourned for sentence to April 27.
Before the stabbing, Wieczorek had been the instigator of an ugly street brawl and traded punches with another shirtless young man as bystanders urged them on.
But then, as the crowd started to turn against his mate, Kye Martin, 20, approached Wieczorek and subtly handed him something.
Martin, who has pleaded guilty to his role in the stabbing, then promptly turned and swiftly walked towards Hunter Street.
As Martin was walking away, Wieczorek swung twice more at a 29-year-old man, this time stabbing him in the chest.
The second blow left the blade lodged in the 29-year-old's side, breaking his rib, and Wieczorek fled down Bellevue Street as a mob gave chase.
The group caught Wieczorek in Hunter Street and a number of people punched, stomped and kicked him in the head when he was on the ground, according to an agreed statement of facts in Martin's matter.
Meanwhile, the victim was discovering something was wrong.
"I've just been stabbed," the victim said, pulling the knife out of his side and dropping it on the ground.
The entire brawl and stabbing was captured not only on a number of CCTV cameras attached to businesses in Bellevue Street but by bystanders on unit balconies who had been woken at 3am by a crowd of aggressive and intoxicated young men.
And he narrowly avoided spending his first night behind bars after Mr Janke successfully fought off a prosecution detention application. He will be sentenced in June.
