Sydney This article is more than 8 years oldDaniel Jack Kersall found guilty of stabbing Morgan Huxley to death
This article is more than 8 years oldJury returns guilty verdict in less than three hours in relation to the Neutral Bay 2013 murder
The man accused of stabbing Sydney man Morgan Huxley more than 20 times has been found guilty of his murder.
It took the jury just under three hours to find Daniel Jack Kelsall guilty of indecently assaulting the 31-year-old and murdering him in the early hours of 8 September 2013.
Huxley’s family and friends let out exclamations when the verdict was handed down.
Kelsall remained expressionless in the dock as his mother, Lynne, and father Mark, who had sat near him throughout the trial, looked on.
Over the course of two weeks, the jury in the NSW supreme court heard how Huxley had been discovered by his flatmate lying in a pool of blood in the doorway of his Neutral Bay apartment on Sydney’s north shore.
The crown relied on a string of circumstantial evidence, which prosecutor Peter McGrath SC told the jury would leave them to infer only one thing – Kelsall was the killer.
The first was CCTV footage which showed an intoxicated and barefoot Huxley leaving the nearby Oaks Hotel around 1.30am with Kelsall breaking into a jog behind him.
Kelsall tracked him into his home, indecently assaulted him as he lay on his bed, and then stabbed him at least 20 times, the crown said.
His DNA had been found on Huxley’s penis and a single print matching his ring finger was on the businessman’s bedroom door.
Huxley’s blood was also found on the shoulder bag Kelsall was carrying that night – which the 22-year-old had tried to clean in an “amateurish” attempt.
But the key to all of this was Kelsall’s 2012 confessions that he had intrusive thoughts about killing “a random” with a knife.
The truth, McGrath said, was awful but simple – Kelsall killed Huxley for no reason.
But Kelsall had a different story. Taking the stand, he quietly described how he had struck up a spontaneous conversation with Huxley while the pair were walking home.
During the sexual encounter that followed, an intruder or intruders burst in and assaulted the pair, causing him to flee.
He then wove a string of lies in a bid to “disassociate” himself from an event which had terrified him.
Citing personal accounts of Kelsall as a caring and bookish boy, his barrister Christopher Watson reminded the jury how the junior chef had left liquorice treats out for his mother on the night of the murder. “It doesn’t sit with a calculated killer,” Watson had said.
Speaking outside court on Wednesday, Huxley’s ex-girlfriend Jessica Hall said his “life had been stolen by a worthless psychopath”.
“An inspiring, generous and loving young man, Morgan was beginning to make his way in the world,” she said on behalf of the family. “He had hopes and dreams that he will never be able to realise. He will never get married and never be able to run around a park with his children.”
The family who all wore yellow roses – Huxley’s favourite colour – thanked the crown, the jury and the detectives for their dedication to justice.
“We love you Morgan,” Hall said.
Kelsall’s parents said nothing when they left the court.
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