Ricky Balcombe: Karl Hague found guilty of 1995 murder of Geelong teenager
Updated
A jury has found Karl Michael Hague guilty of murdering teenager Ricky Balcombe in a busy Geelong shopping centre 23 years ago.
Ricky, 16, was stabbed to death outside the shopping centre lifts on May 5, 1995.
During the court proceedings, Hague admitted to bashing Ricky two weeks before the fatal stabbing.
More than five years his junior, Ricky was no match for the bigger, stronger Hague and was repeatedly struck to the head while covering up from a hail of blows.
Later that night, Ricky's friends sought retribution, attacking Hague and an associate as they sat in a car.
A fortnight later, Ricky died in the Market Square shopping centre, with catastrophic knife wounds to his chest, piercing his heart and lungs.
The court heard despite his cheeky grin, Ricky was by no means an angel and was a member of a red bandana-wearing teen street gang.
They called themselves the MSC or Main Street Criminals and hung out in the Geelong mall.
'I'm telling the truth now'
Paul Bellia, who was one of Ricky's friends, admitted to being part of the group that attacked Hague in the car.
He was also with Ricky on that day in the Market Square shopping centre when the teen was stabbed to death.
Mr Bellia's account of the day has changed over the years but he told the court he saw Hague murder Ricky.
"I probably will never be able to forget what I seen (sic) that day," Mr Bellia told the court.
"That same face is as good as a photo. And I remember that and that has caused me hell.
"It's 22 years. I'm here 22 years later, okay, and I'm telling the truth now."
Other witnesses described the attack on Ricky, labelling it aggressive and vicious and many had a similar description of the killer.
On the day however, Mr Bellia named another person as the killer and failed to pick Hague out of two separate police line-ups.
He told the court of the controlling and intimidating behaviour of the street gang and its leader, who told him not to cooperate with the police.
For more than two decades, Hague constantly argued he was not in the Geelong CBD on the afternoon of the murder.
But his alibi changed considerably over the years, initially claiming he was at his then-girlfriend's house, then telling the court that he was home alone, "probably with my mother".
He refuted claims made by witnesses who told the court they had seen him in and around the Market Square shopping centre around the time of the murder and had made threats to other members of the street gang just minutes before the stabbing.
Hague was first interviewed by police three days after the murder and was charged with Ricky's murder a year-and-a-half later.
But charges were withdrawn shortly before Hague was due to stand trial.
The case sat idle for many years, until Victoria Police offered a $1 million reward for information about the murder.
Hague, 44, was arrested last August and will return to court in May for a plea hearing.
Topics: murder-and-manslaughter, crime, law-crime-and-justice, geelong-3220, vic
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