An eighth teenager has been charged with murder months after a 16-year-old was allegedly chased down and attacked outside a Melbourne house party.
Homicide detectives arrested the boy at Melbourne Airport, taking him into custody early on Wednesday.
Declan Cutler, 16, was beaten and fatally stabbed in Coburg North earlier this year.
The 17-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, faced a Children’s Court hours later, where a magistrate heard it was the boy’s first time in police custody. Flanked by three police officers, he sat in handcuffs during the brief hearing, with his mother watching nearby. The boy made no application for bail and was remanded in custody to reappear next month.
His arrest comes five months after eight teenagers allegedly chased and attacked Declan Cutler, a 16-year-old from Reservoir, following a house party in Coburg North.
The court heard that while there were no witnesses to the incident, a friend of Cutler’s was scheduled to give evidence at a compulsory examination hearing to provide details about the teen’s movements before he died.
Police had been searching for an eighth alleged killer since March after the knife attack was captured on CCTV from a nearby home.
The street where Declan Cutler died on March 13.Credit:penny stephens
The seven other teens – aged 13 to 17 – are all also charged with murder and remain in custody. Two of them are brothers.
Police say Cutler had been at a house party when a group of youths in a dark-coloured car chased him along Elizabeth Street in Coburg North at about 2.30am on March 13.