Autistic teen murdered in Victoria Australia

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I saw a headline the other day and clicked on it to see a story that began to unfold this time last year that I'd missed in the news. There's a few conflicting versions in the media at the moment but basically it seems like the autistic 14 year old victim, Timothy O'Brien, was killed with an axe because he went to the assistance of his step father who was being attacked by two men.

http://www.thecourier.com.au/story/2050 ... ars/?cs=62

What is less clear is why the step father was being attacked in the first place. It's claimed the stepfather was lured to a house in the early hours of the morning where two teenage girls (17 and 19) were living so he could be assaulted by two men, Darren Wilson and Joel Henderson. One of the teenage girls who lived there was in a relationship with Darren Wilson and may have claimed that Timothy's stepfather either sexually assaulted her or was caught peeping through their windows or it could have just been over money. These are just three different versions I've read in different newspaper articles.
The stepfather arrived at the house where the two teenage girls lived after they lured him there claiming they had received threatening phone calls. Timothy's stepfather was ambushed and attacked by Wilson and Henderson (Wilson had a pillowcase over his head as a disguise). That's when Timothy used a baseball bat to help his step father. At this point Wilson and Henderson (both in their mid to late 30s at the time) turned on the 14 year old Timothy before Wilson killed him with an axe including at least one blow to the head with the sharp side of the implement but possibly as many as 20!
I'm linking this article not because I think Timothy was targeted for being autistic but because I think this 14 year old boy took on at least two men with a baseball bat possibly because of a kind of naivety some of us may possess on the spectrum. It reminds me eerily of a time when I was about 16 and I stood between our house's front door and my older sister's jail bird boyfriend (who was about 20 at the time), his older brother and also their step Dad to stop them getting into my house to beat up my older brother (who hit my sister's boyfriend because he had been hitting her). I wouldn't budge and they ended up leaving without doing anything. Now that I'm older I kind of shiver at how that might have turned out. We found out later they had a bunch of weapons in the back of their station wagon too.
Does anyone else think they have a loyalty and what I would call a 'naive courage' thanks to the spectrum that could put them in danger one day? Also, apologies for any upset the story may cause.

Last edited by Dan_Undiagnosed on 02 Feb 2014, 5:06 am, edited 1 time in total.

I had troubles following the story and what you wrote. At first I thought I read O Brian had the bat in his hand and was assaulting someone with it and he got killed and then I was going to be outraged you would defend an attacker because how dare his victims kill in self defense. But the I re read it and saw he was attacking in self defense because his step father was being beaten but instead the beaters killed him.

Yeah sorry, I was looking at several different articles at once when I wrote it. I'll try to tidy it up with an edit

If the boy was naive, he wouldn't have tried to hit the two men attacking his stepfather with a baseball bat. That is loyalty and courage right there. Unfortunately, he got killed, which is the fault of the attackers, not him. Sad story.

Terrible. May she RIP. I hope her attacker gets sentenced to death.