A Canberra drug dealer who stabbed a man with such force the knife bent at a 90-degree angle has pleaded guilty to the frenzied and bloody attack that was sparked by a cannabis deal gone wrong.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Christian Spencer Fairclough, 35, was driven by rage when he knifed the man in head, back, chest, arms and hands after he went to his Belconnen unit to sell cannabis to the victim's friend.
Prosecutors say he acted in retaliation to preserve his reputation with other drug dealers and users when he lashed out the night of February 12, 2016.
He was covered in blood when he handed himself into police minutes after the man, who feared he would die, staggered from the unit with gaping wounds that poured blood and collapsed outside.
Fairclough had pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from the attack and was set to face an ACT Supreme Court trial on Monday.
But the trial was abandoned when he pleaded guilty to using an offensive weapon in circumstances likely to cause grievous bodily harm or endanger human life.
Court documents said Fairclough met with the victim's friend the afternoon of the attack and agreed to sell him an ounce of cannabis for $150.
But he demanded $250 when he arrived at the victim's Howie Court unit a few hours later, angering the buyer who felt he'd been ripped off.
He eventually took the drugs without paying and left the unit with his girlfriend.
Fairclough chatted to the man who lived at the unit about possibly selling the drug ice when he suddenly grabbed a 13-centimetre knife and began to stab the man as he sat in a recliner.
He plunged the knife into the man's back and neck seven times, collapsing his lung and fracturing a rib, court documents said.
Then he stabbed the man in the head, causing deep cuts. Gashes inflicted on the man's arms were so deep they sliced the tissue and exposed his bicep muscle.
The man also suffered defensive wounds to his hands as he tried to fend off the attack.
Fairclough then began to punch the man in the head as he cowered, before he pushed his thumbs into the man's eye sockets and pressed his eyeballs back in his head as hard as he could.
A neighbour heard a man's voice screaming "Help! Help! Help!" and heard another man say "F--- you", around the time of the attack.
Court documents said the onslaught was so frenzied, and Fairclough used so much force to inflict the stab wounds, that he bent the blade of the knife at a 90-degree angle.
Neighbours who heard the victim's cries for help tried to offer first aid and called triple-0.
Police arrived to find the man sobbing in a pool of blood as he slipped in and out of consciousness.
He was treated in hospital for a collapsed lung and severe blood loss.
Officers who searched the unit saw the bloodied recliner and a trail of blood that led outside.
Fairclough told police he had been attacked at the unit, pinned to a wall and threatened with a syringe and knife by the two men, a woman. He also claimed he was attacked by a dog.
He remembered grabbing a knife during the ordeal but said "everything was a blur".
Police noticed he didn't have any injuries on him when he handed himself in and said his version of events didn't line up with forensic evidence gleaned from the scene.
Fairclough was released on bail on Tuesday. He will return to court for sentencing in September.
