The man who fatally punched teenager Thomas Kelly during a night out in Sydney’s Kings Cross has pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
Kieran Loveridge, 19, entered the plea at Sydney’s Central Local Court this morning.
He was originally charged with murder, but the prosecution accepted the lesser plea.
Loveridge was accused of assaulting five males, including Kelly, at about 10pm on July 7 last year.
Kelly, 18, was walking down the street with his girlfriend and talking on his mobile phone when Loveridge king hit him, knocking him unconscious.
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He never regained consciousness and died later in hospital when his parents made the heartbreaking decision to switch his life support machine off.
In addition to the manslaughter charge, Loveridge pleaded guilty to four counts of assault and one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. The additional pleas relate to his other four victims.
Loveridge will be sentenced in the Supreme Court on August 2.
Kelly’s parents, sister and extended family attended the hearing, and were disappointed the prosecution had dropped murder charges.
“We’re here today for our son Thomas, who cannot speak for himself and will never speak again,” his mother, Cathy Kelly, said in a prepared statement to reporters.
“Although we are here to represent him, we have had no rights or say at all in the procedures that have brought us here, or in the decision that has been made here today.
“Our family has lost a son, a brother, a grandson, a nephew and cousin. We will never forget our darling Thomas. We will never stop missing him, and our lives will never be the same.”
