Pair face sentencing over attack where victim was left in burning house

Amy looked to his right hand. She was drawn to the long, serrated-edged, dark-handled knife, the point looking right back at her.

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She had no time to think, to puzzle as to why this teenage boy was being so strange, only minutes after she and he and her mate Liam shared a cannabis bong and talked.

She threw a glance at Liam, who was standing on the other side of the doorway, then turned to walk into the lounge room of the North Albury house she shared with her mum.

Connor threw his left arm around her neck, put her in a headlock and pulled her hard into his chest.

He placed the blade against her throat, dragging the edge across her neck. Her skin didn't split so she didn't bleed.

But the knife left a tell-tale red mark from one side to the other, the shock and pain throwing her to the floor, landing on her back near the doorway, as she held her throat.

Connor didn't let go of his choke-hold, then Liam, who'd dropped to his knees, also held her down.

This wasn't to be the first moment where she struggled valiantly against her attackers on the morning of November 11, 2019, soon after her mum left their Swan Street home for work.

For within moments, Liam, who Amy's mother trusted enough to let the boy stay-over, sometimes sleeping in the girl's bed, on other visits in the spare bedroom, took over.

"Hold her down!" he shouted at Connor, who she realised no longer had the knife. Liam now had the blade, holding it downwards, right at her body.

He and Amy, she'd said, had been "best friends".

Connor tightened his choke-hold, then with his other arm applied even more pressure to her neck, making it hard for the 16-year-old to breath.

And then Liam stabbed, plunging first into her stomach. She struggled again, tried to break free, kicking out and rolling on to her front.

Liam stabbed again, and again, and again. Amy couldn't do any more than fight back, but this didn't dull the boy's focus.

In the end she "played dead" and passed out, but not before Liam uttered what could have easily turned out instead to be the last words she ever heard.

"We need to finish this off," she recalled him saying, or words to the effect of "we need to end this."

Either way, her teenage assailants - Liam was 16 and Connor, who he hadn't long known, was 17 - appeared unfazed by this seriously wounded girl, abandoning her on the floor as blood ran from her wounds.

Liam grabbed several PlayStation 4 games, shoving the cases into his backpack.

He then walked into the mother's bedroom, fired-up a cigarette lighter, held the flame to the end of the mattress and stayed briefly as it took hold.

Connor walked into the kitchen, turned on four of the five knobs on the stove cook-top, the gas quickly escaping into the house.

They turned and walked outside, pulling the front door behind them.

"The victim," the Crown says, "was incapable of escaping the home."

It was the billowing smoke and a neighbour who heard her moaning that resulted in her rescue by firefighters.

Rushed to hospital, Amy underwent emergency surgery for three stab wounds to her lower abdomen, including two of 38 millimetres and 44 millimetres to her liver.

Her airways were full of black soot, she had a stab wound to her left temple.

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In what was the first time they have both appeared, via video links to juvenile detention centres, on the same day in Albury Children's Court, the boys have finally owed-up to what they did.

Liam, who will turn 17 next month, and Connor, who recently turned 18, were both relaxed - the second boy unerringly polite - when they went before magistrate Richard Funston.

The serious, strictly indictable charges of attempted murder, plus four other counts, were officially withdrawn this week, but those still in place nevertheless hold the promise of lengthy spells in custody.

Each has been committed for sentence before the District Court in Albury on charges of wound person with intent to murder and intentionally or recklessly destroy or damage property with the intention of endangering life.

Liam's lawyer, Ian McGuiness, told Mr Funston that he wished to confirm his client's guilty plea.

Soon after, Mr Funston gave Connor, after confirming his plea, the joint sentencing mention date of April 16.

"Thank you very much," Connor replied.

The pair had known each other for just a few weeks when they stayed temporarily with friends at a unit in Allawah Street, North Albury.

Over the month leading up to the attack, Liam had also been at Amy's house five or six times.

Amy, her mother and a neighbour were at home on the evening of November 10.

Meanwhile, over at Allawah Street, Liam and Connor agreed they would head to Amy's place to see if they could stay for the night.

They collected their backpacks, with Liam packing his knife; he was known for always carrying one.

The boys left the unit about 12.15am. Amy's mother answered the door and recognised Liam, who introduced Connor then said they were homeless.

She allowed them to stay in her spare bedroom, from where they woke later that morning on Amy playing music.

The pair came out and the trio shared the cannabis.

Their arrest, at the Allawah Street unit, came not long after Amy's rescue from the fire, which destroyed the bedroom and caused extensive damage throughout the house.

Liam initially denied any wrongdoing, in an interview with police, but on being told Amy was gravely ill he asked to speak again on the record.

"I'm sorry to 'Amy' and her mother," he claimed.

"I'm sorry I didn't do anything in my power to save her."

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