Sydney CBD stabber details ‘pointless and selfish’ murder

Jamie McKinnell
Mar 30, 2021, updated Mar 31, 2021

Michaela Dunn died at the hands of Mert Ney in a horror rampage through Sydney's CBD in August 2019. Photo: Supplied

WARNING: THIS STORY CONTAINS DETAILS THAT SOME READERS MAY FIND DISTRESSING

A man has told a court he “had to fully commit” to a rampage through Sydney’s CBD after murdering a woman so that he would be shot dead by police.

Mert Ney gave a graphic account on Tuesday of the day he fatally stabbed 24-year-old Michaela Dunn in a CBD apartment in August 2019, causing Ms Dunn’s mother Joanne to leave the courtroom in tears.

Ney, 22, admitted he had selfishly “destroyed lives for no reason” during a frank account of his crime.

He said he arrived at the Clarence Street apartment for a sex work appointment thinking Ms Dunn was “pretty”, but not intending to have intercourse with her.

During a sentencing hearing in the NSW Supreme Court, Ney said when he arrived Ms Dunn asked him three or more times whether he was OK and he pulled out a knife as he tried to leave.

He said she screamed and he stabbed her in the neck “to make her be quiet”, before inflicting further injuries.

Ney warned his evidence would be “pretty extreme” before detailing other serious and ultimately fatal wounds.

“What did you think was going to happen that day?” defence barrister Belinda Rigg SC asked.

“I went, this is the point of no return, there is no going back, I’ve got to fully commit,” Ney replied.

“Commit to what?” the barrister said.

Ney replied: “Getting killed.”

Mert Ney was tackled to the ground and pinned underneath a milk crate by bystanders. Photo: 7News

After killing Ms Dunn, Ney sent short videos of the crime scene to two friends on social media, telling them to call police.

On Monday, Joanne Dunn told the court that Ney had robbed her daughter of her future.

“We have not just lost our daughter, but we have lost our future as it should have been,” she said, fighting back tears.

Ms Dunn told the court she sometimes woke up thinking her daughter’s death was a dream.

“Who would want to take the life of a gorgeous young woman with the world at her feet?” she said.

“Some days, I kid myself that she is still overseas and COVID is keeping her from coming home.

When asked on Tuesday how he felt about killing Ms Dunn, Ney replied: “f–king shit”.

He said his acts, which also included stabbing bystander Lin Bo in the shoulder and running through the CBD with a knife wearing a balaclava, were “pointless and selfish”.

Ney agreed he had thought about how he would feel if someone murdered his child.

“What do you expect that would feel like?” Ms Rigg said.

“That life wouldn’t be worth living,” he replied.

Ney told the court he thinks about Ms Dunn “every night”.

The 22-year-old detailed his abuse of prescription drugs and explained his grotesque conversations with friends over social media.

Ney recounted various addictions and “sins”, including drugs, alcohol, gambling, visiting sex workers and watching pornography excessively.

He began to visit a mosque in the lead-up to the attack as he thought it may help with his addiction but then relapsed.

The hearing before Justice Peter Johnson continues.