Flowers mark nine years on from Gympie teen slaying
THE cold-blooded and gruesome murder of a Gympie teen in a car park in broad daylight nine years ago stopped the Gympie community in its tracks.
This week flowers left at the bottom of the Goldfields Plaza car park marked the day 15-year-old Jackson "Jaxson" Bradey's life was taken in the most heinous way on his last day of school in 2009.
Randomly chased and stabbed by a boy just one year older than himself down Nash St and through the car park, Jackson did not stand a chance against his attacker's bayonet.
Gympie man David Phillips, who tried to intervene was stabbed in the back and suffered minor injuries trying to wrestle the armed teenager to the ground.
The teens were unknown to each other, the crime - a random attack that was for the offender's own gratification; playing out a murderous fantasy, the court heard during his sentencing to life in detention.
He had told psychologists he enjoyed the adrenalin of the stabbing and the looks on faces of the witnesses.
He said he had chosen Jackson because he was alone.
The crime and the popular teenager's death rocked the Gympie community.
"It's still hurts to this day," a family member said this week on the anniversary of his death.
The James Nash State School student was adored for his flair and big heart and was idolised by his younger brothers and sisters.
He had dreams of working in the aged-care sector and was a first-year state emergency service cadet.
"He was flamboyant, energetic and full of life," Jackson's mother Tammy Bradey said of her "darling boy" after his death.
MORE: Farewell to Jaxson Bradey
"Jaxson loved everybody - all people - and would do anything he could to help others.
"He loved being involved in the local community.
"Jaxson will be in my heart forever."
