Elevator stabbing victim Andrew Sullivan’s family pleads for harsher knife crime laws

The 24-year-old was with two teenage boys on January 16, 2024, seeking “retribution” after an earlier altercation at the Carlton apartment building that had nothing to do with Sullivan, the court was told.

Sullivan arrived home on an electric scooter and got into the lift to go to his apartment, about 11.30pm, with the three young men.

Allen had a tartan scarf around his face and was armed with a kitchen knife, and the group discussed an earlier fight.

Sullivan tried to calm the young men down but within minutes, Allen had stabbed him inside the lift as he tried to fight back and escape.

Allen then fled the scene and escaped interstate to Queensland, where he was arrested and extradited to Melbourne on February 17.

Allen had suffered from a deprived upbringing and began drinking and taking drugs from a young age, said his barrister, Adam Chernok.

“Clearly, drugs played a major role here,” he told the court.

Chernok read from Allen’s police interview, where he admitted having consumed six Xanax tablets, two MDMA pills and “five of these little green pingers” before the killing.

The barrister offered an apology to Sullivan’s family in court from Allen, and said it was “the worst thing he has ever done”.

He asked for his client to be handed a term of imprisonment with a shorter non-parole period to foster his rehabilitation in the community.

Prosecutor Kristie Churchill called for the court to denounce knife violence in sentencing him for “serious examples of serious offences”.

“This type of offending, particularly knife crime that results in the death of somebody, is way too common and way too frequent,” she said.

Dozens of Sullivan’s family sat in the court room on Wednesday, many of whom had flown from his home of Samoa for the hearing.

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“His life ended in such a violent way, when he was the opposite of that,” his sister, Feuina Sullivan, told the court.

“He wouldn’t harm a fly, he would do anything for anyone, there was no reason for this, no justification, it was just senseless.”

His partner described him as the love of her life.

“Andrew matters, our life together mattered. I need to feel like this court understands that because I carry it with me every day,” Schmidt said.

Allen, who was wearing a tracksuit and rosary beads, was taken back to prison by custody officers to await his sentence at a later date.

AAP

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