Teen killed by molotov cocktail in neighbourhood row
Adelaide Lang |

In just moments, a 13-year-old boy went from sleeping to smouldering as he jumped out of a burning house set ablaze by a molotov cocktail from a disgruntled neighbour.
Arthur Haines was sleeping on the top floor of a house in Waterloo, in Sydney’s inner south, with other children on April 9, 1998 before a visit to the Royal Easter Show.
But he soon became the victim of a bitter neighbourhood dispute that turned deadly after Gregory John Walker, then 30, threw a molotov cocktail into the kitchen of the house.
Arthur became trapped as the fire spread rapidly and was forced to jump from a window, according to the agreed facts.
He was smouldering when he landed on the grass, having sustained severe burns on up to 65 per cent of his body.
The teenager died in hospital 11 weeks later.
After more than 27 years, the questions surrounding Arthur’s death have finally been answered after Walker pleaded guilty to unlawfully killing the schoolboy.
“I’m guilty, Your Honour,” he told the NSW Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Arthur’s mother Julie Szabo said it was the news she had been waiting to hear for decades after the death of her cheerful “mummy’s boy”.
“All I ever wanted to hear was the truth and he’s finally admitted it,” she said outside court.
“I’m so grateful justice has been served.”

Ms Szabo thanked police for never giving up on the case and leaving no stone unturned in the nearly three decades since her son’s death.
“This is the biggest day of my life,” she said.
“We’ve constantly waited for this day and we thought it would never ever happen.”
She will mark the occasion by visiting a tree she planted in her son’s honour and decorating it with flowers.
Police in 2020 increased the reward for information in the cold case from $100,000 to $1 million, hoping it could finally lead to a conviction.
Walker was arrested in 2022 and charged with Arthur’s murder, two malicious wounding offences and six charges of damaging property with intent to endanger life.
But, after his trial was postponed the day it was to start, the 58-year-old pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter on Wednesday.

A charge of maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm on another person will be taken into account on sentencing.
Court documents reveal Walker attacked his neighbour Nathaniel Barker days after he said “I know you’ve done it”.
“If you think that was a big fire, wait until you see my next one,” Walker replied, according to the facts.
He later stabbed the other man in the leg and bit part of his ear off, leaving a distinct bite mark in the remaining tissue.
Walker remains in custody and will return to court in November for sentencing.
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AAP