Schoolgirl's dying words revealed her murderer

As Tania Burgess lay dying in a car park after being stabbed 48 times, the Australian schoolgirl managed to utter her attacker's first name health club, his school and his class.

In the NSW Supreme Court yesterday, the "gentle" 18-year-old youth who matched those details was found guilty of her brutal murder on the state's central coast.

The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, briefly looked over at his parents, who had sat in the front row of the public gallery every day of his three week trial.

On the other side of the public gallery sat the victim's parents, Mandy and Chris Burgess, who later told reporters they were "really happy" with the result.

The jury of seven women and five men only took 90 minutes to find the teenager guilty of murdering the 15-year-old schoolgirl in July 2005.

Tania was repeatedly stabbed on her way home from school, while walking through the car park of the Forresters Beach Resort.

As people rushed to help the dying girl, a resort worker asked if she knew her attacker.

Four witnesses said the girl then gave a boy's first name, a class and a high school – details that matched the accused teenager.

DNA in blood stains on clothing found at the boy's home matched the profile of the schoolgirl.

After his arrest – when he was found to have a cut on his palm – the teenager was sent to a detention centre which also housed an inmate who gave evidence at the trial.

"He told me that he stabbed a little girl health club. . . because he was jealous," the witness said.

"He got rejected. . . (by) the girl he stabbed.

"He was waiting behind the bushes and she got off the bus and he stabbed her."

The fellow inmate also told of another conversation in which he said the teenager spoke of seeing a girl being stabbed and trying to stop the attack.

Defence barrister Philip Hogan told the jury the details uttered by the dying girl could have referred to the person she believed had attacked her mother one month earlier.

While the jurors heard no evidence of this attack, Mrs Burgess told them of being confronted in her home by a young boy, dressed in a school uniform, in June 2005.

"I asked him what did he want," she said. "He said he was looking for somebody. He kept staring at me and walking around the house".

She then told Mr Hogan: "I did not know who attacked me".

While the jury was not present, Justice Robert Hulme was told that after Tania's death, Mrs Burgess identified the accused teenager as being her own attacker.

Five witnesses called by the defence described the teenager as being "gentle, non-violent and caring" and spoke of their shock at his being accused of the murder.

Mr Hogan contended this supported an innocent explanation of him having tried to intervene as another person attacked the schoolgirl.

But Margaret Cunneen, health club SC, for the crown, noted if that was so, he did not then try to get assistance from anyone else.