In the Supreme Court on Friday, Justice Stephen Kaye said the teenager had taken the life of a "caring young woman" who has been a pillar of strength to her now devastated family. He sentenced the teenager to 20 years with a non-parole period of 15 years. Surrounded by family and friends of Laa Chol, her father, Daniel speaks to the media outside court on Friday. Credit:AAP "Your senseless and vicious crimes have deprived her of her most basic right, her life," he said. "At the time at which you stabbed her she was defenceless.

"Your actions are utterly cowardly and callous." The teenager went to trial arguing he did not intend serious harm but a jury did not believe his claims and in September convicted him of murder. Outside court, Ms Chol’s distressed father Daniel Kunyrieth Chol said his daughter was a ‘‘good girl’’ who was studying law to help this country. He said while others would be celebrating Christmas next week, he’ll be mourning the death of his daughter. ‘My daughter will never come back,’’ he said.

The EQ Tower in A'Beckett Street. Credit:Elke Metizel The court heard that a few days before her death, Ms Chol and a friend has booked an Airbnb apartment on the 56th floor of the EQ Tower on A’Beckett Street. The girls had intended to spend the weekend together, going clubbing and seeing friends. Late in the afternoon of July 21, 2018, a group of Ms Chol's friends arrived for an impromptu party. But within hours the killer and his uninvited friends showed up and when they were asked to leave the two groups began to fight.

‘‘In the altercation Laa Chol was kicked and punched and in turn threw punches to try and protect herself,’’ Justice Kaye said. ‘‘[You] took one step back, removed the knife with your right hand ... stabbing Laa Chol forcefully in the chest. ‘‘As a result the knife penetrated her ribcage ... and inflicted a sized wound.’’ Justice Kaye said others bravely intervened and helped the injured woman back into the apartment but she couldn’t be saved. The killer was arrested at his home in Melbourne’s west two days later. The weapon has never been found.

The court heard that at the time of the murder, the offender had been paroled from youth detention less than nine weeks earlier after spending 22 months behind bars between July 2016 and May 2018 for a string of violent crimes including aggravated burglary, car jacking, and resisting arrest. He’d also been charged with escaping from a youth justice centre. On Friday the court was told the now 18-year-old was gaining insight into his crimes and had returned to studying year 10 while in custody. He will be eligible for release from 2033 after already serving 515 days behind bars. In April, another boy who fought with Ms Chol and was holding her when she was stabbed was sentenced in a children’s court to three years in youth detention after pleading guilty to common assault and assisting an offender in a serious indictable offence.

The boy, was also on a youth supervision order, kneed, kicked and punched Ms Chol before and after she was stabbed. Laa Chol was a talented soccer player. Credit:Skye United FC/Facebook The 16-year-old took the knife from his friend and disposed of it. Ms Chol, from Pakenham, was a legal studies student and talented soccer player. Her mother, Ojwanga Kwot Abalo, said her daughter’s death left her angry and sad, unable to work, struggling to care for herself and haunted by the question of why.

"She is not with me now. I don’t have my eyes and ears," Ms Abalo said in a statement read to the court by the prosecutor on Monday. "She was everything to me. Home is now cold and before it was warm ... I will not get any good life now."