University of Sydney dropout stabbed mother, brother after graduation lie

On the eve of Jackyy Dang’s graduation ceremony at the University of Sydney, his excited family were preparing to watch him mark the important milestone.

However, the 24-year-old had dropped out of his advanced computing degree a year earlier. Struggling to tell his family he wouldn’t be graduating, he instead tried to kill his computer-game-playing brother before attacking his mother as she rushed to help.

Dang was sentenced in the Wollongong District Court on Tuesday to almost six years in jail after pleading guilty to wounding his 26-year-old brother with intent to kill and causing his 56-year-old mother grievous bodily harm over the unprovoked attack in their Marrickville home on May 23, 2024.

Judge Imad Abdul-Karim found the stabbings did not appear to be premeditated, accepting a medical opinion they were most likely manifestations of feelings that his parents valued him largely based on academic achievement. The judge found special circumstances regarding undiagnosed mental illnesses.

Dang began studying a bachelor of advanced computing at the University of Sydney in 2019 and continued attending classes until he failed one subject in 2023. He did not enrol in further classes, but told his parents that he was still attending university and that his graduation ceremony was at midday on May 24, 2024.

Shortly before 5.30pm on May 23, Dang’s mother asked him if his phone was charged for his ceremony. Minutes later, Dang’s older brother sat down at a desk in the bedroom he shared with Dang and began playing a computer game.

Dang’s brother noticed Dang walk into the bedroom behind him. He turned around to find Dang holding a small fruit knife.

The court heard Dang’s brother had himself dropped out of a biomedical science degree at the Australian Catholic University and told his parents he had already graduated.

After grabbing the knife from Dang, the victim said: “Is this about the graduation thing? I turned out fine, you can stop this.”

Without responding, Dang grabbed the knife back and stabbed his brother nine times in the face, arm and back. The desperate victim typed into an open gaming chat: “I am going to die.”

‘Is this about the graduation thing? I turned out fine, you can stop this.’

Jackyy Dang’s brother before he was stabbed

Having heard the horror, their mother ran into the bedroom. She begged her son to give her the knife, but Dang instead stabbed her in the throat.

Dang went to grab a cloth to put on his mother’s neck as she called out to her husband: “Our youngest son has stabbed our oldest son.”

Dang then moved to the dining room, sat in a chair and stared into the distance, ignoring his hearing-impaired father’s plea for him to call Triple Zero. His father managed to seek help from neighbours and police arrived shortly after and arrested Dang.

Dang told police he stabbed his brother in the neck “because he wanted to kill him”, Abdul-Karim said while outlining the agreed facts.

“He [said he] accidentally hit his mum as she was trying to get him off.”

To investigators, Dang admitted to having homicidal and suicidal thoughts, saying he “had given up on life and thought to kill his family and himself”.

Dang’s brother was lucky to have survived – five of his 13 nights in hospital were spent under sedation and intubation.

His mother, who had since regularly supported her son in court but did not attend the sentencing, spent four days in hospital.

Dang was dialled into the proceedings from custody via audiovisual link. He appeared stone-faced while he was sentenced to five years and nine months’ prison with a three-year non-parole period.

Dang’s treating psychiatrist told the court Dang had been diagnosed with autism, as well as major depressive disorder, and that he struggled with isolation.

Abdul-Karim accepted the doctor’s opinion that his mental illnesses were linked to his offending, particularly due to his “parents’ experience of poverty and cultural expectation in relation to academic achievement”.

“His progressive deviation of the anticipated trajectory of academic achievement the first year of university, followed by a unit fail in 2023, led him to be placed in a situation where he was unable to explain [this to] his father and unable to lean upon his parents,” the judge said as he summarised the psychiatrist’s evidence.

The judge accepted Dang’s evidence that he planned the attack on the day.

“He said he was depressed and was not thinking straight,” Abdul-Karim said.

“He did not have a fixed plan but thought he might stab himself … I’m of the view that his offending was relatively spontaneous and occurred in the circumstances of the mental impairments outlined earlier.”

The court heard Dang, who pleaded guilty to the two domestic violence charges in April 2025, still spoke regularly to his mother. He remained in occasional contact with his father and had not spoken to his brother since the attacks.

With his sentence backdated to the date he went into custody, he will be eligible for parole in May 2027.

If you or anyone you know needs support call Lifeline 131 114 or Beyond Blue 1300 224 636. National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732)

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