Family react to Dylan Bond’s killer, Ashley Feetham, being jailed for 22 years

Applause rang out in a Melbourne courtroom as a young dad was jailed for stabbing two brothers amid a romantic dispute.

More than two dozen family and friends of Dylan Bond rose to their feet as his killer, Ashley Feetham, 25, was jailed for 22 years in Victoria’s Supreme Court on Thursday.

They could be seen cheering as Feetham was led from the court, with one woman calling out “bye, bye”.

Members of Feetham’s family, mostly dressed in all back, held their heads in their hands as the sentence was read out. They received jeers from Dylan Bond’s family.

The court was told Feetham stabbed both Dylan and his younger brother, Heath Bond, during a brawl at his girlfriend’s home in the afternoon of April 26, 2021.

The two Bond brothers had driven to the Geelong home planning to confront Feetham, who had fought with Heath a day earlier on a night out.

The trio barely knew each other but were connected by Feetham’s partner, Abbey Sexton, who had previously been engaged to Heath before the relationship was called off after an affair with Feetham two weeks earlier.

On the day of the violence, Dylan had texted Ms Sexton; “he’s gone, I’m coming after him”, after learning about the brawl.

Feetham responded: “I don’t do this tit for tat bull----, you know where I am”.

As Heath broke into the home he once shared with his fiancee, Feetham “sprinted out” and stabbed him in the chest.

Heath yelled out “knife” leading Dylan to intervene, who was stabbed by Feetham four or five times as they wrestled.

Feetham was found guilty of Dylan’s murder and intentionally causing serious injury to Heath after a 12-day trial last month, with the jury rejecting his argument of self-defence.

Handing down his sentence, Justice Stephen Kaye found while Feetham was motivated by a intent to protect himself from the “taller and stronger” Bond brothers, it was not a reasonable response to the circumstances.

“The use by you of a knife was not only unnecessary, but plainly, it could only have ended with the tragic consequences,” he said.

“Your actions were entirely disproportionate to the degree of threat that they posed to you.”

Dylan, a 26-year-old newlywed and “devoted” father to a 17-month-old son, died at the scene, while Heath suffered serious wounds and was hospitalised.

Outside of court, Heath Bond said jury’s verdict and Feetham’s sentence was a “relief” but he had been left with permanent damage.

“Hopefully I can move forward with my life,” he said.

Their mother, Fiona Hollowood, told reporters “justice had prevailed” to cheers from her supporters.

“It’s been two and a half years … it will never bring Dylan back but we can start to move on with our own lives now,” she said.