‘The Big Yappers’: Teen killer's chilling last message before fatal brawl that saw Kristie McBride fatally stabbed

A vicious suburban brawl that claimed the life of a mother-of-two was pre-arranged on social media by two warring friendship groups who baited each other into the fight.

Four teenage girls, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, traded the classroom for the courtroom after they brought knives to a brawl in Wollongong on November 22, 2023.

Two of the girls were aged 14 and the other two were 15 when a chat called “The Big Yappers” was created on Instagram to organise a fight with another group of girls, according to the case’s agreed facts.

Derogatory comments and threats - including to inflict grievous bodily harm - were made by both sides as they egged each other on in the 24 hours before the fight.

A member of the rival group invited the teens to come to an address in “Lego” - a reference to an area in the Wollongong suburb of Warrawong known as Legoland - at 4pm, court documents state.

The four girls were accused of being cowards when they didn’t show at the appointed time, according to the facts.

But two hours later, three of their number were preparing for the brawl by obtaining kitchen knives at a supermarket.

The two 15-year-old girls were seen on CCTV miming combat moves before all four teens took a bus to the suburban street where the deadly altercation took place after 6.20pm, the facts state.

The 15-year-old who would ultimately fatally stab Kristie McBride told the rival group their bus was arriving at 6.17pm and then they would need to walk to the address.

“We’re in Legoland,” she wrote in a chilling final message to the group chat before the brawl.

The 15-year-old had not brought a knife but was handed one by her 14-year-old friend as the fight kicked off.

When Ms McBride - who had been drinking at the address with the rival group - was nearing the 14-year-old, the older teen lashed out with the knife and left cuts on her scalp and forehead.

According to the agreed facts, the 15-year-old thought her actions were necessary to protect her friends but the multiple blows were unreasonable.

She stabbed the mother-of-two twice in the stomach, inflicting deep wounds that injured Ms McBride’s kidney and bowel.

The 39-year-old was bleeding and holding her wound as she staggered to a nearby house before collapsing.

“That little c*** stabbed me,” she said, according to the facts.

Ms McBride was rushed to Wollongong Hospital and placed in an induced coma before she died days later.

The four teenage girls - now aged between 16 and 17 - pleaded guilty to her manslaughter in the NSW Supreme Court on Monday, the day they were due to stand trial for murder.

The three girls who didn’t strike the fatal blows are liable for Ms McBride’s death because they brought the knives to the brawl and foresaw the possibility that someone could be seriously hurt, the court documents state.

But they did not act with the intention to kill someone or inflict grievous bodily harm and didn’t expect anyone else in their group would either.

All four teenagers will return to the NSW Supreme Court in December before they are sentenced next year.

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