The former private school boy accused of the brutal stabbing death of a 21-year-old was an award-winning student and footballer whose good looks made him popular with girls.
At Queensland’s prestigious $6,860-a-year Ipswich Grammar, Haedyn Rawson won a reading award, played football and AFL – and in 2017 he went on a trip with his schoolmates to London, posing at the iconic gates of Buckingham Palace.
Now a heavily tattooed construction worker, the 23-year-old is accused of allegedly using a kitchen knife to stab Will Swinbourne on Hope Island on Queensland’s Gold Coast.
Police allege Rawson stabbed Mr Swinbourne after an alleged botched drug deal in a vehicle in the car park of the Gold Coast Radiology Clinic at 2.15pm on Monday.
Mr. Rawson had been drinking at the Boardwalk Tavern next to the clinic ahead of an allegedly planned meeting with Mr. Swinbourne, the police say.
The pair had reportedly met two days earlier through mutual friends at British DJ Fred Again’s concert on Saturday night at The Spit on the Gold Coast.
Haedyn Rawson was an award-winning football-playing private school boy, but on Monday he ended up in a police forensics jumpsuit accused of the violent stabbing death of another man
Haedyn Rawson was a cute schoolboy in this picture from his days at prestigious Ipswich Grammar, where he had plenty of mates and enjoyed friendships with girls
On Monday, after a long manhunt in a closed compound, police arrested Haedyn Rawson and placed him in a forensic jumpsuit for his transfer to a cell
On Monday afternoon, accounting student Will Swinbourne was found with life-threatening injuries in the parking lot on Hope Island’s Santa Barbara Road, sparking a three-and-a-half-hour manhunt.
Police allege Mr Rawson fled on foot through a golf course on the nearby Sanctuary Cove estate, forcing the gated community into lockdown as officers canvassed streets, waterways and golf courses.
He was eventually found around 18 in a cul-de-sac when police handcuffed him and dressed him in a blue forensic jumpsuit before arresting him in a police van.
Another 23-year-old man from Surfers Paradise, who had been drinking with Rawson at the pub, was arrested at 4.45pm but was later released without charge.
Haedyn Patrick Zachary Rawson appeared in Southport Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday morning charged with murder and did not enter a plea or apply for bail.
Haedyn Rawson allegedly stabbed Will Swinbourne, 21, (pictured) in the car park of Gold Coast Radiology in Hope Island at around 2.15pm on Monday.
Police take Mr Rawson to a van after handcuffing him following a long manhunt through Sanctuary Cove’s gated community and golf course
More recently, Mr. Rawson has been working as a construction foreman at a construction company not far from his house.
Mr. Rawson had been living on Redbank Plains, just a 20-minute drive from his old school Ipswich Grammar, reportedly with his parents.
He remains friends on social media with his old schoolmates, but photos of him from recent years show an increase in visible tattoos on his arm and neck.
Tributes have poured in for Mr. Swinbourne, who studied at Griffith University, and whose girlfriend Kaysie Tooth shared a loving message on social media.
“I love you to the moon and back, in this life and the next and every one after that,” she wrote alongside a photograph of the pair sharing a kiss. “Forever looking at pictures of you my love.”
Police described the grim speed with which the fatal encounter allegedly happened.
Haedyn Rawson played football and AFL while studying at elite Ipswich Grammar and had kept in touch with his school friends while working in the construction industry
‘It has happened very quickly. My understanding is that the victim only just arrived and then the incident took place,’ claimed Detective Inspector Mark Mooney.
“We think the argument started inside the car and … he got out at some point because he was found on the ground.”
Swinbourne’s football team, Mudgeeraba Red Backs Rugby League Club, where he played for around 12 years, described him as a ‘very loyal lad, loyal to the club, loyal to his mates’.
Rawson will return to court later this month.