A Victorian man is being remembered as a loving father, husband and friend with a “heart of gold”, after he was stabbed to death while walking home from his wife’s birthday party at the weekend.
Clint Allen was fatally attacked at about 1am on Sunday, May 7 after a surprise birthday dinner for his wife at the Criterion Hotel in Sale, a town more than 200km east of Melbourne in Victoria’s Gippsland region.
Police allege there was an altercation outside the hotel as the group left the building, and the 38-year-old cabinet maker was stabbed in the chest.
Despite first responders’ efforts to administer first aid, he died at the scene.
Mr Allen’s wife Bek told 9 News she “watched him die on the side of the road”.
“They tried to work on him and they couldn’t bring him back,” she said.
The Allen family had just moved to the Gippsland town from Melbourne’s southeast in January after spending 12 months travelling around Australia.
“We just put a dot on the map and we thought Sale looked alright. Clearly not,” Mrs Allen told 9 News.
She said the pair were “one of those stupidly in love couples after 12 years” together, and his young daughter broke down in tears as she spoke about her “caring, kind” father.
Mr Allen was five weeks away from becoming a grandfather.
“He would do anything for anyone. He would do everything for me and the girls, 100 per cent,” Mrs Allen said of her husband.
His friends described him as “one of the good guys”, who would be “cheering for you” at the best and worst of times.
“Clint would give you the shirt off his back,” friend Adrian Yarzabal told 9 News, describing his mate as having a “heart of gold”.
“Whenever he walked into a room, within five minutes he would be everyone’s friend. Everyone always spoke well of him.”
Police charged 20-year-old Sale man Spencer Shumski with Mr Allen’s murder on Sunday.
He faced Sale Magistrates Court on Monday. The magistrate revoked Shumski’s bail, which was for a separate matter.
He is due to return to court in Sale by videolink again on September 19.
Investigators are calling on witnesses who saw the altercation to come forward.