A grass strip next to a road with multiple bouquets of flowers and a wooden cross.

Flowers and a cross left at the site of the car crash in April 2023. (ABC News: Simon Beardsell)

A Canberra boy on trial for manslaughter denies being behind the wheel of a stolen car that crashed and killed another teenager outside Parliament House.

Warning: This story contains an image that may distress some readers.

The ACT Supreme Court heard the 15-year-old victim, who cannot be named, suffered “catastrophic” head injuries in the crash in the early hours of April 17, 2024.

He had been in the back seat of a speeding white Camry that struck a concrete retaining wall and rolled several times before landing on its roof on Adelaide Avenue.

The jury heard the victim was thrown 15 metres from the vehicle and was later pronounced brain dead in hospital.

The alleged teenage driver of the Camry, who was 14 at the time and cannot be named, has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and an alternative charge of culpable driving causing death.

The court heard the only thing in dispute about the early-morning crash was the identity of the driver responsible.

Barrister questions identity of driver

A car flipped over with debris on the road and police around it

The scene of the crash on Adelaide Avenue that killed a 15-year-old passenger. (ABC News: Mark Moore)

Prior to the crash, the car had been spotted “driving erratically” in convoy with a stolen black Genesis, including by CCTV cameras outside the prime minister’s residence, the Lodge.

An agreed statement of facts tendered to the court shows the accused and another person, 20-year-old Jack Summerrell-Jenkins, got out of the Camry and were picked up by the Genesis almost immediately after the crash.

Defence barrister John Purnell argued it was Jack Summerrell-Jenkins who was behind the wheel of the Camry and not his client.

Both parties agreed “the manner of driving constituted a breach of the duty of care owed by a driver to such a magnitude that it merits criminal punishment”.

The prosecution told the court blood samples taken from inside the car and outside were “one hundred billion” times more likely to have come from the accused than anyone else.

The trial continues.