A Supreme Court of Victoria jury on Monday found Karl Michael Hague, 44, guilty of stabbing Ricky Balcombe to death at Geelong's Market Square shopping centre on May 5, 1995.

The verdict came after a week of deliberations, with the jury accepting prosecutor's claims the teen was stabbed in "payback" for damaging Hague's Kingswood car during a gang fight.

"It's the best day of our lives for the last 22 years," Ricky's sobbing mother Christine Loader told reporters outside court.

"We just like to think justice has been done.

"Our beautiful son and brother can now be at rest.

"It's been hell, it's really been hell, but today made it all worth it. I have so much faith in the justice system, thank you so much."

Hague, 21 at the time, denied killing the boy, claiming he was riding a bicycle from his mother's house at the time of the fatal stabbing.

Prosecutors said Ricky was murdered in revenge, weeks after a group of youths surrounded and smashed Hague's car with a machete as he and his friends cowered inside.

They claimed Hague approached the boy at the shopping centre, saying "do you remember me, motherf***er?" before pulling a knife from his jacket and stabbing him in the back.

One witness said they heard Hague letting out a "frantic scream, just like a frenzied animal".

The group of boys did not come forward for years with information about the murder because they were bound by a gang "code of silence" and were also "shit scared" of speaking out after what happened to Ricky.

Hague is due to be sentenced on May 2.

Australian Associated Press