Another Soft Sentence in Victoria

An astonishing case from Australia:

A JUDGE who allowed six men involved in a vicious assault to walk free from court has been told by the victim's father, "you've got no balls".

Archie Dalli lashed out at County Court Judge James Montgomery for sentencing his son's attackers to community based orders instead of jail.

"Is that it? Is that it?" Mr Dalli yelled after Judge Montgomery had finished reading his sentence.

The six men smirked after the judge left the bench, provoking a tense exchange of insults with Mr Dalli’s family.

Victim Aaron Dalli was 18 when he was set upon by up to 10 men in May 2006 outside Fix Bar in Docklands. After a verbal stoush inside the venue, Mr Dalli was punched, kicked and stomped on as he lay unconscious.

He was lucky to survive the nasty attack, which left him brain damaged and struggling to walk.

Three of the six admitted assaulting Mr Dalli, while three others confessed to attacking three other victims.

Sinan Cekuc, 20, assaulted Mr Dalli inside the club while Orhan Bekar, 24, hit Mr Dalli inside the club before punching another patron outside.

Both men pleaded guilty to recklessly causing injury, assault and affray and were sentenced to serve 150 hours of unpaid community work as part of a one-year community based order, pay a $1000 fine and serve a six-month wholly suspended jail term.

Okan Yoruden, 23, was among a group of men who chased Mr Dalli and set upon him in a gang with Yoruden stomping on his stomach. He pleaded guilty to assault and affray and was ordered to serve 150 hours of unpaid community work and a six-month suspended jail term.

The remaining three, Yusuf Kilic, 24, Emrah Aslan, 24, and John Yussef, 23, pleaded guilty to charges of affray and assault. They were sentenced to serve 150 hours of unpaid community work and pay a $1000 fine.

Four more men are due to face a County Court trial next year.

So, they beat a young man to within an inch of his life in a cowardly gang attack, leave him brain damaged, show absolutely no remorse - and simply walk away from court laughing?

No wonder Mr Dalli was angry; aren't judges supposed to protect the decent and law-abiding rather than the criminals?

If this crime wasn't serious, then what is considered serious in Australia?

I'm guessing that if one of these savages had been beaten by a gang of white men, the judge would have been falling over himself in an effort to appear tough and make an example of them.

Absolutely sickening.

Hat tip: Crusader Rabbit.