ROWE FAMILYS ATTACKERS WALK FREE http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,25659209-2761,00.htmlThree Geraldton teenagers freed on suspended jail sentences
Todd Cardy, court reporter
June 19, 2009 11:00am
THREE Geraldton teenagers have walked free from court with suspended sentences over the bashing of a man during a fatal Christmas Day brawl.
Childrens Court President Denis Reynolds today sentenced the three boys, who are aged 15, 16, and 18 and cannot be identified, over the attack on Luke Neil during the 2007 Christmas Day brawl that killed Yalgoo farmer Bill Rowe.
All three had pleaded guilty to doing an act of harm.
Two of the boys threw beer bottles at Dr Neil and another hit him on the head from behind with a plank of wood.
Judge Reynolds sentenced the eldest teenager, who faced a maximum of 20 years in an adult jail, to one year imprisonment suspended for one year on the condition he not reoffend, undertake anger management counselling and continue to study.
The two younger boys were spared detention and ordered to abide by similar conditions on a one year conditional release order.
Prosecutor Sean Stocks did not seek immediate jail time for the teenagers.
Each of them told Judge Reynolds they wanted to never commit another act of violence again.
``Give us a second opportunity to change our lives and (we will) hopefully make the best of them,â??â?? the 18-year-old told the court.
Dr Neil, who had proposed to Mr Rowe's daughter, Violet, on the same day, suffered a broken jaw, ripped ear, cuts, bruising and scarring to his head, face and upper body.
Outside court, Dr Neil said aside from the obvious physical injuries he suffered, the attack had caused massive psychological trauma.
He said the 18-month wait for the case to come to court - which had been put down to the Supreme Court sentencing of the man who killed Mr Rowe with a cricket bat - had taken its toll.
``The court processes are so long and drawn out and they take no account of the victim’s pain - basically there is no humanity in law, is what we have discovered,’’ Dr Neil said.
``By allowing violent offenders back into the community, it is basically allowing violence to possibly continue forever because they are going back to where the violence was created and installed in them in the first place.
``Parents and guardians of children need to take the responsibility back.
``They’ve got to take responsibility for their children, they have to educate their children in a manner that is going to instil respect for their elders, respect for their community, respect for emergency services and most of all respect for themselves.’’
During the fight between the two families, which was sparked by the theft of drinks from the Rowe family's portable cooler, father-of-five Mr Rowe, 49, was killed when he was hit with a cricket bat by Mathew Roy McDonald, 22, who has since been jailed for five years for manslaughter.
Judge Reynolds said the boys’ attack on Dr Neil was ``an aberration’’ - a once off - and jail for them, who he described as young and naive, would have been a ``backward step''.
He said their crimes had been as a result of a ``misguided loyalty’’ to family members some of whom were ``fired-up’’ and ``fuelled by alcohol’’.
``You usually don’t do this sort of stuff but because your family had this get together and because there were people in this group that don’t have the right ideas, you got sucked in,’’ he told the court.
Judge Reynolds also ordered all three to submit a report card by the end of the year on their progress in study and football to Corrective Services which would be passed to Dr Neil so he could track their progress.
After the hearing, one of the boys’ aunts said the sentence was ``fair’’.
VICTIM: Dr Luke Neil read a powerful victim impact statement to the court, challenging his three young attackers to turn their lives around. Picture: Lincoln Baker
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Insanity....Western Australian courts are insane....the sentences do not match the crimes... they chill me to the bone...I don't know what we can do about them...
