Melbourne: Terming the street crime against Indians as “cowardly” and “despicable”, a court in Victoria on Wednesday handed out long imprisonment sentences to attackers of an Indian-origin doctor.
Haikerwal State County Court Judge Joe Gullaci on Wednesday sentenced 20-year-old Alfer Azzopardi to 18-and-a-half-year imprisonment, media reports said.
He is accused of bashing up Mukesh Hairkerwal with a baseball bat.
Former chief of Australian Medical Association Haikerwal was walking through a park in the bayside suburb of Williamstown on September 27 last year when he was attaacked by three men.
Another co-accused Michael Baltatzis, 20, of Glenroy, who along with Azzopardi took part in 23 armed robberies over a two-month period, was sentenced to 16-and-a-half-year imprisonment and must serve 10-and-a-half-year before being eligible for pleading fpr a parole.
The third accused, Sean Gabriel, 20, of Hoppers Crossing, was jailed for nine years and nine months, the report said.
Announcing the sentences, Judge Gullaci dubbed the attacks as cowardly and despicable.
“Each of the victims was selected at random, but each had a common feature, that is they were vulnerable and alone and in parks or (other) public places,” Gullaci was quoted in a media report.
- Melbourne, May 4: 21-year-old student beaten unconscious and a 25-year-old student stabbed in the head with a screwdriver.
- Sydney, May 24: Student suffered 30 per cent burns when a petrol bomb was thrown through his bedroom window.
- Victoria, May 30: Student badly beaten by a group of fifteen people.
- Victoria, June 2: 21-year-old student slashed across the chest with a box-cutter knife in Frankston.
- Sydney, June 8: Indians attacked allegedly by a group of Lebanese men in Harris Park, which sparked a street protest.
- Victoria, June 8: 23-year-old beaten unconscious while walking home from the train station.
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