Thomas Kelly's killer sentenced to five years behind bars
The New South Wales Attorney-General will appeal the sentence handed down to Sydney teen Thomas Kelly's king-hit killer.
Kieran Loveridge has been sentenced to at least five years behind bars over the single punch that killed 18-year-old Kelly in Kings Cross last year.
"Thomas Kelly was the victim of an unprovoked attack, and I have great sympathy for his family who are devastated by their loss,” NSW Attorney-General Greg Smith said in a statement today.
"Drunken assaults are a terrible scourge, and every weekend we hear about attacks by intoxicated irresponsible people on bystanders who are lucky to escape with their life."
Kieran Loveridge received a 20-25 percent discount for pleading guilty to manslaughter.
He received a four-year non parole sentence for Thomas Kelly's manslaughter alone, and a further one year and two months for other offences committed that night, including assaults on four other young men.
The court was told Loveridge had consumed around 20 alcoholic drinks on the night Thomas was hit.
Speaking to a psychologist after pleading guilty, Loveridge had admitted "my stupidity caused his loss of life".
Loveridge, 19, sobbed quietly in the dock of the Supreme Court during his trial as he watched Thomas' family and friends recount how unbearable life was without him.
Loveridge entered the dock this morning and sat directly opposite the Kelly family, with a tattoo on his neck beginning 'My Family..'
Tom's mother was visibly upset as the judge told the court this morning that Loveridge is 'very unlikely to reoffend'.
Kathy Kelly sobbed loudly and leaned in against her husband Ralph's shoulder with her hand over mouth.
Outside court Mr and Mrs Kelly addressed the media.
"We have spent the last hour in court listening to the verdict which supports the offender and leaves us as the victim's family completely cold, shocked, and just beyond belief that the sentence was just so lenient," Ralph said.
"Four years for your son's life," Kathy Kelly said.
"We're horrified. Absolutely horrified. Somebody else will be standing here in a few months or a year's time like we are and be heartbroken."
"How many boys or how many of our children have to die before somebody does something to change these laws to make people accountable for what they do?"
The judge told the court that 'Thomas must have been a wonderful young man, full of promise for the future'.
During the trial Ralph Kelly recalled turning off his 18-year-old son's life support after he was randomly punched in the head in Sydney's Kings Cross on July 7 last year.
"I didn't want to kiss you goodbye, I wanted to kiss you goodnight," Mr Kelly told the court during Loveridge's sentencing hearing.
"There are no words to describe when you lose a child.
"Tears pour down my cheek when I least expect it.
"My heart yearns to see him again.
"I would do anything to swap places with him.
"I could have protected him, a father's right to keep his children safe. I'm sorry Thomas."
His mother Kathy Kelly said instead of going for his green P-plates test, he spent the day in hospital while a piece of his skull was removed.
"I think about him every day ... I cry myself to sleep every day," Mrs Kelly said.
"I'm simply not whole without him.
"He should have been able to get out of a taxi and walk to a party in safety.
"Instead, he was hit by a complete stranger who attacked him in an act of total cowardice."
After Thomas was hit in the head, the fall to the ground caused brain damage and two days later the cadet accountant's life support was turned off.
Police accused Loveridge of going on a bashing spree in Kings Cross that night in which he assaulted five young men, including Thomas who was walking with his girlfriend and talking on his mobile phone when he was attacked.
He was originally charged with murder but the prosecution accepted the lesser plea of manslaughter.
The court also heard that the day after the attack, Loveridge noticed a TV news report about the assault but wasn't sure if he had done it because he had been drinking heavily.
The court heard that he told a friend: "I'm scared, I just don't remember."
Loveridge's mother Michelle Loveridge said her son, who had a difficult childhood, has vowed never to drink again.
"I know he has done bad things but I love him," she said through a statement read in the court by a lawyer.
"He has told me that he will never drink again and I will support him."
She said the media attention has been overwhelming and Loveridge's 13-year-old sister had been told at school that "murderers should be hanged and so should their families".
A family friend's statement recalled Loveridge's social and generous nature, saying "he is not the callous and vicious person portrayed by the media".
The court also heard that he had rarely tried alcohol before he was 18 and usually avoided going to Kings Cross because he was scared of the violence.
But crown prosecutor Pat Barrett said he had "a pattern of disregard for the law", having faced court as a juvenile.
Cousin jailed over 'sadistic' stabbing murder
Kieran's cousin, Corey Loveridge, will serve up to 45 years behind bars for a separate murder after he was sentenced last week.
Corey and a juvenile accomplice stabbed a 17-year-old boy to death for no reason in what the judge called an appalling, cowardly and sadistic crime.
He is now staring down the barrel of at least 30 years behind bars.
Corey Loveridge was 18, his accomplice just 17, when they went looking for someone to kill; they found Alan Ray Gordon on his way home from a St Mary’s service station.
The teenager known as 'Ray Ray' was stabbed dozens of times after his Achilles' tendon sliced through.
The judge, Justice Michael Adams, said ‘it must've caused excruciating pain’, from which the killers derived ‘unimaginable satisfaction or pleasure’.
"This makes them very dangerous individuals,” the judge added.
The pair got a maximum jail period of 45 years but will be eligible for parole in December 2040.
Alan Ray Gordon was not the only victim – the the pair bashed and robbed 87-year-old Elena Parrelli in her home the same night.
The court was told both young men had terrible upbringings, surrounded by violence, drugs and alcohol.
Loveridge's cousin Kieran Loveridge will be sentenced next week, over the unrelated death of Thomas Kelly in Kings Cross.
Alan's father Ronald Hussey told reporters outside the court that he hoped the pair wouldn't get out in his lifetime.
He described his son as an angel.
He would do anything for anyone," Mr Hussey said.
"My son was doing the same thing he did for years, which was go down for his mother early in the morning to get her money out.
"Wrong place, wrong time.
"He just started working, he just loved his job, he just never got a chance.
"I no longer live at home... (his death) has pulled the family apart."
