QLD Magistrate 'lenient' on one punch offender
A Queensland Magistrate has come under fire for delivering what anti-violence campaigners are claiming is a ‘manifestly inadequate sentence’ for a coward's punch attack caught on CCTV.
The assault by Virgil Macquarie Power has prompted a chorus of condemnation from those that coward's punches affect the most.
Gloria Steensen's son died from a similar attack on the Sunshine Coast last month.
“The boy didn't die, but mine did, and I don’t want this to happen to any other parent as long as I live,” she said.
“We've got to change it and the only way we can change it is with better sentencing.”
The assault in a Noosa Heads bar last year left 23-year-old Michael Halbauer requiring $24,000 worth of reconstructive surgery.
His attacker – the 29-year-old great great grandson of the first Queensland born Supreme Court judge – escaped jail time and a conviction, sentenced instead to 240 hours of community service.
Victims of crime and anti-violence campaigners today slammed Magistrate Bernadette Callaghan's finding, that Power's attack a on fellow club patron was not an act of gratuitous violence.
“It is not acceptable and certainly not acceptable in the public interest,” Ross Thompson said.
“I'm lost for words I think it is disgraceful,” Paul Stanley from the Matthew Stanley Foundation said.
“Absolutely crazy, disgusting that sort of result coming out,” he said.
“It seriously undermines what we are trying to do,” Dr Anthony Lynham from the Coalition for Action on Alcohol said.
With community pressure mounting, the police minister today confirmed the case could return to court.
“Police prosecution and the department of public prosecution are currently processing an application to review this matter,” Police Minister Jack Dempsey said.
