Boy, 15, Jailed For 16 Years!

Weekend Advertiser ( 22.5.10 ).

A teenaged Sudanese refugee who was refused a cigarette has been jailed for at least 16 years for the "cowardly" Sydney murder of an innocent bystander.

"This was an offence of the most disturbing and senseless kind," Justice Megan Latham said in sentencing the boy in the NSW Supreme Court yesterday.

Snip....

We are curious as to how much the defence of this criminal cost the good people of NSW ? And the cost to the State to house him in a correctional facility for the next 16 years ?

Snip....

The youth, who was 15 years old at the time of the offence and cannot be named, was found guilty of the stabbing murder of Edward Spowart, 54, in the early hours of April 21, 2008, during a brawl in the streets of Granville.

"It might be said that his exposure to violence in the Sudan and Kenya desensitised him to some extent to the use of violence in order to settle disputes," the judge said.

Snip....

It might also be said, "some Australians have experienced trauma and violence also, returned servicemen and women deployed overseas that have experienced the horror of warfare, other's that have experienced domestic violence and abuse, others living in Public Housing areas, where violence is rife and so on."

Do these people murder someone because they are refused a cigarette ? Albeit these people may also be desensitised to violence, they do not act out in this manner. We might also say murdering someone who refuses you a cigarette, is not Australian culture, nor how we "settle disputes" in Australia.

Snip....

"However, the offender is not without intelligence and according to his stepmother, was a respectful, polite young man until his entry into high school in Australia in 2006".

Snip....

So now it's all our fault ?

Snip....

The murder arose out of a confrontation between members of Mr. Spowart"s group and the teenager's.The intoxicated teenager had asked someone in the other group for a cigarette but was rebuffed and told to go home.

Snip....

Where is the concerned stepmother when the 15 year old, polite respectful young man she describes is roaming the streets intoxicated ?

Snip....

"Apparently reacting out of a wounded sense of pride, the offender threw a punch," the judge said. A brawl then broke out, with various men and youths arming themselves with sticks, bricks and street signs.

"However, Mr. Spowart played no active part in that confrontation or in the later hostilities," the judge said.

Snip....

We need to accept the reality here, it is in fact the African tribalist culture to resolve disputes with violence, always has been, always will be. We do not accept blaming others as sufficent, nor do we accept the excuse they are desensitised to violence due to their never ending wars with each other. They are without excuse!