Attack thugs repeat crimes

June 19, 2010

LINK

TWO Hobart men have faced court just months after being convicted of a cowardly attack on a Singaporean student.

This time is was for a violent attack on a Chinese university student.

Brodie John Cockshutt, 21, and Shawn Anthony Woolley, 20, appeared in the Supreme Court in Hobart yesterday after pleading guilty to aggravated robbery.

Another man, Jarrod Joseph Broadby, 20, also appeared on the same charge.

The trio admitted dragging Zauo Be Cheng along a Sandy Bay street for five metres as they tried to steal her handbag.

The court heard that Cockshutt initially tried to grab the bag after he jumped out of a van but Ms Cheng resisted and dropped to her knees.

Cockshutt then dragged her until the handbag strap broke.

The court then heard that Ms Cheng's friend, also an international student, came to her aid and Broadby and Woolley punched her in the face.

The men will be sentenced next week.

They have claimed the attacks were not racially motivated and only occurred because they were intoxicated.

Sentencing Cockshutt and Woolley in February, Justice Alan Blow made particular mention of the impact attacks on international students had on Australia's international reputation.

Cockshutt and Woolley were involved in an attack on student Poh Leong Kee as he tried to stop them stealing his Nissan Skyline at Sandy Bay.

The pair, along with New Norfolk man Aaron Nicholas Farrell, 19, received suspended jail terms.

The court heard Woolley punched Mr Poh because he refused to give him the keys to his car. He then punched Mr Poh's housemate Ting "Rachael" Xiang when she came to his aid.

**********************************************

UPDATE

Street attackers avoid jail

LINK

TWO thugs who attacked a Chinese woman just months after assaulting a foreign student have again escaped jail terms.

Brodie John Cockshutt, 21, and Shawn Anthony Woolley, 20, were each given suspended sentences yesterday for attacking and robbing a woman on a suburban Sandy Bay street.

At the time of the aggravated robbery, Cockshutt was on bail for attacking a Singaporean student during a botched car theft in Sandy Bay three months earlier.

Woolley, who also took part in that attack, admitted punching Poh Leong Kee when he refused to hand over his car keys.

Woolley and Cockshutt received suspended jail terms.

Last week, together with friend Jared Joseph Broadby, 20, they appeared in the Supreme Court in Hobart charged with attacking two Chinese university students on Grosvenor St on June 5 last year.

The three men, who pleaded guilty, got out of a van and ran after the young women, who were walking down the street about 6.30pm.

One of the women fell down when Cockshutt grabbed at her shoulder bag.

He dragged her along the footpath for a few metres, until her bag strap broke.

The bag, which contained all of her identification, was never recovered.

When the second woman tried to help her friend, Broadby punched her.

Justice Shan Tennent said the women were now afraid of going out at night time as "this cowardly attack has scared them badly".

But she said there was no evidence the crime was racially motivated.

"It was an opportunistic crime committed against young defenceless females who were unfortunate to be walking where they were," she said.

Justice Tennent sentenced each of the three men to eight months in jail, suspended on condition they be of good behaviour for three years.

**************************

There you go. It could have just as easily been you