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A teenager sentenced to three years detention for his part in a brutal and cowardly attack which left a Perth father with irreversible brain damage is too young to understand he has ruined a life and destroyed a family, the man's wife said yesterday.
Expressing her frustration and anger at the teenager's lack of remorse, Karlene Double said she had cried and lain awake at night as she waited for the youth to be sentenced for grievous bodily harm after he was found guilty following a seven-day trial in July.
In the District Court yesterday, Judge Allan Fenbury said that no sentence he imposed could heal Mathew Double.
But Judge Fenbury said the case was also a tragedy for the teenager, who had allowed himself to take part in a beating which left no option other than a term of detention.
The teenager and at least five others attacked Mr Double after a verbal altercation between two groups attending social functions in Gosnells on August 2 last year. "Each group racially abused the other in the most disgusting and foul way," Judge Fenbury said. "The situation rapidly deteriorated to a running street battle, including the throwing of rocks and concrete paving."
When Mr Double became separated from his group at a nearby park, he was set upon as he lay "helpless and defenceless" on the grass.
"Mr Double suffered six different skull fractures, a broken jaw and nose," Judge Fenbury said. "The fracture to the base of his skull was caused by a very high source of impact, usually only seen in high velocity motor vehicle accidents.
"You actively participated in a very brutal, cowardly, sustained piece of gratuitous violence."
Judge Fenbury said the youth had no record for violence and came from a supportive family. But the teenager had shown a lack of remorse and the injury to Mr Double was severe.
"Furthermore, although it may be doubtful whether drunken young men and youths will consider such things, the sentence imposed upon you must be sufficiently severe to at least attempt to discourage such conduct and to express the community's condemnation of it in the strongest terms," he said. Just minutes after Judge Fenbury's remarks, the teenager's supporters reacted by yelling vulgar abuse and claiming it would have been different if the youth had been white.
The teenager, who cannot be identified because he was 15 at the time of the offence, must spend at least 18 months in detention. Counting time already spent in custody, he could be released at the end of July next year.
Mrs Double said the sentence was "better" than anticipated but remained inadequate when considering the damage to her husband's life.
She hoped her husband would be able to walk again by Christmas.
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