Trevor Wayne Cowey sentenced for racist attack at Modbury oval at Ridgehaven

With a thud to the nose of a young boy, a convicted rapist had consigned himself to an inevitable term of imprisonment. His reasons for the racist attack were despicable.

Racial slurs unleashed by a former rodeo rider and aimed at an Indian man and his two young sons have been slammed by a magistrate as “vile”.

Those slurs, yelled from the mouth of a wildly drunk Trevor Wayne Cowey at the family as they played cricket at Modbury Sports and Community Club, have landed him behind bars because the assault they pre-empted was “just too serious” to warrant anything else.

Cowey, 58, of no fixed address, was on Tuesday jailed for a minimum of five months by Magistrate Brian Nitschke, who said he could have spent significantly longer behind bars.

In total, Cowey was sentenced to 14 months’ imprisonment, with five of those months without parole.

Despite the foul-mouthed and horrifically racist comments directed at the innocent family, it was two violent assaults Cowey carried out that resulted in the significant sentence.

Trevor Wayne Cowey has been sentenced for a disgusting racist attack on an Indian family. Picture: Jason Katsaras

Those assaults saw Cowey deliver a stunning blow the father, before his 12-year-old son came to help him out and Cowey smashed his fist into his nose, deviating his septum and sending him reeling.

Had it not been for an off-duty police officer and other bystanders coming upon the scene, the assault could have gone unpunished, as the off-duty officer forced Cowey to sit in his car until police arrested him.

Mr Nitschke described the slurs Cowey delivered, which The Advertiser has chosen not to publish.

“What you said to those people from the outset was vile,” he said.

“You persisted in interacting with them on at least two occasions.

“Then you resorted to violence without any provocation.”

The court previously heard Cowey had suffered a series of head traumas throughout his life as a rodeo rider and stockman which would likely see him diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) when an autopsy can be done on his brain.

The Modbury Sports Club, where the attack occurred. Picture: Google

That diagnosis, the court heard, saw Cowey’s rationality and cognitive function crippled, which was only worsened by another diagnosis of PTSD.

It had also previously heard Cowey was convicted of rape in the 90s, and spent time behind bars as a result.

On Tuesday, the court heard any term of imprisonment would likely result in Cowey losing NDIS support for his diagnoses, potentially leading him away from controlling outbursts similar to the racist attack.

But Mr Nitschke told the court the public’s expectation would only be reflected by jailing Cowey.

He said while Cowey’s mental impairments contributed to the attack, they only offered “limited mitigation”, and it was, instead, his “self-induced intoxication” which carried the most blame.

“It’s hard to find that your self-induced intoxication brought to the surface underlying racist beliefs,” he said.

“ … A sentence of imprisonment is the only justified sentence.

“These are serious crimes (and) one of them resulted in actual physical harm to an innocent 12-year-old and has a profound and not transient impact upon him and his family.

“This offending is just too serious to suspend the sentence.”