Stipe Lozina sentenced to two years for assaulting pregnant woman
Stipe Lozina swung at 32-year-old Rana Elasmar more than a dozen times during the violent and unprovoked attack in the bustling Bay Vista Cafe last year.
NSW
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A pensioner who bashed a heavily pregnant Muslim woman at a Parramatta cafe will spend at least two years behind bars.
The victim’s husband has slammed the sentence as inadequate and believes the “punishment doesn't fit the crime”.
Stipe Lozina swung at 32-year-old Rana Elasmar more than a dozen times during the violent and unprovoked attack in the bustling Bay Vista Cafe last year.
Lozina, who had a long history of mental health issues and delusions about Muslims, had approached Ms Elasmar while she was sitting with two friends on the night of October 20 and asked for a dollar.
Lozina then said “you Muslims raped my mum” before he exploded in a very “dynamic and swift outburst of violence”, Parramatta District Court heard on Thursday.
He hit Ms Elasmar, who was 38 weeks pregnant, several times before she fell to the ground and tried to protect her stomach.
CCTV of the horrific attack then captured Lozina stomp on Ms Elasmar’s head.
The attack was stopped when a witness intervened and pulled Lozina away.
In sentencing the 43-year-old, Judge Chris Craigie SC said the assault had the “grave potential to cause very serious harm to the victim and her unborn child”.
“The assault was mercifully very short in duration…” he told the court.
“Although the offender extended no mercy to the victim.”
On the night, Ms Elasmar was having dessert and coffee with friends as a last hurrah before the birth of her fourth child.
All three women were wearing hijabs.
“It is a fairly common sight in our community in these times where we have evolved as a multicultural community,” Mr Craigie said.
Ms Elasmar, who was in court supported by her husband and sister, suffered head injuries and required treatment in hospital.
Her son, Zayn, was born unharmed weeks later.
Lozina initially appeared in court via audio visual link on Thursday but then left after repeated outbursts about Muslims.
At one point, he got out of his chair and turned off the lights in the AVL suite, forcing the judge to adjourn.
Lozina then refused to reappear by AVL for the rest of the sentence and it went on in his absence.
Mr Craigie noted Lozina had been diagnosed with schizophrenia at 14.
He also had delusions about Muslims and entrenched issues with religion and racial indifference.
While this deep seeded religious prejudice was a “subsidiary factor” in the assault on Ms Elasmar, Lozina was irritated by the fact she didn’t give him a dollar.
His appalling statements about Muslims needed to be denounced but also balanced with the fact he was a mentally ill, the judge found.
Mr Craigie sentenced Lozina, who pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm, to three years behind bars with a non-parole period of two years.
Lozina is already serving time behind bars for abusing two Muslim woman at the Westfield in Liverpool six weeks before the bashing of Ms Elasmar.
Outside court Ms Elasmar said the victim suffered with the consequences far longer than the time the offender served.
“I have been verbally abused before because of my religion but this has cemented that the Australian public is supportive,” she said.
“It has given me confidence to walk out again and be confident in wearing my hijab.”
Meanwhile, her husband, Azzam Elasmar, took aim at the two year minimum sentence
“Thinking about this guy potentially being on the streets in two years, it is a safety hazard for the community,” he said.
“It puts everyone at risk. He obviously has a long history of crime, many of it violent. How can it protect the Australian community by letting him back on the streets in two years?”.
Originally published as Stipe Lozina sentenced to two years for assaulting pregnant woman