Jwuan David Atama Eru-Guthrie granted appeal after being sentenced for stabbing a man in the stomach

A teenager who stabbed a 22-year-old man in the stomach after a fight broke out at a party has been granted an appeal and re-sentenced.

Police investigate the stabbing of a 22-year-old man in Affinity Place at Birtinya on August 2, 2020.

A teenager who was jailed for stabbing another man in the stomach during a street fight has been granted an appeal against his sentence.

Jwuan David Atama Eru-Guthrie pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful assault causing grievous bodily harm in Maroochydore District Court in April this year.

Judge Glen Cash sentenced Eru-Guthrie to four years imprisonment and ordered that he would be eligible for parole on October 1.

The assault happened when Eru-Guthrie, then 18, tried to attend a party at Affinity Place in Birtinya about 3.30am on August 2 last year.

The teenager was asked to leave the party before a fight broke out, police said last year.

Police said Eru-Guthrie approached a group from another house on the street and a second fight followed, which resulted in a 22-year-old man being stabbed.

The 22-year-old man’s friends took him inside and helped until police and paramedics arrived, and the man was taken to Sunshine Coast University Hospital in a stable condition with a wound to his stomach.

According to court documents, Eru-Guthrie launched an appeal against his sentence in May.

A hearing was weld in Brisbane District Court before Judge Cash on August 6.

Police investigating after a 22-year-old man was stabbed at Affinity Place at Birtinya last year.

The application was made based on an error relating to Judge Cash setting a parole eligibility date instead of a fixed parole date.

Judge Cash said he was made aware that at the end of May there 2084 outstanding parole applications before the parole board and that Eru-Guthrie’s application would likely not have been decided before February 2022.

Judge Cash granted the appeal and he delivered a new sentence on August 10.

He said Eru-Guthrie’s offending was serious.

“He used a knife to stab another young man during a fight, causing the victim serious injury,” he said.

“The report of a psychologist tendered at the sentence proceeding gave rise to a concern that the applicant’s ‘psychological makeup and other difficulties probably increase the likelihood of (him) behaving in a manner that is reckless and impulsive in the future’.

“There were matters in the applicant’s favour. He was a young man who had no prior convictions when he was sentenced.”

He sentenced Eru-Guthrie to three years’ imprisonment with a parole date fixed at October 1.

“The effect of this sentence is that the applicant faces a ‘head’ sentence of a little more than three years and eight months but will be released to parole after he has been in custody for 14 months.

“This is a somewhat more lenient sentence than that originally imposed.

“But it is one that is justified in the unusual circumstances of this case.”

It was declared that Eru-Guthrie had spent 254 days in pre-sentence custody, which was taken into account but not declared as time already served on the sentence.