Jok Gar loses appeal bid over savage mugging, has refugee visa cancelled

A violent thug has lost his bid to appeal his sentence for a savage mugging that left a man with a severed ear, and been told his refugee visa is cancelled.

Jok Gar.

A violent thug has lost his bid to appeal his sentence for a savage mugging that left a man with a severed ear, while his refugee visa has been cancelled.

Jok Gar, formerly of Geelong West, was sentenced in 2022 for the brutal, unprovoked attack, in which Gar and a co-accused, Tyler De Silva, savagely bashed a man in Melbourne and stole his phone, leaving the man battered, bleeding and unconscious.

During the attack, a knife was produced and the victim’s face was slashed and his earlobe partially severed.

For the crime, Gar was sentenced in the County Court to two years in jail in December, while De Silva jailed for six months, along with a corrections order.

De Silva received a lighter sentence due to his diagnoses of an intellectual disability, tubular sclerosis complex – a degenerative condition that resulted in behavioural difficulties and functional impairment, as well as a growth in his brain – childhood epilepsy and “severe neglect issues” in his upbringing.

De Silva has an IQ of just 48.

Gar launched an appeal citing the “manifest” differences in the two sentences.

However, Supreme Court justices Karin Emerton and David Beach tossed out the appeal, and said Gar’s initial sentence was “lenient”.

The judges slammed the vicious mugging as “both dangerous and callous”, and noted “it was not the applicant’s only act of random violence against a stranger on the streets of Melbourne”.

The 21-year-old man had, in the Supreme Court’s eyes, “given no reason to believe that his prospects of rehabilitation are other than very poor”.

The judges reserved their decision following a hearing on April 16, however in the intervening period Gar was told his refugee visa – which was granted in 2009 – had been cancelled.

Gar was born in Egypt to Sudanese parents, who later separated, and arrived in Australia when he was six. He has no family remaining in Egypt.

Gar’s legal team submitted that the visa cancellation, and risk of deportation following his sentence, were fresh grounds for an appeal.

They argued a new sentence should be imposed to avoid a “miscarriage of justice”.

Justices Emerton and Beach disagreed, and noted Gar still can apply for the cancellation to be revoked.

“We see no good reason to reduce (Gar’s sentence) on the ground that the visa cancellation will make the applicant’s imprisonment more burdensome,” the justices wrote.

Gar’s history of violence and abuse was cited in their reasoning.

Gar pleaded guilty in January 2023 to the aggravated assault of a woman in Geelong West, as well as and threatening to inflict serious injury.

Four months later he was convicted of attacking a stranger “without provocation” in Melbourne’s CBD in the early hours of New Year’s Day in 2022, causing multiple factures to the man’s skull and facial bones.

In prison, the violence has continued — Gar entered prison as a medium-security prisoner but has since been reclassified as maximum security.

On four occasions he has been separated from other inmates due to his behaviour, including assaults, fights, verbally abusing and spitting on guards and one incident where he “stomped on another prisoner”.

Gar also poured milk and urine underneath another prisoner’s cell door in one incident.

In their judgement, justices Emerton and Beach noted Gar’s difficult upbringing and mental health issues.

Originally published as Jok Gar loses appeal bid over savage mugging, has refugee visa cancelled