Isaiah Latu, Wallabies: Former young Wallaby avoids jail after fracturing man’s skull
An aspiring rugby union player has narrowly avoided jail time after fracturing a man’s skull because he is “someone with leadership capacity”.
Canberra Star
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Aspiring rugby union star Isaiah Latu has narrowly dodged being sent back to jail after committing a drunken assault in Canberra while out on a suspended sentence for fracturing a man’s skull.
Latu, 22, is a former under-20s Wallaby and captain of the NSW Country Under-23s.
He last year served five months in Canberra’s notorious prison, the Alexander Maconochie Centre, after landing a sickening blow to a man’s head, which was so powerful it sent him “flying through the air” and fractured his skull.
Latu had been out of jail for just two months when he committed another drunken assault, in breach of a good behaviour order.
ACT Supreme Court Chief Justice Helen Murrell last week said Latu was a “person of great promise in a number of respects”, and spared him going back to jail, in part, because he “has been identified as someone with leadership capacity”.
She said the similarities between his first attack and the second – which he committed while drunk and after being ordered to move on – were “obvious”.
She said Latu was raised in brutal circumstances, where “fear and violence was always the response to frustration or conflict”.
Chief Justice Murrell said Latu now had a “significant insight into the link between alcohol and violence”.
Latu has been sent to a psychologist to help him deal with his drinking and anger issues, and she said he “also has the support of a close community of people involved with rugby union who are aware of his history”.
Chief Justice Murrell cancelled Latu’s good behaviour order and re-sentenced him to 15 months jail, but ordered he serve it on an intensive corrections order in the community.
He will not go back to jail.
She said she was sure Latu would “wish to avoid” more jail time, which he would be facing if he committed more violent crimes.
Latu is banned from drinking alcohol, from being on a licensed premises after 9pm, and from being in the Canberra CBD between 9pm and 6am, among other conditions.