Ricky Lefoe, in court for grievous bodily harm charge had brother who was killed in Sydney years earlier
A tourist accused of leaving a Tugun man in a coma after a brawl broke out was only a teenager when his brother was brutally killed in a Sydney suburban street.
Crime and Court
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A TOURIST accused of attacking a Tugun man during a fight over food this week — leaving him in a coma — lost his brother eight years ago to an unrelated murder.
Jamie Lefoe was stabbed in Sydney in 2011 after a dispute about his mother’s car.
Ricky Lefoe, 27, faced court yesterday over the alleged assault in Surfers Paradise. A second man was arrested yesterday.
RICKY Lefoe was only a teenager when his brother Jamie was brutally killed in a Sydney suburban street.
On January 18, 2011, Jamie had travelled to Capertee St, Ruse, in Sydney’s southwest, with two other men to confront a group he believed were responsible for burning his mother’s car in her driveway.
The New South Wales Supreme Court was told Jamie Lefoe, 22, had gone to the home of Sean Robert Sutcliffe, but he was not there.
Sutcliffe was told Lefoe was at the house and had a gun.
Lefoe left the home, only to return about 9pm, and threatened to shoot Sutcliffe unless he told him who had burnt his mother’s car
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When two cars full of men came down the street from the opposite directions as he stood outside the front of the home, he fired two shots.
In his closing submissions crown prosecutor Terrance Thorpe told the New South Wales Supreme Court one of the cars tried to run Lefoe down.
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“The deceased is there arguing … and suddenly two cars turn up, one of which tries to run him down,” Mr Thorpe said in closing submissions.
“You might think there’s no wonder he would do something like (fire shots).”
One of the shots fired grazed the head of Darrin Troy Moulds.
The court was told Lefoe and the two other people he went to the home with ran, when Sutcliffe, Moulds, Darren Michael Hoskins and Michael Patrick Brown gave chase.
“There can be no dispute that the deceased, after firing a number of shots, turned and ran,” he said.
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“There can be no dispute that a number of people from the two vehicles (as well as Sutcliffe) chased him. He was then set upon.
“You will be satisfied he was taken to the ground, and then assaulted and then stabbed.”
Lefoe bled out and died on the street.
The court had previously been told that a number of weapons had been used in the attack, including a machete, a baseball bat, a crowbar and a knife.
Mr Thorpe said it was up to the jury to decide whether “each of the accused was involved in a joint criminal enterprise”.
“At the end of the day, the Crown says you will be satisfied that when they chased him up the street they were not acting in self-defence,” he said.
“They were seeking revenge. They were seeking to inflict injury on him.”
In April 2013, Sutcliffe, Hoskins and Moulds were found guilty of murder, while Brown was found guilty of manslaughter.
In sentencing the men in the NSW Supreme Court in June 2013, Acting Justice Michael Grove said the provocation by Lefoe towards all three men was “no minor matter’’.
“Jamie Lefoe came armed with a lethal weapon, used it in a threatening fashion and enhanced the threats by discharging shots in and around the area in which persons were present,’’ he said.
He found Sutcliffe, who stabbed Lefoe, had attacked him out of revenge and a desire to take the law into his own hands. He was given the longest sentence, with a minimum of 12 years and a maximum of 16.
For his role in the murder, Hoskins was sentenced to a minimum of nine years and a total of 12, while Moulds was given a minimum of 7 1/2 years with a maximum of 10.
Brown, who was found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter, was sentenced to a minimum of three years and a maximum of five.
During the sentencing, Jamie Lefoe’s mother Margaret Lefoe wept as she read her victim impact statement.
“I hate you all,” she said.
“You have no idea what you have done to my family.
“The day you killed my beloved son Jamie Lefoe was the day you killed me.”
Ms Lefoe wept as she recalled going to the crime scene, “begging it was not my son lying dead on the street”.
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