Taiga Yoshida fronts court over machete attack on young man

A machete-wielding junior swimming champion with dreams of competing at the Olympics launched a violent and frenzied attack on a young man at St Kilda that almost killed him.

Taiga Yoshida attacked a young man with a machete at St Kilda that forced his victim to leap out his apartment window and suffer life threatening injuries.

A terrified young man jumped out of his apartment window in St Kilda and suffered life-threatening injuries after being attacked by a machete-wielding Olympic swimming hopeful.

The violent and frenzied home invasion on the evening of April 20, 2022 at St Kilda East has landed Taiga Yoshida in jail for at least two-and-a-half years.

Yoshida, 22, pleaded guilty in the County Court in May to charges of aggravated burglary and intentionally causing serious injury and was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment when he appeared for sentencing on Tuesday.

He committed the offences with two others who have already been dealt with by the courts but cannot be identified for legal reasons.

Judge Sarah Leighfield said the 18-year-old male victim went downstairs from his Jervois St apartment at St Kilda East where he was confronted by Yoshida and two others on the evening of April 20, 2022.

The victim immediately ran up the stairs of his apartment and the three, including Yoshida, chased after him and told him “come here” while making slashing motions with their hands.

Junior swimming champ Taiga Yoshida had dreams of competing at the Olympics until his life spiralled out of control.

Yoshida was wearing a face mask with his hood up and had a machete in his hand.

Yoshida’s group kicked the door open after the victim entered his apartment and attempted to flee through his bedroom window.

After he was stabbed in his bedroom, the victim went to his bathroom and tried to climb out the window above the toilet, pushing the fly screen out.

He was stabbed on both sides of his torso, left calf and groin while trying to climb out the window. The victim fractured his left forearm, elbow and a foot when he jumped from the window to the carpark, about 6m below.

He was transported to The Alfred hospital in a critical condition with life-threatening injuries and spent 16 days in hospital.

“Rather than desisting when the victim fled, the three of you followed him into his home and attacked him. I accept the incident was not prolonged, occurring within one minute,” Judge Leighfield said.

“However, the attack on the victim can only be described as violent and frenzied.”

In 2016 and then aged 14, Yoshida won five gold medals at the Victorian Age Championships before following up with two golds at the Australian Age Championships while competing for the GenAquatic team.He completed the boys 13 years and under 50m freestyle in 24.75 seconds at the national competition- just .75 of a second behind Olympic 100m champion Kyle Chalmers’ Australian record for that age level of 24 seconds flat, set in 2012.