Yuhao Chen jailed after kidnapping and bashing Alphington Grammar student on Brighton beach
A “FOOLISH’ young criminal who subjected a 16-year-old boy to a terrifying four-hour ordeal, during which he was kidnapped, beaten and threatened with a handgun, is likely to be deported after serving jail time.
Inner South
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A“FOOLISH” young criminal who subjected a 16-year-old boy to a terrifying four-hour ordeal, during which he was kidnapped, beaten and threatened with a handgun, is likely to be deported after serving jail time.
Chinese national Yuhao Chen was sentenced at Victorian County Court this month for his role in the kidnapping of Alphington Grammar student Cheng Hao Li.
Chen was on a student visa when he and several co-accused snatched Li from a Box Hill internet cafe about midnight on April 22, 2017.
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Chen then drove Li to Brighton Beach where the schoolboy was punched, struck with an iron bar and intimidated with a handgun.
Li was also forced to march into Port Phillip Bay until he was knee deep in ice-cold water.
The schoolboy’s “traumatising” four-hour ordeal ended when he was driven back to his girlfriend’s Cheltenham home by Chen.
Li escaped with minor injuries but said the ordeal caused him sleep loss, ongoing anxiety and he now felt “scared”.
He has also become “wary of social contact with strangers” and his sense of safety and security has been “affected”.
Li’s friends, who witnessed him being kidnapped, had tried calling his mobile phone but it was answered by an unknown male who said they should come to the city if they “wanted Li back”.
The friends then received a text message that said “1 Waterfront Place, Port Melbourne”.
Judge Frank Gucciardo accepted Chen and his co-accused had attempted to recover money alleged to have been stolen by Li but said his participation made him part of a “joint criminal enterprise”.
“Two wrongs do not make a right,” Judge Gucciardo said.
He said Chen’s actions were “ad hoc” and “foolish”.
“You were not alone, of course, and you appeared to have played a lesser role than others.”
Chen spent 189 days behind bars before he was sentenced to a maximum seven months in jail.
He will most likely be deported to China upon his release.
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