Victoria’s attackers: Angelo Odisho, Michael Hood, Jayden Heard
Assaults are on the rise in Victoria with court cases involving horror kidnappings, shocking extortion attempts and late-night spats some of the worst in 2021.
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Assaults are on the rise in Victoria and the number of reported family violence attacks are at their highest in a decade.
The latest crime statistics, released in September, reveal an alarming trend that police fear isn’t going away any time soon.
Drugs, alcohol and greed were some of the most common excuses for committing violent offences against other people.
We take a look at some of the more notable cases to have come before the courts in 2021.
Angelo Odisho
Angelo Odisho, a Roxburgh Park thug who kidnapped, bashed and taunted a man during an “absurd” attempt to extort cash was jailed in March.
Odisho attempted to extort cash from a former high school mate after lending the man $1000.
The thug rang his ex-mate and told him he owed $8000 interest on the loan.
The victim, who paid his debt back within a week, told Odisho to “get f---ed”.
Odisho warned the man to “pay the money” or he will “come and get him”.
The victim and some friends drove to Hothlyn Drive Reserve on December 22, 2019.
Odisho rocked up soon after with two carloads of thugs.
The thug and seven others surrounded the victim’s car.
Odisho threatened to stab his victim and “f--k his mother”, the court was told.
Odisho and three others punched the victim through the car window.
The victim’s friends tried to help but backed off when Odisho and two others pulled out knives, the court heard.
The victim got out of the car but was punched, kicked then shoved into Odisho’s Nissan Pulsar.
Odisho, who filmed the kidnapping on an iPhone, called his bloodied victim a “dog”.
The thugs bashed their victim while driving to Roxburgh Park sporting fields.
Odisho pulled out a VicRoads transfer form and forced his victim to sign it.
Odisho said he wanted $8000 within a month or he would keep the car.
Odisho was jailed for a minimum of 18 months.
Monica Neskovski
An “exceptional human being” avoided a conviction in March after she left a rival girl bleeding and needing stitches following a late-night spat at a trendy city bar.
Monica Neskovski, 25, was sentenced to a 12-month good behaviour bond after pleading guilty to throwing a missile to the injury of a person.
Neskovski was at up-market venue The George on Collins with her mother and a group of friends when the big night out soured just after 11.30pm on September 20, 2019.
Neskovski’s group and another group got into a spat over a photograph taken inside the venue, the court heard.
The groups went their separate ways after the altercation ended but both remained at the venue.
However, Neskovski reignited the tussle when she threw the “contents” of a metal pitcher over a divider and on to the rival group.
Neskovski then flung the jug over and it struck her victim’s head, the court was told.
The victim sustained a large gash to her head and was left bleeding.
Neskovski, who sobbed in court, was arrested but gave police a “no comment” interview.
The victim required five stitches.
Barrister Thomas Bell, for Neskovski, submitted six references written on behalf of his client describing Neskovski as an “exceptional human being”.
Neskovski was handed an adjourned undertaking without conviction and ordered to pay the Royal Children’s Hospital $1000.
Michael Hood
The Cape Woolamai drug user chased a terrified woman in her car before ramming it twice — trapping her inside — metres from Grantville’s shopping precinct.
Michael Hood, 28, was jailed for his crimes in July.
The court heard Hood followed the victim in her car on the Bass Highway on February 19 2021.
The victim turned into Grantville’s shopping precinct before getting out in a distressed state.
Hood followed her to the car park before she ran back to her car.
The court heard he chased her in his vehicle around the shopping precinct four times with pedestrians and other vehicles nearby.
Hood then rammed her car, causing significant damage.
The woman managed to drive off but Hood followed and rammed her a second time.
This trapped the woman, pinning her inside the vehicle.
The court also heard Hood smashed the victim’s car with a shovel, damaging the windscreen and right-hand-side pillar on February 4, 2021.
Hood was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment with a non-parole period of 12 months.
His licence was disqualified for six months and he received a $1200 fine.
Chantelle Spencer
Shepparton mum Chantelle Louise Spencer, 37, was jailed in June after she hogtied her friend and savagely attacked her, then kept the woman captive overnight until she managed to escape.
Spencer carried out the vicious attack on the woman overnight on July 16-17, 2019.
The court heard Spencer approached her friend, who was lying on a bed in the lounge room of a Shepparton home, and aggressively removed the woman’s clothing, then tied the woman’s hands together with a shirt and tied her legs together with a rope.
Spencer put a piece of cloth around the victim’s mouth and placed cushions over her face, restricting the victim’s ability to breathe.
The mum then repeatedly hit the woman in the face and head, causing bruising to her left eye and cheek, and punched the woman down every time she tried to get up.
The woman was then left tied up for a lengthy period of time before she managed to escape the house when Spencer fell asleep.
The court heard Spencer carried out the attack because she believed the woman was hiding drugs, and that she was on meth herself at the time.
She was sentenced to 280 days’ jail and an 18-month community corrections order and ordered her to complete 75 hours’ unpaid community work and undertake alcohol, drug and mental health treatment.
Jayden Boyle
Jayden Boyle, 25, was part of a group of thugs who stormed a Ferntree Gully couple’s home armed with a taser and knuckle dusters and assaulted the pair – all to help their mate settle an argument.
Boyle was sentenced to time served and a 12-month community corrections order in June.
The unemployed Ferntree Gully man fronted court with pal Austin Donald-Hauler, 25, who also took part in the dinnertime attack on a man and woman on November 11, 2018.
The court heard a group of four men rocked up to the couple’s Gaydon St home and approached the front door, where the male victim came outside.
The victim told one thug that if he had a problem, he could call him.
Judge Gwynn told the court the matter should have ended there.
But the thug responded, “You think you’re tough, I’ve got all my mates with me”, which Judge Gwynn said was quite ironic.
“It’s hardly tough to attend with three mates at someone else’s private residence,” she said.
The terrified woman then went outside to find the crims crowding around her boyfriend yelling abuse and threats, the court was told.
The male victim said he was going to call the police and turned to go inside before he was hit in the side of the head.
The victims noticed Boyle was holding metal knuckle dusters with spikes and heard him activate a taser as he yelled, “I want the f---king dog in there!”
Boyle and one of the others struggled to get through the front door as the woman desperately pushed to shut it.
Boyle then repeatedly struck the door with the knuckle dusters and hit the woman in the head multiple times and she stood beside the door and tried to cover her head.
Her boyfriend opened the door to get her inside and both victims were punched in the head again.
One of the thugs asked for their phones, wallets, jewellery and dope, then said he would “f--k them up” if police were called.
One attacker then spat at the victims as the group took off.
Boyle was sentenced to a 12-month adjourned undertaking due to his “excellent rehabilitation prospects” after he previously pleaded guilty to a charge of common assault.
Matthew Carroll
Peninsula real estate agent Matthew Robert Carroll blamed the stresses of Covid lockdown and alcohol for a booze-fuelled fight with his partner.
Carroll, a director at Impact Realty Group, assaulted the woman in a drunken fracas after she had requested he stop sending emails and help her with the cooking.
Carroll, 42 of Mornington, escaped a conviction at the Frankston Magistrates’ Court in April.
The court heard at around 6.30pm on August 18 last year a verbal argument between Carroll and his partner started over him not helping her with food preparation.
She began to film him and he became angry, grabbing her phone and smashing it on the ground.
He then picked up the phone and walked outside, and she locked him out.
Carroll then banged on the door and he came back inside, but he refused to return the woman’s phone.
He wrestled with her, pushed her to the ground and tore her shirt.
She managed to get away from him and, in a petrified state, ran to a neighbour to call police as her phone, which she had now retrieved, was broken.
He left, and police found him at a Rye address the next morning.
He made partial admissions to what had happened the night before saying he was angry that he was being filmed but he didn’t intend to break her phone.
Carroll’s defence lawyer said her client was stressed due to the pandemic and it was the strain of this combined with alcohol that led to the offending.
Carroll was fined $1500, with no conviction recorded.
Tyson Hugo
A violent thug repeatedly strangled, kicked, punched and smashed his girlfriend’s head into a tiled floor during a two-day reign of terror pleaded guilty to assault-related charges in May.
Tyson Hugo also picked up his partner in a bear hug wrestling-type move and slammed her into the ground before kneeing her in the face.
After the bashings she was left bloodied and sore, suffering cuts, bruises and marks all over her body.
The Frankston 23-year-old appeared at the online Frankston Magistrates’ Court in May.
The court heard on the evening of January 13 this year Hugo went to the woman’s house and within an hour began to argue with her.
He then hit her in the face, causing a bloody lip, and over the next few hours punched her a further 10 times and strangled her six times.
He would stop his attacks, apologise, and then go back to bashing the woman.
In the morning of January 14 he pushed her against a wall, before taking her to the ground and smashing her head on the tile floor three times.
Hugo then kicked her in the stomach and repeatedly strangled her again, on one occasion holding her throat for 40 seconds until she almost lost consciousness.
Later that day he bear-hugged her, twisting her and body slamming her into the ground before kneeing her in the head.
She managed to call her mother, who arrived at the scene to see her daughter distressed, covered in blood and cowering behind a blanket.
Young thug, John Panagiotou, 20, participated in an Oakleigh East aggravated burglary which left a father dead.
Panagiotou was sentenced in August to a three-year community correction order after pleading guilty to aggravated burglary and intentionally cause injury.
Panagiotou, armed with a baton, was one of six thugs, including his brother, who stormed their victim’s Clayton Rd home just before 5.30am on February 9, 2019.
The hot-headed gang raided the property to retrieve stolen DJ hire equipment, which the owner had tracked to the home via a Gumtree ad.
Panagiotou clobbered his 46-year-old victim with the baton, the court was told.
Another thug discharged a sawn-off shotgun in Hutchings’ face.
The thugs fled but returned to grab the DJ equipment before fleeing again.
A woman present during the aggravated burglary begged for permission to call an ambulance for Hutchings but she was denied.
Hutchings, a father of five, was later taken to hospital, where he died.
Judge Wendy Wilmoth said the cause of death was a gunshot wound.
Hutchings was a friend of the woman who was visiting her during the attack and not involved with the equipment theft.
Judge Wilmoth said the “extremely serious” aggravated burglary resulted in a “terrible tragedy”.
The court heard Panagiotou wasn’t the “instigator” but he contributed by recruiting cronies Marc Amad and Ameer Farid Jarrar.
Panagiotou was convicted and ordered to complete 400 hours of unpaid community work.
Grace Heard
Junior terror Grace Heard, 22, bashed a young woman before the victim was made to cover her wounds with a scarf and make-up so she could withdraw cash from a bank.
Heard was sentenced to time served – 215 days – in September.
Heard attacked her 25-year-old victim after the pair had played the pokies together at the Rosstown Hotel in Carnegie early on October 5 2017.
Heard, who left the Dandenong Rd hotel with a man about 1.30am, targeted the young woman after the victim stayed back at the venue and won $300.
The victim left the hotel with another man named ‘Nick” just after 2am and headed back to Heard’s Carnegie home, the court was told.
The victim stopped at an ATM on the way and deposited $250.
Nick asked to use the victim’s phone but she got “suspicious” after he attempted to transfer cash using a banking app.
The pair arrived back at Heard’s home but Nick and the other man left the property shortly after.
The victim disabled the cardless cash withdrawal function attached to her bank account, telling Heard she feared the men had left to steal her money.
Heard, who told the young woman she could wait in her bedroom, pulled out a 20cm knife and threatened the victim.
The menace then held the knife to her victim’s throat.
Heard, who punched her victim “five to 10” times to the head, eyes, ears and throat, told the victim she had previously bashed someone with a hammer.
The victim handed over her bag, mobile phone and cards but the ordeal continued unabated.
The court was told Heard bashed the young woman for “another 10 minutes” then relentlessly verbally abused and berated the victim.
The ordeal lasted several hours until Heard ordered her victim go to the bank with Nick to withdraw money just after 9.30am.
The victim told a bank employee she wanted to withdraw $200 but then gave a “signal” something was wrong.
“I’m in trouble,” the victim said before breaking down in tears.
The staff member told the victim she could “withdraw the money in the office”.
Heard was also handed an 18-month community correction order.
Bei Bingai Chho
Bei Bingai Chho went on a teen gang rampage across Wyndham, bashing strangers and causing mayhem on roads. He pleaded guilty in October to three charges relating to a serious car crash, beating up multiple strangers, car theft and running a delivery driver off the road over a week period in November last year.
A police prosecutor told the court the 19-year-old thug from Laverton was the “worst kind of coward”.
The court heard Chho was travelling in a car with three mates in Hobsons Bay about 3.30am on November 7 when the vehicle lost control going around a roundabout at speed.
The car smashed into a Honda dealership, writing off one car and seriously damaging another.
Prosecutors said the four youths were pictured on CCTV “walking around the lot” before a security guard arrived and confronted the group.
He was bashed by Chho’s co-offenders and his black work SUV was stolen by the group although police stressed there was no allegation Chho was involved in the assault.
Two hours later the stolen vehicle rammed a 34-year-old newspaper delivery man off the road after the group accused the driver of “following them”.
The truck spun out of control and slammed into a tree in Deer Park. Before the crash Chho was captured on dashcam footage throwing empty alcohol bottles at the vehicle.
Eight days later, Chho was arrested after he and another young man bashed a 36-year-old unconscious after he complained they were causing a scene at the back of a bus.
The matter was remanded until October 28 for sentence.
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