Lianno Sukte: Ex-Melba College student stomped on man outside Bottlemart Croydon

A Burmese refugee who was part a group of thugs which assaulted an elderly man outside a Croydon bottle shop said he did it to “help the bros out”.

A former Melba College student and devout church goer who assaulted a PSO and put an elderly man in hospital with a gang of mates has avoided a jail sentence.

Lianno Sukte, 20, was sentenced in the Ringwood Magistrates’ Court on March 22 for his role in group violence incidents in Croydon from May 2020 to March 2021.

They included the assault of a PSO near the ALDI supermarket and Croydon railway station on May 8, 2021, where Sukte was also caught in possession of cannabis.

On March 29, 2021, he was one of a group of six youths who set upon a 57-year-old man outside the Celebrations bottle shop on Main St, Croydon.

The court heard during a hearing on March 16, 2022, the man was repeatedly punched and kicked by the group with Sukte stomping on his back.

The group were later found by officers on Hewish Rd near Springfield Rd and arrested, while the man spent more than a week in Maroondah Hospital recovering from his injuries.

When asked in a police interview why he got involved in the assault, Sukte told officers he wanted “to help the bros out” and claimed the man “was messing with my bros”.

Sukte pleaded guilty on March 16, 2022 to five charges including drug possession, assault and affray.

At Tuesday’s sentencing, his defence lawyer Louise Conwell asked Magistrate Susan Armour to consider a sentence which would not impact on his full-time employment at a truck parts factory in Bayswater, which was a source of essential income.

Ms Conwell also pushed for Sukte to be spared a conviction given his status as a refugee, but Ms Armour disagreed, saying his offending was linked to “very serious behaviour”.

“These are serious matters … assaulting a PSO, affray, robbery … unprovoked but with a group,” Ms Armour said.

“In the last incident, he was kicking a victim while he was on the ground … in my view a conviction is warranted.”

Ms Armour noted Sukte had complied with bail conditions and undergone alcohol-related counselling since the incidents, and regularly attended Knox Community Baptist Church.

She told Sukte she would have sentenced him to three months’ jail if it wasn’t for his early guilty plea.

Ms Armour sentenced Sukte to a 12-month community corrections order, which will include attending rehabilitative programs for alcohol consumption and behavioural management.

She also gave Sukte a $1500 fine instead of 50 hours unpaid community work, to ensure it did not impact on his full-time job.

Ms Armour adjourned Sukte’s cannabis possession charge to be dealt with at the court on September 21.