Appeal Court finds man must serve remainder of sentence for murder during brawl at Aurukun

A young man has appealed against his 18-year sentence for a murder which sparked the infamous 2020 Aurukun New Year’s Day riots in the Queensland Court of Appeal.

A young man has appealed his 18-year sentence for a murder which sparked the infamous 2020 Aurukun New Year’s Day riots in the Queensland Court of Appeal.

The man, who was 18 at the time he stabbed Austin Woolla to death from behind, was involved in a fight between two families with a history of long-term conflict at Aurukun.

On January 1, 2020, there had been an argument between members of those families.

Leonard Woolla, Austin’s brother, was injured when a bottle was broken over the back of his head by one of the man’s relatives.

Police arrived and the injured man was taken to a clinic, and the assailant into custody.

But not long afterwards the fighting broke out again between the two family groups near the backyards of the young man’s families’ homes.

In the latter fight the man stabbed Austin Woolla in the back, fatally injuring him.

It was all captured by CCTV.

Houses burned during riots in Aurukun on January 1. Simmering clan tensions, fuelled by black market alcohol, erupted after the murder of Austin Woolla.

The brawl on January 1 precipitated further violence, as around 250 people armed with spears and star pickets took to the streets later that afternoon.

Properties were damaged and set alight, and around 300 people fled Aurukun in the ensuing weeks for Cairns and other locations to escape the violence.

During the murder trial in 2021 the Crown argued he had deliberately stabbed Mr Woolla from behind, with the intention to kill or cause him grievous bodily harm.

It was said at the trial that the killing occurred in “a chaotic and dangerous situation”.

The defence case at trial was that the man had no intention either to kill or do grievous bodily harm to Mr Woolla, and alternatively that the killing was in defence of another.

The jury found the man guilty and he was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment.

His lawyers appealed his sentence on the grounds that a miscarriage of justice had taken place.

The appeal judges denied the situation was chaotic, and that the man had acted deliberately when Mr Woolla was occupied with fighting off an attack from another man.

He had “deliberately moved forward, held the deceased man’s left shoulder in order to stab him in a very particular way which let the knife into his vital regions”.

They dismissed the appeal on all grounds, and said the man must serve the remainder of his sentence.

Originally published as Appeal Court finds man must serve remainder of sentence for murder during brawl at Aurukun