Boxing champion Danny Green urges judges to take harder stance against one-punch attacks
BOXING champion Danny Green has taken a swipe at Australian judges, accusing courts of continually going soft on one-punch thugs.
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BOXING champion Danny Green has taken a swipe at the Australian court system accusing judges of going soft on one-punch thugs.
The passionate anti-violence campaigner said he was disgusted by a string of decisions from judges so far this year who downgraded sentences for a number of men accused of senseless attacks, particularly in Victoria and Western Australia.
“If it was one of their sons or daughters who were killed in any one of these brutal attacks, would they be willing to hand down such light sentences?’’ Green said.
“We all feel like we are being let down by these judges who continually hand down light sentences for the kind of senseless violence which is claiming the lives of so many young men.’’
It follows the anguish of family members of one-punch victim Patrick Cronin, left shattered this week when prosecutors reduced his alleged killer’s charge from murder to manslaughter.
Mr Cronin, 19, died in April last year after he sustained a blow to the head in a pub brawl at Diamond Creek.
Witnesses claimed the teenager was trying to break up a fight when he was struck.
Green’s Stop the Coward Punch campaign has been widely credited with helping raise awareness about the risks of impulse attacks. But he said judges were still missing the point.
“Communities around Australia are crying out for protection,’’ he said.
“The police do their job in getting these attackers before a judge only for them to walk free. It’s disgusting.’’
Green will be in Melbourne next Friday, May 26 for a Stop the Coward Punch fundraiser at The Palladium Ballroom, Crown Melbourne.