Patrick Cronin’s family finds purpose in foundation after killer’s sentencing
TIME hasn’t eased the pain or helped answer any questions for Patrick Cronin’s family. But his killer’s sentencing today has given them renewed purpose, with the foundation set up in Patrick’s name.
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PAT Cronin was a quiet, no fuss kind of teenager. He loved camping, footy, mucking around with mates, and his beloved Richmond Football Club.
“He was a good kid, but he was just a normal kid,” his dad Matt says.
He wasn’t a bloke who liked being the centre of attention. He would have hated his face being plastered in newspapers and on TV news.
And he would have been embarrassed by the massive crowd that turned out to see his killer sentenced to a minimum jail term of just five years. But for the dozens of family and friends who did, it was an important day.
Tears for Patrick: He didn’t need to die
Just days short of the 19-month anniversary of Pat’s premature death, time hasn’t eased the pain or helped answer any questions.
All Matt, his wife Robyn, and Pat’s siblings Emma and Lucas know for sure is that Pat didn’t have to die. He was just trying to help his mates.
“He died doing what we always told him to do. Stick together and look after your mates,” Matt says.
Just 19, he was killed as he tried to drag friends from a pub brawl at the Windy Mile hotel in Melbourne’s bushy northeastern suburb of Diamond Creek on April 16 last year.
He never threw a punch, and never saw his fatal blow coming.
With no warning he was hit in the side of the head with such force it caused fatal injuries.
It was an almost classic coward’s punch. But unusually it didn’t knock Pat to the ground. It didn’t even knock him out.
It was one of a series of punches thrown by 34-year-old Andrew William Lee, a proficient martial arts fighter who had taken centre stage in the brawl.
“If he wanted to hurt somebody he’d know how to throw the right combination of punches,” a former Muay Thai classmate remembered of Lee.
Pat stood his ground, shook it off, and continued trying to help his mates, still never throwing a punch.
It’s an unfair injustice his family and friends now live with daily.
“That’s the most upsetting part. He had no idea of what had happened or how he’d been injured,” Matt says.
“He would have just downplayed it. That was the sort of kid he was.”
That’s exactly what he did.
Two hours after being hit, when he realised something was seriously wrong, it was too late.
He was rushed to hospital where doctors said there was nothing they could do.
“I’m sorry. Patrick has had a major bleed on his brain and we can’t operate.” The doctor’s words have never left Matt.
“What does that mean? It’s just a polite way of saying your son is dead,” he says.
“All hope just taken away with one sentence and it all could have been avoided if one person had chosen not to throw a cowardly punch.”
Pat was pronounced dead on April 17, but remained on life support.
His heart kept beating. He was too young and strong to die.
But the punch to his head had done too much damage to his brain and he could never recover.
His family mark his death a day later, when his life support was switched off and his heart finally stopped beating.
They spent the intervening time sitting with him, holding his hand and saying their painful goodbyes.
On the day he was killed Pat had played his first game of senior footy alongside his brother for the Lower Plenty Football Club.
They were smashed by more than 100 points, but it hardly mattered. They’d reached a milestone as brothers, and that was the important thing.
Pat had been at the Windy Mile for just over an hour when the fight broke out.
He had nothing to do with it, but some of his mates had become involved in the wild brawl that ensued.
“Pat had a choice that night: he could have added to the violence but he chose not to,” Matt said.
“Andrew Lee had the same choice. He chose to throw a coward’s punch and it killed our son.”
It’s the first time Matt has ever publicly said the name of his son’s killer.
Until Lee’s sentence he only ever referred to him as “the killer”, a reminder to anyone he speaks to that Pat’s death wasn’t accidental. It could have been avoided.
“You can’t unintentionally throw a punch,” he says.
“Andrew Lee will have to live his life knowing his choice killed Pat.”
Naming Lee for the first time comes on a milestone day for Matt and his family.
While it marks the end of legal proceedings — proceedings that left them frustrated by a lack of victims’ rights and lengthy court delays — it also marks the start of a new chapter.
A foundation set up in Pat’s name, The Pat Cronin Foundation, can finally start its work in full.
“It is so important for us as a family. It’s given us something to cling too,” Matt says.
The aim is simple: “We want to end the coward punch.”
“There’s no reason why we can’t. We have to save other people’s lives like this.”
The foundation was set up in the wake of Pat’s death but limited in reach because of fears of jeopardising legal proceedings.
Now the foundation, with its first official event next Sunday, will work to end senseless violence, raise awareness and push for legislative change.
Laws introduced in 2014 to clamp down on one-punch attacks have yet to be used.
They promised mandatory minimum 10 year jail terms for one-punch killers.
The Cronins had expected Lee to be prosecuted under the laws, and prosecutors had filed a notice of intention to seek the tough mandatory term.
But they later withdrew the notice in a plea deal in exchange for Lee’s guilty plea to a charge of manslaughter.
It was a move that left the Cronins shattered.
Sentencing Lee Justice Lex Lasry said it was the right decision, finding the ambiguous legislation could never have been applied in the case.
It’s a problem the Cronins want to fix.
“We need to challenge the lawmakers,” Matt says.
“The legislation is poor. It needs to be reworked. Maybe once we get the legislation right we can have a deterrent put in place.
“If it didn’t apply in this case, when and how can it apply.”
Legal experts say the legislation, as it stands, is unworkable because the criteria are impossible to satisfy.
The court must be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that death was due to an unlawful and dangerous blow meant for the head or neck, which was unexpected and which the offender knew was unexpected.
Despite being sentenced to an eight year maximum, Lee will almost definitely be released at the end of his non-parole period, in just five years.
The Cronins aren’t happy with the sentence but say no more than that.
They’d resigned themselves long ago to the fact that whatever the jail term, Lee would one day walk free, but Patrick’s death would remain,
“Nineteen months ago a rusty dagger was thrust into our hearts and that dagger’s been sitting there,” Matt says.
“(Now) we’re able to pull that dagger out but there’s still some rust there. There’s a lot of healing, there’s a hole in our hearts and we need to get that to heal.”
The Pat Cronin Foundation will hold its first official event on Sunday, November 18, with the Walk to the Valley event.
The event is a family-friendly 8km walk from Heidelberg Football Ground to Lower Plenty Football Ground with food and entertainment at the end.
More information: patcroninfoundation.org.au