Rita Panahi: Leniency insults our brave emergency service workers
THE leniency shown to those who assault emergency service workers insults the victims and rightly outrages the public, writes Rita Panahi.
Rita Panahi
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IN most civilised parts of the world, being found guilty of breaking the leg of a paramedic or kicking a policeman in the head or punching a policewoman in the mouth would land you behind bars. No ifs, no buts.
But not in Victoria, where violence against first responders can lead to little more than probation or Community Correction Orders, often with the added bonus of no conviction recorded if you happen to be a youth offender. Adults who assault an emergency worker are meant to receive a six-month minimum mandatory prison term but magistrates and judges have made a mockery of the laws.
The lack of justice in the justice system was again apparent when Caris Underwood and Amanda Warren walked free from court after their respective four and eight-month jail terms for bashing veteran paramedic Paul Judd were quashed by County Court judge Barbara Cotterell, who said it “would achieve little” to imprison the pair. Really? Shouldn’t sentencing serve the dual purpose of punishing offenders for the crime committed as well as serve as a deterrent to others?
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Ms Cotterell’s sentence achieved neither objective and is seen by many as manifestly inadequate. Perhaps Ms Cotterell should have checked with the victim, who was left in tears by her decision, about what a prison term would achieve or asked Mr Judd’s colleagues who felt it necessary to write “it’s not OK to assault paramedics” on their ambulances after her judgment.
Paramedics are under attack with one abused every 50 hours in Victoria. Only last Thursday, a paramedic was attacked by a patient in Glenroy.
There was another incident in Caroline Springs.
Underwood and Warren were the first to be sentenced under a 2014 law that requires a mandatory jail term for those who intentionally injure an emergency worker unless there are “special reasons”. In early 2016, the Melbourne mothers, who were on a drug- and alcohol-fuelled bender, attacked Judd and his colleague, Chenaye Bentley, as they attended to a drug-affected patient.
The two women repeatedly punched and kicked Judd with such force that he sustained injuries requiring multiple surgeries and is still unable to work. Warren also rammed the ambulance with her car and tore off the victim’s neck chain.
Magistrate Lance Martin described the attack as “vicious” and “unprovoked” and sentenced the pair to prison last December with Warren, 31, to serve eight months and the younger Underwood, 20, to serve four months plus a 12-month CCO upon their release from jail. Both had already served 14 days after arrest, before being bailed.
Given the severity of the victim’s injuries, you would think Warren and Underwood would quietly serve their sentences and be grateful they didn’t receive a harsher penalty. But instead, the women immediately appealed, were again released on bail, and last week Judge Cotterell, noting their age, “appalling” childhoods, drug battles, possible mental impairment and the enormous work they’d done to “hopefully” become useful members of the community, found that there were special reasons why a mandatory prison term should not apply.
Judge Cotterell encouraged the victim to find solace in his attackers’ remorse.
“I WISH that there was more I could do for you. I know that you are suffering and feel that a great injustice has been done. I can see that on your face,” she told Mr Judd. “But I have to deal with what I have to deal with.”
Well, with all due respect, Judge Cotterell, you could have done more for Mr Judd, paramedics, other emergency workers, along with the vast majority of Victorians, by dismissing the challenge and sending the violent criminals to serve their respective prison terms. Indeed, most saw the original sentences as lenient, given the extreme violence and the hardship the victim had endured.
“Two drunken molls broke a paramedic’s leg. Should have got mandatory 3 years in jail,” posted Senator Derryn Hinch who on Friday wrote to the Office of Public Prosecutions “demanding an appeal”. The victim has also spoken about his anguish over a justice system that has failed him.
“I felt like I had a dagger put in to me by the judge when she looked me straight in the eye and said to me, ‘I’m sorry, I wish there was more I could do’,” Mr Judd said. “Mandatory should mean mandatory … People need to take responsibility for what they do.”
Sadly, Mr Judd’s experience is not unusual. Last December, Glenroy man Ahmed El Lababidi was sentenced to 200 hours of community work for repeatedly punching a policewoman and leaving her with injuries requiring reconstructive dental surgery.
After a public outcry and appeal to the County Court, El Lababidi received an eight-month jail term, which he successfully challenged. He is now back on the streets.
Last week, a teenager who escaped conviction for kicking a police officer in the head was back in custody after being accused of kicking another man repeatedly. The court was told police were concerned about his “propensity for kicking people in the head”.
Close to 3000 charges were laid over assaults on emergency services workers in 2017, according to the Crime Statistics Agency.
Given the number of assaults against paramedics and police, it is astonishing that Underwood and Warren were the first sentenced under the mandatory laws.
It’s time the legislation was tightened to remove much of the judicial discretion that too many magistrates and judges have abused. The widening gap between the judiciary and community expectations on sentencing continues to undermine the public’s faith in the justice system.
Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist
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