Devastated families join forces on coward punch campaign

Their loved ones, all young Victorian men, died in brutal one punch attacks. Now these devastated families have joined forces with boxing champ Danny Green to shame street thugs in a radical new push.

Families devastated by coward punch attacks have called for tough laws to stop thugs, and an education program in schools and footy clubs.

The loved ones of three Victorian men — David Cassai, Pat Cronin and Jaiden Walker — hope the united front will underline the need for expanded education programs aimed at exposing street thuggery in the same way drink drive campaigns have shamed “idiot” drivers.

Matt Cronin, whose son died in 2016, will meet Attorney-General Jill Hennessy in a bid to tighten up the coward punch legislation to close loopholes used by offenders.

“We don’t want this to happen to anybody else ever again,” Mr Cronin said. “We know we are making a difference but there are still inadequacies within the legislation.

“The law failed Pat and Jaiden because of loopholes that make it too easy for defence lawyers and too difficult for judges.

“It’s not up to the judges or the police. Only governments can change the law.”

From left; Matt Cronin, father of Patrick, who died aged 19; Caterina Politi, mother of David Cassai, who died aged 22; and Jon Walker, father of Jaiden, who died also aged 22. Picture: Jason Edwards

It comes as research reveals the average age of victims is trending up but leading campaigners say the focus must remain on young adults.

Champion boxer and Stop the Coward’s Punch campaign founder Danny Green said an eLearning module would be aimed at teenagers before schoolies week this year.

The aim was to help young people identify and remove themselves and their friends from escalating situations.

Last year the campaign’s schoolies week page had more than 1.5 million views.

Green said he hoped to build on that audience.

“We want to give young people an understanding about how a situation can build and tools to get out of it,” he said.

“But we also want to tag the perpetrator. If you’re convicted, you are branded a coward for the rest of your life. Blokes don’t want that hanging over them.”

Green said he was humbled to have contributed to changing the vernacular, and “king hits” were now widely referred to as coward punches.

And he backed Mr Cronin’s push to tighten the law.

“There is not a person I know who isn’t sickened by the loopholes that are letting these murderers get off. It’s not good enough,” Green said.

Boxer Danny Green has a campaign aimed at increasing awareness and education around one punch attacks. Picture: Richard Jupe

He said an expansion of the program for schools would be presented to state governments this year.

He hoped the strategy would complement efforts from relatives of victims, who have worked tirelessly on awareness campaigns.

Mr Cronin said he also hoped to receive state government funding to help drive the message further in high schools through the Pat Cronin Foundation.

“We are working with the education department of Victoria — particularly Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority — on education modules for schools,” he said.

“We want it to be viewed in the same way as the drink-drive campaigns.

“You are not going to end drink driving — there will always be an idiot out there but if you can put that negative stigma on it, you can make a difference.

“We need to create negative stigma because who wants to be known as a coward?”

Caterina Politi, who launched the awareness campaign “Stop. One Punch can Kill” after her son David Cassai was killed in 2012, said education was vital — but it started at home with parents.

“You can tell people as much as they want but sometimes it won’t stick,” she said.

“Parents have to show their children how to be respectful.”

Support the campaigns to end the violence: cowardspunchcampaign.com; patcroninfoundation.org.au; stoponepunchcankill.org

GRIEVING FAMILIES IN CRUSADE FOR JUSTICE

David Cassai was punched with such force his feet were lifted off the ground.

A brutal right hook fractured Pat Cronin’s skull. He didn’t even see it coming.

It was not the blow that killed Jaiden Walker, but the fall. He landed on the cement of a city laneway and never woke up.

David Cassai. Picture: Aaron Francis/The Australian

The families of three men killed in separate coward punch attacks have revealed the staggering cost each death has had on their families and friends.

Caterina Politi said grappling with the loss of her son David, who died after an assault at Rye in 2012, had been the hardest lesson of all.

“It’s a battle every single day,” Ms Politi said. “You try and find ways to cope and not to burden people but it’s like I have to put on a facade every single day.”

She said it took only a song or a smell or a memory of something shared for grief to flood back.

“It takes my breath away,” she said.

“Losing David was one thing but dealing with the inadequacies of the justice and correction system has made it so much harder.”

Ms Politi established the “STOP. One Punch can kill” campaign that lobbied successfully for the introduction of the Coward’s Punch Manslaughter Law, with a 10-year mandatory minimum in 2014.

Joseph Esmaili, 24, was the first killer sentenced under the legislation after he attacked Melbourne surgeon Patrick Pritzwald-Stegmann in May 2017.

Jaiden Walker

Patrick Cronin

Jon Walker, father of Jaiden, who died in 2017, said his friends were battling to put their lives back together.

“The chap who was there on the night has moved away from Melbourne,” Mr Walker said. “His other mate, who wasn’t there, alway felt like his protector. He has split up with his partner, moved to Townsville and still blames himself every single day.”

Matt Cronin, father of Patrick, who was struck outside a Diamond Creek pub in 2016, said more work was needed so coward attackers couldn’t dodge the law.

“We can educate and that is what we are trying to do, but legislatively we still need to see a shift with how these cases are treated. Too many attackers get away with it,” Mr Cronin said. “It doesn’t leave you. We talk about how we are a family of five but there are only four at the dinner table. There is always an emptiness there.”

ALCOHOL KEY AS AGE OF VICTIMS RISES

Middle aged men have been identified as the most common victims of coward punch attacks with alarming research revealing the average age is actually trending up.

Males in their 50s have been identified as the most likely to be targeted in random acts of violence.

The research from the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine showed there had been 127 coward punch attacks in Australia from 2000-16.

The study also found:
ALCOHOL was a contributing factor in 73 per cent of cases;
MOST deaths occurred at homes, pubs or clubs between 12pm and 3am; and
NINETY-four per cent of victims were men.

The paper shows the highest proportion of cases (nine deaths) were aged between 51 and 60, followed by seven deaths among 31-40 year olds and five deaths in 41-50 year olds.

A decrease in the prevalence of drinking in young people — and the success of campaigns to end the random attacks — have been pinpointed as a factor in the results.

Monash University Senior Research Fellow Jennifer Schumann said while the coward punch incidents hadn’t decreased, the message appeared to be getting through to younger generations.

“This is just the tip of the ice berg,” Dr Schumann said.

“While the data is focused on the number of associated deaths, just as many victims survive and few get away without permanent physical, mental or psychological disability.

“Survivors never really get better. They just learn to adapt.”

She said the prevalence of older men in the figures could be a result of increased levels of drinking across the demographic while alcohol consumption in younger age brackets had dipped.

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Danny Green will host the Stop The Coward’s Punch fundraising dinner at Crown Palladium tonight