Remorseless thug blames deadbeat dad for worst of brutal attack

A young thug who stomped on the head of an innocent stranger is desperate to avoid jail, blaming his dad for inflicting the most serious injuries on their victim.

A young thug who paired up with his deadbeat dad to viciously attack an innocent stranger wants to avoid jail despite showing no empathy for his victim.

CCTV captured the shocking moment Jay Stephens, 23, confronted Jingu Kim as he walked home alone, swinging 14 punches before stomping on his head during a three-minute onslaught.

Stephens has pleaded guilty to affray and intentionally causing injury, admitting it was him who started the fight on Lonsdale St about 12.30am on December 17, 2021.

But he argues he grew up around violence and knows no better, and that it was his father Jared Pihlgren’s actions on that night that did the most harm to Mr Kim.

The Herald Sun earlier revealed how Pihlgren, 53, grabbed a knife from his bum bag and ran in and stabbed Mr Kim during the assault.

A man comes to the aid of Jingu Kim after he was brutally stabbed and bashed on Lonsdale St.

Stephens faced Victoria’s County Court on Wednesday where it was revealed he hoped to be released on a Community Correction Order.

Affray carries a maximum penalty of five years, while intentionally causing injury is 10 years.

But the court heard an assessment for his suitability for a CCO was not favourable.

Judge Helen Syme said the assessor found Stephens has a “pro-criminal attitude” and had been involved in “several incidents” since being in custody.

“He doesn’t appear to have a great deal of insight or empathy (into his offending),” she said.

Mr Pyne told the court: “This is a young person who needs some sort of intervention.”

He added that any hardened violence ingrained in him would deepen if he remained behind bars.

In defence written submissions filed to the court, Mr Pyne said Stephens experienced neglect and violence as a child from his “dysfunctional” parents who were addicted to drugs and had mental health problems.

The footage shows Jared Pihlgren pulling a knife from his bumbag and stabbing the victim.

“Offending and jail were apparently commonplace,” Mr Pyne said.

“This is a background of disadvantage. It is a background that normalises violence.”

The Year 8 school drop out had also started using drugs, including ice, heroin, cocaine and ecstasy, from the age of 13, he said.

He said Stephens does not fall to be sentenced for the serious, life-threatening injuries inflicted by his father on the victim.

“The injury caused by this offender is a soft tissue injury and significant pain,” he said.

Stephens’ hearing came three days after his father was in court to plead guilty to intentionally causing serious injury, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years jail.

Judge Syme told Pihlgren on Monday there was no doubt he would be punished with imprisonment.

She had hoped to sentence the father and son together on April 13, but Stephens’ case had to be adjourned to next month for further pre-sentencing submissions.

Pihlgren will still be sentenced on that day.

‘My life fell into hell’: father-son bashing victim’s torment

Jingu Kim was walking home after a night out with friends when he says “my life fell into hell”.

One moment he was dining out and singing karaoke with his mates in a Melbourne bar, the next he was lying on the concrete footpath fighting for his life.

He had been brutally attacked for no reason by a notorious father and son crime duo who began following him walking alone along Lonsdale St just after midnight on December 17, 2021.

Mr Kim, then 35, has no recollection of the savagery that played out at the hands of Jared Pihlgren, 53, and his son, Jay Stephens, 23.

Shocking footage captures the vicious attack on Jingu Kim.

But scars on his body remind him of it every day.

Stab wounds to his back and chest were deep and life threatening.

He had “indentation” to his head and face from the blows he had sustained.

His heart failed and his lung collapsed.

“My heart stopped for three minutes,” he wrote in a victim impact statement provided to County Court judge Helen Syme, who is tasked with punishing his attackers.

“Also, I was in a coma for three days.”

He said his family made the mercy dash from Korea, believing he would die.

His recovery has been painstakingly slow. He has not been able to return to work or do physical exercise.

“Since being attacked … my life fell into hell,” he said.

Jingu Kim viciously assaulted on Lonsdale St, Melbourne.

“I am not OK at all. I cannot breathe clearly because my lung was pierced by their weapons.

“I can only go out for a short walk.”

Mr Kim also can’t move one of his fingers, which was injured when he grabbed the blade of the knife during the attack to protect himself.

He now suffers PTSD, multiple mental health issues and insomnia.

“This shouldn’t really happen to an innocent person,” he said.

Mr Kim recalled coming to Australia from Korea for a better life, and the moment he became “a proud Australian citizen”.

But he said he no longer felt safe going outside in Melbourne.

He said he wanted to know the day his attackers were released from prison.

“That will be the day that I leave the country,” he said.

Horror moment father, son launch vicious attack on stranger

Cameras have captured the shocking moment a brutish father and son crime duo — notorious for hating cops — launched a vicious attack on an innocent stranger walking alone in Melbourne.

Jared Pihlgren, 53, initially stood back, almost appearing to keep watch, while his son Jay Stephens, 23, shaped up to the 35-year-old man and started punching him to the head.

But when the victim fought back and overpowered Stephens, with both of them wrestling on the ground, his deadbeat dad grabbed a knife from his bumbag and ran in.

Pihlgren can be seen stabbing the man multiple times in the back, before forcefully using the knife across the back of his head.

A bystander detailed the moment the victim “flopped” to the ground after Pihlgren intervened.

As he lay on the ground in a pool of blood, Stephens returned and forcefully stomped on his head, before fleeing the scene with his father.

The pair had never met the man before, and began following him, even crossing the road when he did, along Lonsdale St, before assaulting him about 12.30am on December 17, 2021.

The assailants were arrested and charged within hours of the attack, with police tracking them — Stephens wearing distinctive red shorts — through CCTV.

Meanwhile the victim was rushed to hospital, where his heart stopped for three minutes and he had to undergo emergency surgery, before being placed in an induced coma.

His family made the mercy dash from Korea believing their son, who had come to Australia for a better life, was going to die.

The footage and details of the harrowing crime were aired in the County Court on Monday as Pihlgren pleaded guilty to intentionally causing serious injury.

The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years jail.

Prosecutor Jamie Singh said Pihlgren had an extensive criminal record — dating back three decades and spanning across Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland — and should be sentenced as “a serious violent offender”.

Jay Stephens stomped on the victim’s head as the man lay in a pool of blood.

His rap sheet includes weapons offences, assault by kicking, property damage and making threats to kill.

Mr Singh said without medical intervention, the victim would have died.

He said the community needed protection from Pihlgren, with even his victim stating he would leave the country the day he was ever released from jail.

The court heard Pihlgren initially denied being involved in the attack and claimed he was “trying to break it up” when detectives showed him the footage.

No motive has ever been established for the crime.

Defence lawyer Chris Oldham said his client told him he and his son were out that night on a “rehabilitative walk” to assist in his son’s recovery after he had fallen from a third-storey window weeks earlier.

“When the fight between (his son) and the complainant started, Mr Pihlgren became worried that his son would receive further injuries and he involved himself,” Mr Oldham said.

“Mr Pihlgren instructs that he accepts the wrongfulness of his response in the above circumstances.”

Stephens has also pleaded guilty and will face a pre-sentencing hearing on Wednesday.

It comes after Stephens made headlines last month when he was rushed to hospital after a fight with another inmate at Barwon Prison.

His father, who is also on remand at the maximum security prison, was reportedly watching on during the fight.

In May 2020, Stephens was jailed for 20 months over a brutal attack on Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Chris O’Neill, who was left bloodied and with broken ribs.

Mr O’Neill had confronted Stephens and his younger brother, Isaiah, at St Kevin’s College in Toorak after they had been booted from a train at a nearby station for offensive behaviour, including urinating and vomiting in the carriage, on June 2019.

The siblings’ father took to social media after the attack, declaring: “F--- the police and your crew ya swine. You attack mine, god help yours.”

County Court judge Helen Syme will sentence the pair on April 13.