Victorian Office of Public Prosecutions will not appeal Jackson Williams’ sentence for alleyway attack
A major decision has been made in the case of a man who was caught in horrifying CCTV dragging a woman into an alley and attacking her.
The Victorian Office of Public Prosecutions will not appeal the sentence for Jackson Williams, who dragged a woman walking to work into an alleyway and pinned her to the ground, covering her mouth as she screamed.
The former district footballer walked free from the County Court of Victoria in November with a community correction order of two years and six months, after serving a 42-day jail sentence behind bars awaiting trial.
Judge Amanda Fox found the 21-year-old guilty of assault but found him not guilty of intent to commit a sexual offence over the attack on October 28, 2018.
RELATED: Jackson Williams found not guilty of intent to commit a sexual offence
The entirety of Williams’ attack was captured on terrifying CCTV footage, which shows his actions shortly before 6.30am when a woman walked past him in the city centre on her way to work.
Williams — who had been out partying — leapt up and put the woman in a headlock from behind, dragging her into Brights Place in the Melbourne CBD and climbing on top of her.
She is seen in the video attempting to break free of him while he moved around on top of her for the duration of the 37-second ordeal.
An off-duty cop happened to be walking past with his family and ran into the laneway when he heard screams, interrupting the attack.
The OPP said in a statement on Wednesday it would not appeal the sentence.
“The sentence in the Jackson Williams case has been carefully reviewed by the Office of Public Prosecutions,” a spokeswoman said.
“In performing this review one of the matters considered was whether the sentence imposed for common assault fell outside the range of sentences available for this offence.
“In this case it was determined that the sentence did not fall outside the range of available sentences.
“Taking this and all other matters into account the director has decided not to appeal the sentence.”
The footage shocked the community and garnered a petition calling for appeal with almost 100,000 signatures— and the mother-of-three behind the push, aged care worker Emm Jones, said she was “devastated” by Wednesday’s news.
She said she felt like she had failed.
“Why would anyone who gets attacked after this report it?” she said.
“Why would they want to go through the questioning and the court process knowing that their attacker would most likely walk?
“I would suffer in silence, honestly, rather than go through that — and that’s so dangerous.”
She said the sentence for common assault “completely undermined the brutality of the attack”.
Judge Fox said when sentencing Williams that the victim was struggling psychologically after the attack.
She was unable to work and had left Victoria.
Judge Fox said she had found Williams not guilty of intent to commit a sexual offence because his intent could not be proven.
“There is no direct evidence as to the accused’s state of mind,” she said.
“I must not guess, speculate or jump to conclusions.”
In the wake of the sentence, Ms Jones has agitated for a new law with harsher penalties for “grab-and-drag” offences.
She has teamed up the Justice Party MP Stuart Grimley to push for a new offence higher than assault but lower than sexual assault to capture offending like Williams’.
RELATED: Call to introduce ‘grab and drag’ laws after Jackson Williams case
She met with the Victorian Attorney-General Jill Hennessy and shadow Attorney-General Edward O’Donohue to make her case for a new law.
Ms Hennessy said after the November meeting she had asked the Victorian Law Reform Commission to consider a “grab and drag” offence as part of a larger review into sexual offence laws.
Ms Jones said there was a “desperate need” for a new law with a harsher sentence than assault.
“This case could be a catalyst,” she said.
“I really hope those in power say, ‘we need more protection for women’.”