Young war survivor sentenced over grievous bodily harm

A Darwin refugee who moved to Queensland to start a new life has been sentenced after pleading to to grievous bodily harm, obstructing police and public nuisance in Brisbane District Court.

Lako Eludas Rasas outside Darwin Local Court in 2011. He was jailed for attacking a teenager with a machete.

Refugee Lako Eludas Rasas saw a lot of violence before moving to Australia some 17 years ago.

But his experience of brutality has not stopped him from repeatedly bashing others in his adopted home.

Rasas faced Brisbane District Court on Monday, pleading guilty to grievous bodily harm, obstructing police and public nuisance.

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He was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison but will be eligible for parole in three months.

Rasas has a long history of violence and other offending in the Northern Territory and in Queensland.

When he lived in Darwin he was jailed for attacking a teenager with a machete and bashing and robbing the president of the Territory’s Congolese Community organisation.

The 26-year-old moved to Queensland in 2017 to start a new life but that went awry when he was sent to jail for more offending.

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In January — just two weeks after leaving prison — Rasas walked up to a man who was having a smoke outside Brisbane’s Roma Street Station and shoved him extremely hard for no reason.

The force of the push was so strong that the victim received a broken thighbone and spent two weeks in hospital because of complications related to the surgery needed to fix leg and hip area.

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During Monday’s sentencing, Judge Julie Ryrie noted Rasas was bullied at school and that he experienced and saw extreme violence in war-torn Sudan and in a refugee camp where his brother and sister died.

“What happened to you as a child, you have no control over that. But you can control now — as an adult — how you behave,” Judge Ryrie told him.

“You will keep going to prison if you don’t take control of your life.

“The victim of your assault provided no provocation to you.

“Yet you were persistent as he tried not to engage with you — he turned away from you but you chose to push him to the ground.

“You were only released from custody for several weeks when you committed this unprovoked attack upon him.”

Due to spending seven months on remand, Rasas will be eligible for parole in November.