State wants more punishment for teens who assaulted Wallaby great

Prosecutors for Queensland’s attorney-general have argued two teenagers should be resentenced over the violent home invasion of Wallaby great Toutai Kefu, saying the ruling was manifestly inadequate.

The teenagers, who cannot be named under the Youth Justice Act, were last year sentenced to seven and eight years behind bars after they broke into the Kefu family home armed with a sickle in 2021.

One of the boys, the Court of Appeal heard on Friday, has since been released from detention.

Toutai Kefu outside his Coorparoo home after returning from hospital.Credit: Nine News

Kefu, his wife Rachel, and their son were seriously injured in the incident, with the case sparking community outrage over youth crime. The Voice for Victims group, fronted by a neighbour who helped defend the Kefus, was established to push for a government crackdown.

In handing down the sentences last year, Justice Peter Davis described the home invasion as horrific, with photos of the Kefu house looking “like a war zone”, with blood smeared throughout. The court heard the boys had discussed: “If someone wakes up, you just stab them.”

Davis ruled parts of the attack were particularly heinous, meaning they were eligible for higher penalty under the law.

Following community anger over the sentencing, then-Labor attorney-general Yvette D’Ath said she would appeal on the grounds they were manifestly inadequate.

In the first hearing for the appeal on Friday, Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Caroline Marco said the application was made on several grounds, including that it was manifestly inadequate, and that Davis had erred in not finding more of the offences particularly heinous.

She submitted if the sentences were not corrected, it would undermine public confidence in the administration of justice.

“This is a case where if the court, in our submission, doesn’t intervene, it will perpetuate manifest injustice,” she said.

Marco said the offences involved burglary of an occupied home at night while armed, and resulted in serious and life-threatening violence, with the offences committed for the sole motivation of stealing cars to race on the Gold Coast.

“That is the very conduct that there is a very strong public interest in deterring,” she said.

Marco said one of the boys had been released from custody, and would need to be returned to detention if the court decided to increase its sentence.

Defence barristers for both teenagers have opposed the application, with barrister Laura Reece, representing the teenager still in custody, noting that Davis was an experienced sentencing judge.

“There is nothing in the way he approached [sentencing]...which would indicate that he has erred...in any way,” she said.

Ben Cannon, Toutai Kefu’s neighbour, speaks outside the Court of Appeal on Friday.Credit: Cloe Read

Outside court, Kefu’s neighbour Ben Cannon, who rushed to assist and was also assaulted during the incident, told reporters the maximum sentence that could have been handed down was life imprisonment.

“These individuals made the choice to enter my neighbour’s home and bring knives, and inflict mayhem, and yet it seems like they’re about to start their life story without any implications, any pressure, anyone knowing who they are, which for us, is hugely disappointing,” he said.

“Personally, it has left a mark on me, that I am undoubtedly a different person, but I certainly don’t want this to be my legacy. But it definitely changes you as a person.

“I hope that through today we will see justice served.”

The case remains before the Court of Appeal.

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