Boxing great Danny Green calls for tougher one-punch laws

World-first research into jail times for one-punch perpetrators has prompted Danny Green to call on Aussie states to get tough.

Anti-coward punch crusader and champion boxer Danny Green has called on Australian states and territories to create specific one-punch laws, after world-first research revealed perpetrators are spending a median of just seven years in jail.

Victoria has had the strongest laws relating to one-punch deaths in Australia since 2014, carrying a 10-year minimum jail term.

In the same year, NSW introduced eight-year mandatory minimum sentences for fatal one-punch attacks where alcohol or drugs were involved.

Queensland’s unlawful striking causing death laws carry 14-year jail terms with a minimum parole period of no less than 80 per cent, while in South Australia the maximum penalty is 20 years imprisonment.

Green, founder of the Stop the Coward Punch Campaign, said most perpetrators in Australia were being convicted of manslaughter, and consequently receiving punishments that weren’t “good enough”.

“We need more states and territories passing Coward Punch legislation like in Victoria,” he said.

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Four-time world champion boxer and founder of the Stop The Coward Punch Campaign Danny Green. Picture: Coward Punch

World-first research from the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, released during this week’s Coward Punch Week, found there were six one-punch-specific convictions in the state between 2014-2020.

This only made up a fraction of the 25 total coward punch perpetrators convicted statewide since 2012.

Most were convicted of manslaughter charges instead – avoiding the 10-year minimum sentence carried by the one-punch legislation.

The Victorian research also found that most convicted coward punch perpetrators Australia-wide received manslaughter sentences at a median of seven years in jail.

Stop the Coward Punch Campaign chair Justin Manolikos said specific laws were needed.

“Legislation covering coward punch assaults exist so convictions can be pursued where there are provisions for longer, or minimum, prison terms,” he said.

“The campaign would like to see more convictions pursued under these specific laws because of the longer sentencing guidelines and the powerful message it sends to would-be perpetrators that this behaviour will not be tolerated.

“If laws need to be strengthened or changed to give prosecutors greater confidence of securing coward punch specific convictions then we would support this being investigated by relevant jurisdictions.”

THE PUNCH THAT RUINS LIVES

Seven years on from a coward punch that changed his life, Paul Brown ponders how other innocents can avoid the physical and emotional pain he went through.

At age 46, the former Geelong AFL player suffered bleeding on the brain and a cracked skull when 19-year-old Mohammad Al Wahame hit him outside a kebab shop in Shepparton, regional Victoria.

“I do agree with Danny (Green), every state and territory should have a one-punch law enforcing a 10-year minimum. Maybe that’s it (the solution),” he said.

“Maybe it comes back to responsible service of alcohol or how far we go with drug enforcement. Then again, mine had nothing to do with alcohol, it was wrong place wrong time.”

Former Geelong player Paul Brown and children Harry, Tom and Meg (left to right) Picture: Supplied

He settles on “educating boys” that one punch will “ruin lives” as integral to making sure fewer people experience what he did in October 2015.

Al Wahame was sentenced to six years in jail with a non-parole period of four years.

“People say that’s not long enough,” Brown said.

The father of four – including daughter Millie, who’s on the Bulldogs’ AFLW list, and son Tom, who was drafted to Richmond last year – considers himself “one of the lucky ones”.

He notes that since he can’t remember the attack, “I have no post-traumatic stress disorder”. He’s also no longer in physical pain, but ongoing brain fatigue continued to impact him and his family.

He had to give up his role in a Shepparton business. But as of eight months ago, he has a new one: running the Beechworth Holiday Park in Victoria’s northeast.

“It’s what I needed, I think,” he said. “It’s not a job – I love it.”

Originally published as Boxing great Danny Green calls for tougher one-punch laws