The victim of a vicious one-punch assault has spoken out after his attacker escaped without any jail time.
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Wagga chef and Australian Rules umpire Ryan Dedini was enjoying a harmless night out with mates on June 2 when Ashmont man Nathan Michael Russell, 21, punched him to the ground in an unprovoked attack.
On Monday, Russell was given a 12-month intensive correction order and 200 hours’ community service – a sentence Mr Dedini said was “very disappointing”.
“They want to stop these attacks from happening, but nobody’s got the guts to stand up and actually make these sentences stick – there should be a bare minimum of a jail sentence for the coward punch,” Mr Dedini said.
“What’s it going to take? Is it going to take someone dying, realistically ... to bring in some tougher penalties?”
Mr Dedini chose not to attend court on Monday, but said he is still determined to campaign for tougher penalties for one-punch offenders.
“I decided not to go, because I feel that I’ve already wasted enough time on this coward, so taking more time off work to sit down there and waste another day on him just didn’t really make sense to me,” he said.
“But we’re not going to let this go away – we're going try get a petition going to make an example out of him so that future offenders hopefully get hit with a stronger sentence.”
A spate of one-punch attacks over the last decade has seen time and resources poured into campaigns and initiatives in the hope of halting the often alcohol-fuelled offending in its tracks.
However, Kerrie Thompson of the NSW Victims Of Crime Assistance League, said cases like Mr Dedini’s suggest there is still a long way to go.
“There’s no lessons to be learned here – he’s just gotten off very lightly for the damage that he’s caused and the psychologist impact he’s caused the victim and his family,” Ms Thompson said.
“The community expects that these types of crimes will be adequately punished, but in many cases we see offenders are let off with lighter sentences and it doesn’t send a clear message or deterrent.”
That was a sentiment Mr Dedini agreed with wholeheartedly.
“If you are caught on a one-punch attack, I think you should be locked up straight away with no bail until your court hearing,” he said.
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