Oz man avoids jail on race-hate charges for bashing Indian student in Melbourne

MELBOURNE - A 20-year-old Australian man accused of bashing and robbing Indian student Lucky Singh in Melbourne last year has been spared a jail term, but has been sentenced to three years detention in a youth justice centre.

Sentencing Shayne Casey Comensoli in the County Court today, Judge Meryl Sexton said that the random attack on Singh was “quite outrageous”, but there was insufficient evidence to conclude it was a “race hate crime”.

Earlier, Comensoli had accepted that he called Singh an “Indian dog” and said “shut up you Indian motherf—–, shut up”, but said that he simply attacked him because he wanted a fight.

“This attack occurred during a spate of reported offences of violence against men of Indian ethnicity in the western suburbs of Melbourne,” News.com.au quoted Sexton, as saying.I am satisfied that at the point in time when you were attacking Singh you hated him. However it is difficult to be satisfied to the same degree that your offence was wholly or partially motivated by hatred for Indian people in general,” she added.

The judge rejected a prosecution argument that Comensoli should be sent to an adult jail, and instead ordered that he be detained in a youth justice centre for three years.

However, under the youth justice system an offender can be released at any time from the date of sentence.

Comensoli had pleaded guilty to intentionally causing serious injury and robbery.

The 20-year-old and his friend Lennon Metaxas had attacked Singh in a phone booth in Sunshine on October 15, 2009.

Singh was so badly bashed that he was left bleeding and unconscious on the footpath, with bone fractures, severe swelling and bruising.

Metaxas has already been sentenced to three years in a youth justice centre. (ANI)