Oz teen who stabbed Indian student gets only 3-yr term in youth justice center

MELBOURNE - A Melbourne teenager who stabbed an Indian student in an attack that led to widespread protests, has been sentenced to only three years imprisonment in a youth justice centre, According to news.com.au, Jesse James Donnachie, then 18, was affected by a psychotic episode when he and another man stabbed Baljinder Singh near a railway station in the Melbourne suburb of Carnegie on May 25, 2009, the Victorian County Court heard today.

Singh was attacked during the same time when a number of other attacks on Indian nationals led to protests in Melbourne.

During the attack, Donnachie, who was armed with a knife, demanded money from Singh. As Singh went to get the money from his bag he pleaded: “Please don’t kill me,” but Donnachie stabbed him in the abdomen, the report said.

Twenty-year-old Donnachie, who has been in custody since May last year, has pleaded guilty to attempted armed robbery and recklessly causing serious injury.

Sentencing Donnachie to three years in a youth justice centre, Judge Duncan Allen said: “You were in all probability significantly affected by psychotic symptoms at the time”.

He said admissions Donnachie made to friends following the attack showed “no remorse and no insight into what you had done,” but Donnachie was probably psychotic at the time he made them.

The day after the attack on Singh, Donnachie was involved in another knife attack on a man at a wake in Malvern, the court heard.

Donnachie was ordered to serve three years in a youth justice centre for the second attack, and his time in detention for both attacks will be served concurrently, the report added.

In June 2009, about 2000 people protested in central Melbourne against violence committed on Indian students including the attack on Singh. The protest also highlighted violence against five Indian students who were allegedly attacked after two teenagers gate-crashed a party. One of the victims spent days in intensive care. (ANI)