A MAN charged after the death of an elderly security guard at a Sydney shopping mall has been sentenced to jail, but released immediately on parole.
Adrian Gallaher was originally charged with the manslaughter of Hans Schultz, 69, following a confrontation at the Wendy's ice cream kiosk at Broadway Shopping Centre in central Sydney in June last year.
The manslaughter charge couldn't be supported and was dropped earlier this month and Gallaher pleaded guilty to aggravated break and enter instead.
He had already spent seven months in jail.
During Gallaher's sentencing on Thursday, lawyer Michael Betts told Downing Centre District Court that if the 33-year-old had originally been charged with aggravated break and enter with intent he would have been given a non-custodial term.
"I would have thought that a seven-month sentence for this would be very severe and most unlikely," Mr Betts said.
Gallaher was accused of punching Mr Schulz, while his co-accused Lana Avrashkova, 27, allegedly kicked him in the head.
In October last year, Justice Michael Adams said Mr Schulz almost certainly suffered a heart attack while trying to arrest the pair and the manslaughter case was unlikely to succeed.
Manslaughter charges against Avrashkova were also withdrawn.
Justice Reg Blanch found the break and enter was "entirely opportunistic", but an aggravating factor was that he had committed the crime in the company of two children.
He sentenced him to a maximum of one year in prison, but released him on parole, taking into account the time he had already spent in jail.
No comments:
Post a Comment