SHOCKING details emerged in court on Thursday during the sentencing of four boys convicted of Tauri Litchfield’s manslaughter, with one boy revealed as having committed a previous sex offence.
The boy, who was the youngest of the group who attacked Mr Litchfield, was convicted in March, 2011 of aggravated indecent assault and two counts of attempted sexual penetration without consent.
The boy was 12 years old at the time.
The court heard the boy was with three other youths when the group set upon a 43-year-old woman and grabbed her breasts.
The boy further assaulted the woman sexually while she was restrained by other members of the group.
Another of the boys convicted in relation to Mr Litchfield’s death was also revealed to have a previous record of assault causing bodily harm.
In circumstances similar to the attack on Mr Litchfield, the court heard the boy threw a brick at a 17-year-old in a random attack on June 18, 2010.
The victim required hospital treatment due to the serious nature of his injuries.
Neither of the remaining two boys convicted of manslaughter had criminal records.
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STATE prosecutor Amanda Forrester said it was difficult to find evidence of true remorse among the boys.
She described them as having a “lack of empathy and insight”.
Lawyers for each of the boys made pre-sentence submissions detailing their clients’ backgrounds.
Each of the boys were described as having come from families with no male role models and each had been exposed, to varying degrees, to alcohol and/or drug abuse, domestic violence, neglect and abandonment.
The boy described as the instigator in the attack on Mr Litchfield was said to have a history of “cumulative traumatic experiences” and had been removed from his mother’s care at the age of six after suffering severe neglect and chronic exposure to physical abuse.
Another boy had experienced “continual loss”, according to his lawyer, with both parents serving time in prison.
Only one of the boys lived with his mother, but the court heard she had been banned from visiting her son in detention.
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IN SENTENCING the boys on Thursday, Children’s Court president and presiding judge Denis Reynolds reiterated earlier comments describing the boys’ actions on the night of Mr Litchfield’s death as “threatening and intimidating”.
Judge Reynolds referred to the “tragic loss of human life” and reminded the boys Mr Litchfield’s death “was real”.
“Each of you need to spare some thought for Mr Litchfield and his family and friends,” he said to the boys.
And despite telling the boys they would get another chance to turn their lives around, Judge Reynolds said the only appropriate punishment was immediate terms of detention.
He described each boy as immature, with some having better prospects of rehabilitation than others.
Three boys were sentenced to four and a half years’ detention with the boy described as the ringleader sentenced to five and a half years.
The sentence for each of the boys was backdated to more than a year ago and each will be eligible for supervised release after serving half their time.