By Poppy Morandin and Jimmy Singh.
Nine teenagers ranging from 15 to 18 years of age, have been arrested following the stabbing of a 36-year-old man.
On the night of the 31st of July, police attended the scene in which the man was found, suffering a stab wound to his face and other serious facial injuries.
It is reported that after being confronted by a group of up to 10 males, he was assaulted before being repeatedly stabbed in the face and slashed with the knife.
Police investigations are reportedly focusing on examining online conversations and messages, however, NSW Police have confirmed that it seems as though the victim was not known to the attackers.
Despite the best efforts of paramedics and staff at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, the man has lost one of his eyes and remains in a critical condition in an induced coma as a result of the incident, following surgery.
The incident allegedly occurred at the intersection of Pyrmont Bridge Road and Wattle Streets, where a party at a nearby Airbnb was being held.
Following inquiries, police have arrested three 15-year-old boys, three 16-year-old boys, a 17-year-old, and an 18-year-old.
The teens have been charged with wound person with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and affray.
The alleged stabber faced court on Monday, 3rd of July, and will attempt to get bail again.
Magistrate Michael Love described the incident as “quite disturbing.,” with a significant amount caught on camera.
Another one of the teens, accused of stomping on the man’s head whilst he was unconscious allegedly texted one of his friends: “he stuck it in his eye. Put it in deeper. And swivelled the knife around. So funny.”
“I have never read anything so abhorrent in the adult jurisdiction…and this is the children’s jurisdiction,” said Magistrate Mary Ryan.
Detectives have also arrested a further 15-year-old at a home in Killara, after he allegedly was involved in a social media group chat after the incident and allegedly incited violence against another boy.
He has been charged with incite the commission of crimes.
He was not involved in the assault on the 36-year-old man at Pyrmont.
All of the teens are currently before the Children’s court and investigations into the assault are continuing.
Reportedly, some of the accused are students of Sydney’s ‘prestigious’ private school Barker College.
Deputy Superintendent Gavin Woods spoke to Ben Fordham of 2GB, commenting: “It’s one of the worst stabbing incidents in terms of injuries and causation and rationale for it I’ve ever seen,”
In NSW, it’s a crime with a heavy maximum penalty for intentionally causing grievous bodily harm against a person. This is reflected in section 33(1) of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW).
Intentionally causing grievous bodily harm (GBH) or wounding has a maximum punishment of 25-years imprisonment, with a standard non-parole period of 7-years.
The case of R v Shepherd [2003] NSWCCA 351 at [31] says, that wounding is an injury involving the breaking or cutting of the interior layer of the skin (dermis), with the breaking of the outer layer (epidermis) not sufficient.
Grievous bodily harm is any ‘really serious injury’ and includes any permanent or serious disfiguring of the person pursuant to section 4(1) of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW).
Where on the trial of a person charged with intentionally causing grievous bodily harm, if a jury is not satisfied that the offence is proven, an alternative verdict is available within section 35, which criminalises reckless grievous bodily harm or wounding.
Intent will often be harder to prove than recklessness, noting that recklessness entails that the accused turned their mind to be aware of the possibility of causing actual bodily harm but committed the offending actions regardless.
Recklessly causing GBH has a maximum punishment of 10-years jail, with a 4-years standard non-parole period.
Please direct any questions to our legal hotline to speak with one of our criminal lawyers.
This article has been written by our own in-house assault lawyer Sydney team.
Here is more on assault charges.