Qld: Vicious train station basher appeals sentence

AAP General News (Australia)
08-20-2008
Qld: Vicious train station basher appeals sentence

By Christine Flatley

BRISBANE, Aug 20 AAP - A man jailed for nine years over a brutal bashing at a train
station that left a man in a coma for several weeks has applied for leave to appeal his
sentence.

Michael Mikaele, 20, was sentenced in February for the vicious attack on 35-year-old
Gold Coast father Scott Lillicrap.

Mr Lillicrap was robbed, beaten and stomped on by a male gang at the Sunnybank railway
station in Brisbane's south on July 30, 2006.

He was then dragged through the station's car park and dumped near a charity bin before
witnesses called an ambulance.

Mr Lillicrap spent weeks in a coma and suffered multiple fractures to his face.

He also suffered a blood clot on his lung which caused it to collapse, and suffered
total post-traumatic amnesia for 22 days.

Mikaele, the most violent of his attackers, was jailed for nine years and labelled
a serious violent offender (SVO) for the charge of grievous bodily harm with intent.

The SVO declaration means he must serve at least 80 per cent of his sentence.

His lawyer, Robert East, today argued in the Court of Appeal in Brisbane that Mikaele
should not have been labelled a SVO as he now had to serve at least four more years than
co-offender Faavesi Vincent Isaako.

Isaako also pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm with intent and was sentenced to
seven years jail, to serve at least three.

However Simone Bain, who represented the crown, today argued Mikaele's level of offending
was much higher than Isaako's.

Mikaele - whose behaviour was today described by Justice Patrick Keane as "absolutely
appalling" - returned and delivered at least one final blow to the unconscious Mr Lillicrap
after the other offenders had left the scene.

The Court of Appeal has reserved its decision.

AAP cf/pjo/ht/bwl

KEYWORD: MIKAELE

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