By Alesha Capone
Two young adults, who bashed a man unconscious after he came to their assistance following a Truganina car crash, have been sentenced to six years in jail each.
Baroch Baroch, 26, and Mawut Ater, 24, were sentenced in the County Court on November 16.
The court heard that Baroch was driving a stolen car, with Ater as a passenger, on July 25 last year.
When the car ran off the road and hit an embankment, a driver who witnessed the crash stopped to help.
County Court Judge Martine Marich said Baroch and Ater approached the man and punched him.
She said that after the man fell to the ground, they kicked him and stomped on his head.
The man, who sustained a fractured eye-socket, fell unconscious.
Baroch and Ater stole the man’s car and drove away, as residents from a nearby property called emergency services.
Baroch pleaded guilty to intentionally causing injury, committing an indictable offence while on bail, dealing with the proceeds of crime, being in possession of a weapon and theft.
Ater pleaded guilty to intentionally causing injury, carjacking, robbery, obtaining property by deception and handling stolen goods.
In a victim impact statement, the man they assaulted said that he has trouble sleeping and also feels reluctant to stop at the scene of future accidents he may drive past.
Judge Marich described the assault and theft of the man’s car as an “extremely painful, traumatic and distressing event for him.”
The court heard Baroch and Ater both often used the drug ice.
In the days leading up to the Truganina incident, Baroch held a knife to a man’s throat and committed a robbery in Kealba.
Judge Marich said both Baroch and Ater, a mother of two, had both fled war-torn before arriving in Australia 15 years ago.
Judge Marich sentenced Baroch to six years and six months in prison with a non-parole period of four years and three months.
Ater was sentenced to six years’ jail with a non-parole period of four years.
