A teenage German tourist repeatedly bashed with a baseball bat by a Hells Angel for claiming to be a member described his attacker as hitting him "like an animal".
Faisal Aakbari was 18 when Glyn David Dickman repeatedly struck and seriously injured him at the outlaw motorcycle gang's clubhouse "for having the temerity to say he was a member of the Hells Angels".
Crown Prosecutor Frances Dalziel also told a Melbourne court on Friday that Dickman, 51, "only stopped when out of breath" after he "inflicted an extreme beating".
Dickman "did not stop because he felt the victim had had enough", Ms Dalziel said, but only because he was "out of breath".
She said Mr Aakbari offered no provocation and that Dickman's motivation was to punish the teen for "falsely claiming to be a member of the Hells Angels".
Mr Aakbari's injuries included bleeding between the skull and lining of the brain, a broken leg and lacerations to his scalp and face.
Ms Dalziel conceded that the consequences of the injuries - inflicted in September, 2009 - were not "catastrophic long term".
A jury in October found Dickman guilty of intentionally causing serious injury and threatening to kill, and acquitted him of theft. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The jury heard that Mr Aakbari, a student, arrived in Australia for a holiday in September, 2009, and with another man attended the Thomastown clubhouse before later visiting the Dallas Showgirls nightclub in King Street with Ali Chaouk.
Ms Dalziel said Chaouk - later found guilty and jailed for offences relating to the incident that included recklessly causing serious injury, threat to kill and false imprisonment - acted as chauffeur in returning the victim to the clubhouse.
In her sentencing submissions to judge Phillip Coish, she said Dickman was a full, patched Hells Angel member while Chaouk was a "hang-around" and the other man a "prospect".
Dickman, she argued, was the principal offender who took the lead in "interrogating" Mr Aakbari and who decided to assault him with multiple blows, estimated at 10 over a period of about two minutes.
She conceded the delay from the time of the incident to Dickman's trial was not his fault.
Defence barrister Frank Barbaro said his client did not accept the verdict of the jury and so could not make submissions about the facts, but he disputed Chaouk's "hang-around" depiction.
Mr Barbaro said Chaouk "took a hands-on role," was not subordinate and had, unlike Dickman, prior convictions for violence and firearms offences.
He submitted Dickman's rehabilitation was "continuous", he had no predisposition for violence and had ongoing family support.
The father of three, an arborist, was no longer a member of the Hells Angels and had supported his children and "moulded them into law abiding, productive members of the community".
In response, Ms Dalziel argued that judge Coish should have been told whether or not Dickman "is going to refrain from membership of a similar type of organisation" as he may seek it out elsewhere.
Judge Coish, who will sentence Dickman, of Gawler, South Australia, next week, said it was "deeply troubling" that his conduct "is inexplicable by reference to any normal codes of social behaviour".
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/teen-tourist-bashed-for-having-temerity-to-say-he-was-a-member-of-hells-angels-20141114-11mu5h.html#ixzz3J3FWfz91
Faisal Aakbari was 18 when Glyn David Dickman repeatedly struck and seriously injured him at the outlaw motorcycle gang's clubhouse "for having the temerity to say he was a member of the Hells Angels".
Crown Prosecutor Frances Dalziel also told a Melbourne court on Friday that Dickman, 51, "only stopped when out of breath" after he "inflicted an extreme beating".
Dickman "did not stop because he felt the victim had had enough", Ms Dalziel said, but only because he was "out of breath".
She said Mr Aakbari offered no provocation and that Dickman's motivation was to punish the teen for "falsely claiming to be a member of the Hells Angels".
Mr Aakbari's injuries included bleeding between the skull and lining of the brain, a broken leg and lacerations to his scalp and face.
Ms Dalziel conceded that the consequences of the injuries - inflicted in September, 2009 - were not "catastrophic long term".
A jury in October found Dickman guilty of intentionally causing serious injury and threatening to kill, and acquitted him of theft. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The jury heard that Mr Aakbari, a student, arrived in Australia for a holiday in September, 2009, and with another man attended the Thomastown clubhouse before later visiting the Dallas Showgirls nightclub in King Street with Ali Chaouk.
Ms Dalziel said Chaouk - later found guilty and jailed for offences relating to the incident that included recklessly causing serious injury, threat to kill and false imprisonment - acted as chauffeur in returning the victim to the clubhouse.
In her sentencing submissions to judge Phillip Coish, she said Dickman was a full, patched Hells Angel member while Chaouk was a "hang-around" and the other man a "prospect".
Dickman, she argued, was the principal offender who took the lead in "interrogating" Mr Aakbari and who decided to assault him with multiple blows, estimated at 10 over a period of about two minutes.
She conceded the delay from the time of the incident to Dickman's trial was not his fault.
Defence barrister Frank Barbaro said his client did not accept the verdict of the jury and so could not make submissions about the facts, but he disputed Chaouk's "hang-around" depiction.
Mr Barbaro said Chaouk "took a hands-on role," was not subordinate and had, unlike Dickman, prior convictions for violence and firearms offences.
He submitted Dickman's rehabilitation was "continuous", he had no predisposition for violence and had ongoing family support.
The father of three, an arborist, was no longer a member of the Hells Angels and had supported his children and "moulded them into law abiding, productive members of the community".
In response, Ms Dalziel argued that judge Coish should have been told whether or not Dickman "is going to refrain from membership of a similar type of organisation" as he may seek it out elsewhere.
Judge Coish, who will sentence Dickman, of Gawler, South Australia, next week, said it was "deeply troubling" that his conduct "is inexplicable by reference to any normal codes of social behaviour".
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/teen-tourist-bashed-for-having-temerity-to-say-he-was-a-member-of-hells-angels-20141114-11mu5h.html#ixzz3J3FWfz91
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