A Darwin man will be behind bars for at least three years after being sentenced to six years in jail for a brutal head stomp assault outside a Darwin pub on Mitchell Street.
Yowane Raymond Namaibai, 23, attacked a stranger on Mitchell street in August 2017, leaving him with a brain bleed and a fractured skull, among other injuries.
ABC reported that CCTV shows Namaibai punching and stomping on victim, but the media has been banned from sharing the video online due to its graphic nature.
Yowane Raymond Namaibai, 23, has been jailed for six years after brutally attacking a stranger
Namaibai had been drinking with friends at Shenanigans pub on Mitchell Street when the taxi dropped off the intoxicated victim, who did not know any of the men.
One of his accomplices – an underage boy – ‘punched the victim in the head in a minor altercation’ before security intervened.
The court heard that the victim has crossed the road and was attempting to catch a taxi home when Namaibai ‘deliberately followed him across the road and confronted him’.
‘He [Namaibai] and his co-offenders aggressively attacked a vulnerable man who was no threat whatsoever,’ sentencing judge Justice Judith Kelly said, calling it a ‘vicious, sudden and relatively prolonged attack’
He was four months into a suspended sentence when he brutally attacked the man.
Prior to his sentence, Justice Kelly said, ‘Any sentence will need to send a strong message to Mr Namaibai and the community that this kind of behaviour is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated by the court.’
Video of the incident reportedly shows Namaibai punching the victim to the ground, and then kicking and stomping on his face as the man attempted to cover his head with his arms.
Even as bystanders and security staff rushed to restrain him, he managed to get in one final kick to the man’s skull, knocking him unconscious on the pavement.
The court heard that the victim has crossed Mitchell St (pictured) and was trying to catch a taxi
The victim spent six days in hospital and underwent surgery after the violent assault.
Namaibai sent a letter to the court via his lawyer Shane McMaster, in which he wrote that he was ’embarrassed, ashamed, [and] mortified by what he did’.
But invoking the old adage that actions speak louder than words, Justice Kelly decided that he did not believe the man was remorseful – especially since he denied involvement in the attack and did not cooperate with police.
He added that Namaibai had a ‘long history of violent offending’ and ‘is a deplorable record of breaking court orders’, with prior convictions in three states.
The two other males arrested over the incident, including the minor, have also admitted guilt.