Tony Abbott headbutter gets 6 months gaol
Monday, 09 April 2018
6 months gaol (he'll only do two) and the magistrate Mr Daly said:
..........the sentence needed to deter attacks on politicians of “all political stripes”.
“Politicians must be free to undertake their work without fear of being assaulted,” he said.
When I was a policeman at Collingwood in the late 1980s, the charge that appeared in the Watch-House Book most regularly was Assault Police. I can't recall a crook ever getting a gaol sentence for that offence, my recollection is that a $100/$150 fine was usually the result.
What makes politicians special?
I don't know what the no-doubt learned Magistrate in Hobart was thinking, but it strikes me (excuse the pun) that police should have the same conditions of work as politicians - being free to undertake their duties without fear of being assaulted.
Here's some of the report in The Australian today.
Hobart DJ Astro Labe jailed for headbutting Tony Abbott
The Hobart DJ who headbutted Tony Abbott has been sentenced to six months jail, with conditional release after two months.
Astro Labe, 38, was handed the sentence in the Hobart Magistrate’s Court earlier today, after pleading guilty to a charge of causing harm to a commonwealth public official.
Deputy chief magistrate Michael Daly said Labe’s attack on the former Prime Minister, on Hobart’s waterfront on September 21 last year during the height of the same-sex marriage debate, was cowardly and premeditated.
Mr Daly said the sentence needed to deter attacks on politicians of “all political stripes”.
“Politicians must be free to undertake their work without fear of being assaulted,” he said.
Labe was wearing a ‘Yes’ lapel badge at the time of the attack, but insisted it had nothing to do with the same-sex marriage debate, rather a “personal hatred” of the former Prime Minister.
“All it was is I saw Tony Abbott and I’d had half a skinful and I wanted to nut the c... ... That’s just my personal hatred,” he told News Corp Australia.