Alarming new research commissioned by Danny Green’s Stop the Coward Punch Campaign
Alarming new research, commissioned by Danny Green’s Stop the Coward Punch Campaign, has revealed seven in 10 #cowardpunch survivors have suffered ongoing reduced quality of life, including being burdened by permanent physical and cognitive injuries, seizures, depression, social withdrawal and loss of ability to drive. A quarter of victims sustained permanent brain injuries, while one in 10 experienced post-traumatic amnesia, according to the analysis of coward punch assaults that occurred across Australia between 1990-2020.
Parents of Pat Cronin, Jaiden Walker, David Cassai call for overhaul of coward punch laws
Journalist: Aneeka Simonis
2 min read | September 30, 2024
Victims’ families and advocates are calling for an urgent overhaul of the state’s “flawed” coward punch laws after just one conviction in a decade.
The Pat Cronin Foundation and champion boxer Danny Green’s Stop the Coward Punch campaign are putting pressure on the state government to redraft legislation so coward punchers are held to account with long jail terms.
Matt Cronin, the father of 19-year-old Patrick Cronin who was killed in a coward punch attack in 2016, said the laws had loopholes that enabled offenders to avoid the 10-year minimum non-parole period for fatal attacks.
“Because of loopholes, these laws aren’t doing what they are supposed to, which is to ensure that cowards who attack unsuspecting victims are held to account with lengthy jail terms,” Mr Cronin said.
Patrick Cronin was killed in a coward punch attack in 2016. Picture: Supplied
The law requires prosecutors to prove four key elements, including that the punch was deliberate, it was to the head or neck, that the victim would not have expected it and that the attacker probably knew the victim was not expecting to be punched.
The violence-prevention group said the requirement of intent posed major issues in criminal cases, resulting in lesser charges and sentences for coward killers, and that all meetings about the issue with the state government to date had been “fruitless”.
Prosecutors in the cases of Mr Cronin and Jaiden Walker – killed in 2017 – did not pursue jail time under the coward punch legislation due to concerns loopholes would undo both cases.
Mr Cronin’s killer Andrew Lee was convicted of manslaughter and spent just five years in prison before being paroled in 2022.
Mr Walker’s killer Richard Vincec was paroled the same year after also serving just five years behind bars on manslaughter charges, which carry a 25-year maximum jail term.
The coward punch laws came into effect following the one-punch attack which killed David Cassai on New Year’s Eve in 2012.
His mother Caterina Politi, co-founder of STOP. One Punch Can Kill, fought for the laws and said subsequent years of lobbying to fix critical loopholes has fallen on deaf ears.
“That this law is flawed and is failing to do what was intended is a real slap in the face to victims and keeps twisting the knife in and causing their heartache to continue,” she said.
“Victims have had enough of being second and their voices not being heard. The law needs to be fixed so that in the case there are more victims, it’s not going to fail them.”
In 2019, Joseph Esmaili became the first and only person to be successfully prosecuted under the coward punch laws after he punched surgeon Patrick Pritzwald-Stegmann at Box Hill Hospital in 2017.
Green said: “On this 10th anniversary, it’s time to pause and reflect and to call on governments around Australia to do more to stop this scourge in our community. We need stronger preventive measures, more effective support systems for victims, and harsher penalties for perpetrators.
“It is imperative that we come together as a society to eliminate this violence and ensure a safer environment for everyone. The time for change is now.”
More than 170 Australians have been killed by coward punches since 2000, according to figures released by the Pat Cronin Foundation.
A government spokeswoman said coward punch laws were being monitored to “ensure they operate effectively and as intended”. “Our thoughts remain with the Cronin family and anyone who has lost a loved one as a result of these senseless attacks that have tragic and enduring impacts,” the spokeswoman said. “Since these laws were introduced, the average sentences for manslaughter cases involving one punch has increased from six years to nine years imprisonment
Steven Miles MP – Funding boost for Danny Green’s Stop the Coward Punch campaign
Coward punches are just that. Carried out by cowards. They must stop.
A post shared by Steven Miles (@stevenmilesmp)
We’re providing a funding boost for Danny Green’s Stop the Coward Punch campaign.
So we can educate more young people about the dangers and impacts of coward punches.
New research reveals profile of coward-punch attack offenders
Australian boxing champion Danny Green has launched a new campaign, profiling the most likely offenders in one-punch attacks.
Danny Green calls out violence on TV ‘desensitising’ young Aussies
By Tom Livingstone | 2022
‘As a population we are becoming desensitised’.
Former boxer and anti-violence advocate Danny Green wants legislation around coward punches to be changed.
Green said victim families and the community are being “let down” by courts letting offenders off with light sentences and the legal system needs to be looked at and reviewed.
“When it goes to court a lot of perpetrators are being charged with a manslaughter offence instead of a murder charge,” Green told Today.
“If you hit someone, they don’t know it’s coming and you shouldn’t have hit them and they die that’s murder.”
Green said society has become desensitised to acts of violence from what they watch on television and to mark the start of “Stop the Coward Punch Week”, he is continuing his efforts to completely remove coward punch crimes in Australia.
“Coward punches need to be completely omitted from our society,” he said.
“I was watching one of the streaming services and the violence was just out of control.
“It was almost like the show was trying to be more violent than anything else to get people to watch it – It was bizarre how young kids are faced with such gratuitous violence we see everyday.”
Since 2000, 172 people have been killed by a coward punch, according to the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine.
Green said work around eradicating coward punches had seen a decrease in the rate between 2012 and 2018 and they are finding out more about who the offenders typically are.
“The coward punch is a disgusting act,” he said.
“Perpetrators are mostly male, the median age is around 26-years-old and 60 per cent of the victims have no idea who they are.”
For more information on ‘Stop the Coward Punch week’ click here.
See what else Green had to say in the video here.
Danny Green on The Front Bar
Watch the quick clip of Danny Green representing Stop the Coward Punch and Cool Australia’s new education package here.
Our package of 44 lessons for young people in years 7 – 10 are completely free and available now.
The resources include English, Science, Drama, Media, Art, HPE, and Civics and Citizenship lessons, and aim to bring about positive mindset and behaviour change.
