Source : Perth Now news
A young man involved in the brutal random killing of a 14-year-old boy has apologised for his actions, saying hearing about the impact on the boy’s family had changed him.
Ethan Hoac, 14, was deliberately hit by a car and then stabbed more than 30 times while walking along the side of the road in St Albans in Melbourne’s northwest in June 2023.
The young boy had spent the afternoon with friends in Melbourne’s CBD and was on his way home from Ginifer railway station when the attack unfolded about 10.52pm on June 26.
Minutes earlier, three 17-year-old boys, who were unknown to Ethan and his friends, had driven past in a stolen Volkswagen Tiguan before doing a U-turn and searching for the group.
As Ethan and his friends were crossing Bailey St, the driver intentionally struck Ethan as his friends scattered.
Two of the 17-year-olds, wearing masks and welding machetes, then descended upon the injured boy, kicking, stabbing and slashing at him in a 37s attack before fleeing.
“Beyond the ferocity of this attack, a highly disturbing feature is why Ethan was brutally murdered,” Crown prosecutor Erin Ramsey said.
“He was unknown to the offenders; he was walking home, with his friends, in the street.”
One of Ethan’s killers, now 20, appeared in the Victorian Supreme Court on Tuesday for a presentence hearing after pleading guilty to murder.
His barrister Samuel Tovey described the actions of the man, who cannot be named because he was a child when the attack occurred, as “extremely serious offending”.
Mr Tovey said his client had “come to more fully and truly appreciate” the devastating impact of his crime on Ethan’s family after an earlier court hearing where victim impact statements were read.
“(He) comes before the court today at 20 years old, in my submission, genuinely sorry for what he’s done,” he said.
“Through his plea he accepts responsibility for his part in this brutal incident.”
In July, Ethan’s mother Annie Huynh shared a harrowing statement about her grief in court.
In the statement, she lamented not knowing why Ethan’s killers chose to attack him and said she would pray for them and their families.
“I don’t know why they killed my son. I want to know the last moments before he died. Did he call my name? Why didn’t God take me instead of my son?” she questioned.
“He deserved everything in this world, I can’t live without him.”
Mr Tovey told the court the experience of listening to Ms Huynh’s statement had a “significant” impact on his client, particularly her comment that she would pray for him.
“He described the victim impact statement as a weight off his shoulders and he began to confront the enormity of what he’d done,” he said.
In a letter, sent to Ethan’s family and read in court, the man said he wanted to “apologise to you from the bottom of my heart”.
“I am deeply sorry for the hurt and pain my actions have caused you and your family,” he wrote.
“It has been difficult for me to look at you and face what I caused when I see you.”
The man said he “could not help but think about my own mother” when he saw and heard Ms Huynh read her statement.
“Before coming here I was living a life that ended me in custody. I want to move on. I want to make my family proud; instead I’ve made choices that caused a lot of people pain,” he wrote.
“Since being away I believe I’ve matured a lot. I used to react with anger, lash out when things don’t go my way. I’ve learnt to control my anger.
“I’m sorry my choices have become a part of something that has caused you pain forever.”
Mr Tovey urged the court to find his client’s expression of remorse was genuine and represent a lasting change.
Ms Ramsey said the Crown conceded the letter read as a genuine expression of how the man felt but argued there hadn’t been long enough for the “change in attitude” to make a positive finding about his prospects of rehabilitation.
The court was told the man had an “extremely difficult” childhood, growing up surrounded by violence, drug use and poverty.
In his early teenage years, he left school, began using drugs and lived a transient lifestyle, coming into contact with the criminal justice system where he had priors for robbery, assaults and dealing with the proceeds of crime.
According to consultant psychologist Luke Armstrong, the court was told, the man’s childhood had “shaped him profoundly”.
“He came to view the world as a jungle and a highly dangerous environment, rationalising his own highly violent conduct,” Dr Armstrong opined.
Justice Amanda Fox told the court the man’s background and perceptions would “very much explain” the offending if it occurred in the context of a response to violence, but that was not the case here.
“These were children; they were 13, 14 years old walking along the road. They presented less than no threat if that’s possible,” she said.
Mr Tovey said his client’s “decision” to engage in violence had to be understood by his background, “effectively groomed that violence was the way of the world”.
Justice Fox adjourned sentencing for the man to occur later this year.
He will be sentenced alongside the driver of the car, now 21, who was found guilty of murder following a trial earlier this year.
The third attacker, now aged 20, was jailed for 17 years late last year after pleading guilty to murder.
