Jail the thugs – it’s fair

THE thought that a young man could be kicked unconscious by a stranger while sitting innocently outside a local nightclub will rightfully strike fear into the hearts of parents today.

That your child could be seriously injured — even killed — while enjoying a night out with friends is a thought almost too painful to consider.

What happened to Simon Burchell outside popular watering hole Lamby’s is shocking in the extreme.

It could have been anyone’s son or daughter.

Kicked hard in the head by a man he had never met — Josh Hawkins-Page, 22 — Mr Burchell was left for dead with a fractured skull, broken jaw and bleeding on the brain.

Later, we learn, HawkinsPage texted about the violence to a mate but didn’t hand himself in to police.

Mr Burchell bravely agreed to be identified today and consented to the Geelong Advertiser running photos of his horrific injuries because, while his attacker ran away after delivering his cowardly kick, Mr Burchell has chosen instead to stand up and let the community see some of the harm senseless violence can do. His courage is to be commended.

In sentencing Hawkins-Page — a first-time offender — to jail, magistrate Ann McGarvie noted a primary reason for the prison sentence was to serve as a general deterrent to the public.

The clear message is that such violence will not be tolerated by the courts or police.

The sentence is now the subject of an appeal to the County Court, but we suspect most in the community will say Hawkins-Page got, at least in small part, what he deserved in the Geelong Magistrates’ Court yesterday.

There is no place in a civilised society for behaviour like that.

Young people have the absolute right to enjoy a night out and a drink with friends without being subjected to horrific and life-changing violence. We all have the right to feel safe in our city — night and day — and those who seek to impede that liberty should be punished.