Editorial: Case gives pause for thought

Falcon Kaine Walsh has been sentenced to prison for two years and six months after admitting he punched and kicked a man on the ground in an unprovoked attack.

There is something about a random act of violence that sickens most of us.

And they don't come more sickening than the unprovoked attack on a man in the Havelock North CBD on the night of August 3.

I remember the incident clearly as this newspaper was flooded with letters, texts and comments to our website and Facebook page. The majority of the comments were scathing in their condemnation.

Yesterday an 18-year-old man, Falcon Kaine Walsh, who had no criminal convictions, was sentenced to two years and six months in prison after admitting he punched and kicked the man on the ground. He was 17 at the time of the attack.

Walsh had pleaded guilty to charges of injuring with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, while another youngster, Jacob Patrick Broderick pleaded not guilty to the same charge.

Clearly Walsh has been taught a harsh lesson because, as Judge Tony Adeane said in court yesterday, it was no small step to imprison a young man at 18 years with no previous convictions.

Unfortunately it is the only way youngsters who believe they can go out drinking and pick on people minding their own business will learn.

If this punitive sentence causes other teenagers to pause for thought before striking out in drunken anger, then that is a good thing.

However, there is another group who needs to take a long hard look at themselves - the establishments who serve alcohol to minors, because as in Walsh's case, there is no telling what some of them will do under the influence.