'Despicable' Chinese student fined $5000 after she kicked fatally bashed teen
A Chinese student has been fined $5000 for kicking a teenager whose skull had been fractured in a brutal attack in a Chinatown alley, with a magistrate saying she should be "utterly ashamed" of herself.
Sirui Luo, 21, kicked the Chinese high school student minutes after he was kicked and punched in the head repeatedly, while bystanders watched on April 15.
The teenager was taken to hospital with severe skull fractures and a brain haemorrhage but later died from his injuries, the court heard.
CCTV footage shows Luo standing in front of the 19-year-old as he sat in an alcove, and stepping forward to kick him.
Others standing nearby then restrained her.
The victim's mother was last week removed from a courtroom after slapping and kicking Luo as she waited for her pre-sentence hearing.
In the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday, Magistrate Charles Rozencwajg fined Luo $5000 for one count of common law assault.
In the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday, Magistrate Charles Rozencwajg fined Luo $5000 for one count of common law assault.
She previously promised the court she would leave Australia after she was sentenced.
Her lawyer handed the court an itinerary to prove that her flight had been booked for Thursday.
Mr Rozencwajg said that her crime was a "despicable act".
She had kicked "someone who has been the subject of a vicious assault, and is an injured and incapacitated state" he said.
While the kick itself could not have contributed to the victim's death, Mr Rozencwajg told Luo that her "actions in this incident are quite dishonourable, for which you should be utterly ashamed".
The magistrate said that he did not impose an alternative sentence because it would have kept Luo in Australia.
Defence counsel Steve Pica previously told the court that her "day of reckoning" would arrive when she returned to China.
Her parents, who had been financially supporting her for a year while she was in Australia as a student, had only learned she was no longer studying when she was arrested for her involvement in the attack.
"I hope that is the case," Mr Rozencwajg said.
The victim's parents returned to China on Wednesday and were not in court.
Luo, who pleaded guilty after Mr Rozencwajg allowed her matter to be kept in the lower court, walked to the court's registry after she was sentenced to pay the fine.
Prosecutors allege the attack arose from a dispute between a teenager who cannot be named for legal reasons and the victim, over the victim's girlfriend.
Luo was not the girl at the centre of the dispute.
The teenager arranged to meet the victim in Chinatown that night after he had finished dinner with his friends.
He has since pleaded guilty to assault and affray in the Children's Court.
The victim's friends brought him to hospital the next morning, where he later died.
Shengliang Wan – who is charged with the boy's murder – is remanded to appear in the Magistrates Court next year.
Parents of the victim have requested that their son's name not be reported.
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