(Australia Twitter)-MELBOURNE, Australia – An Australian teenage gang targeted Indians in a series of violent robberies because they were considered easy targets, not because of racial hatred, a judge said Tuesday.
The seven-member gang targeted six Indian men in separate robberies during a four-day spree in Melbourne in December 2009, a time when high-profile crimes against Indian students were creating diplomatic tensions between Australia and India.
Over a four-day period in December 2009, the gang of seven attacked six Indian men in four separate night-time robberies in Melbourne's western suburbs.
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One of the group described the attacks as "Punji hunting", the court heard on Tuesday.
But County Court Judge Liz Gaynor said, although an immediate jail sentence was otherwise warranted, Petrusic had shown exceptional effort to rehabilitate and was filled with shame for his part in the attacks which his co-accused had labelled "Punji hunting.
Notwithstanding that Indians were targeted, this was not done on any basis of racial hatred, but because Indians were for some reason considered by you to be soft targets," she said.
"This sort of offending is all too commonplace within our community ... violent and lawless behaviour perpetrated on innocent people simply walking the street.
She said despite the offences being extremely serious, Petrusic - who pleaded guilty to robbery, armed robbery and attempted robbery - had shown grave remorse and received "glowing" reports from counsellors who described him as having been led into the offending.
Judge Gaynor ordered Petrusic's Holden Commodore be forfeited and he pay $650 compensation.
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