Galambany Court sentences Kinnara Connors to intensive correction order

Kinnara Connors, 20, was sentenced in the Galambany Court last Friday to a two-year intensive correction order and a three-month good behaviour order.

He had previously pleaded guilty to charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, common assault and driving unlicensed.

Special magistrate Anthony Hopkins said the assaults had occurred last March.

About 3am on the day in question, a phone call from a cousin prompted Connors and his older brother, Stanley, to drive to a woman's 40th birthday party.

Dr Hopkins said it seemed there had been tension at the party and an "angry and intoxicated" Connors was intent upon defending members of his family.

Connors was armed with a large metal pole when he arrived, while his brother wielded a hunting knife.

When a 56-year-old man approached the pair in an attempt to calm them down, Connors swung the pole into his head and knocked him unconscious.

Connors then assaulted one of the initial victim's relatives, who had gone to that man's aid, by also striking his head with the pole.

Dr Hopkins said children, who must have been terrified, had been among those who had witnessed the unprovoked assaults.

"What you did was sickening," the magistrate told Connors, who spent 20 days behind bars on remand following his arrest.

Elder Roseanne Longford added that Connors "could have killed someone that night".

While speaking with elders during a circle sentencing process for Indigenous offenders, Connors described his actions as "disgusting" and said he was "deeply sorry".

The 20-year-old also branded his initial refusal to admit his wrongdoing "pathetic".

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Dr Hopkins ultimately told Connors he had shown "great maturity" by not turning away from the fear, pain and suffering he had caused.

The magistrate detailed the childhood disadvantage Connors had endured, noting the he had grown up in a troubled home and been "bullied and bashed on the bus" because of his race.

Dr Hopkins also took into account the "remarkable achievements" Connors had made in recent months, which included completing a number of courses at the Canberra Institute of Technology and gaining a job.

These things, the magistrate said, had helped Connors realise "violence is not the answer".

Connors' brother previously received a 12-month prison sentence over his role in the birthday party attack, during which the older sibling threatened the second victim with the hunting knife.

Dr Hopkins said while Stanley Connors' offence of affray was clearly less serious than the assaults, the older brother had "a long and significant criminal record" and was subject to a suspended jail term at the time.

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