Tuesday 2 December 2008

Cricket bat attacker jailed for 5 years

A 22-year-old man has been sentenced to five years' jail for killing a man in the Western Australian wheatbelt town of Geraldton on Christmas Day last year.

Matthew Roy McDonald pleaded guilty in the Perth Supreme Court to the manslaughter of William Rowe.

Mr Rowe died after being hit over the head with a cricket bat on a beach in Geraldton last year.

His wife directly addressed McDonald when she read out a victim impact statement at today's sentencing hearing telling him he had taken away the rock of her family's life.

Mrs Rowe said she suffered anxiety and flashbacks and she and her traumatised family struggled to run their sheep station.

McDonald's sentence was backdated to December 28 last year and he will be eligible for parole.

Suspended sentence

The Supreme Court had earlier heard McDonald was serving a suspended jail term for unlawful wounding at the time of the Christmas Day attack.

McDonald also admitted that he had breached a 12 month suspended jail term that had been imposed in February last year for a charge of unlawful wounding.

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