WA: Missing his flight cost a teenager his life, uncle says

AAP General News (Australia)
08-28-2009
WA: Missing his flight cost a teenager his life, uncle says

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By Warwick Stanley

PERTH, Aug 28 AAP - A New Zealand teenager's last-minute decision to miss a flight
home cost him his life, his uncle said on Friday.

Jon Teotinga Warena, 18, from Napier, was killed in a wild street brawl between Maori
and Aboriginal groups in the Perth suburb of Lockridge in the early hours of November
6, 2007.

Two men and three teenagers were given sentences of between three and eight years in
the West Australian Supreme Court in Perth on Friday for Mr Warena's manslaughter.

Three of the accused were also sentenced on charges of inflicting grievous bodily harm
with intent on Charleston Ngaha, 25, who was badly injured in the same brawl.

Mr Warena's family members who were in court for the decision said they had been informed
of the likely range of the sentences before they were handed down.

Mr Warena's mother, who flew in from New Zealand for the sentencing, carried a picture
of her son, as did another relative.

Lance McRae, an uncle of Mr Warena who had called for heavy sentences for the five,
did not take issue with the penalties but said the racial violence in Perth had to end.

Mr McRae's brother Gary said he thought his nephew was boarding a flight to New Zealand
on the night he died.

But he had pulled out of the booking at the last moment for reasons that remained unexplained.

"It was a decision that cost the life of a really good kid," Mr McRae said.

Justice John McKechnie said it was "difficult to escape the inference" that Mr Warena
had wanted to be a part of retaliatory action the Maori group had planned after the "bricking"

of one of the men's homes.

The Maori group, including members of the Never Ending Crypts gang, drove to Germain
Way in Lockridge to carry out a revenge attack but went to the wrong house, Justice McKechnie
said.

Residents of the street said "all hell broke loose" when a group of Aboriginal men
emerged from homes to confront the gang.

Justice McKechnie said the five accused had been part of a group that was entitled
to protect their homes and families, and had at first taken reasonable action.

"However, what then happened went far beyond reason," he said.

Mr Warena and Mr Ngaha had been kicked, punched, beaten and stomped on.

"The overwhelming conclusion is that you took part in an attack on people disabled,
lying on the ground," he said.

The attack continued even as people involved in the brawl had made remarks like "he's
f....d, dad" and "he's already dead, that's enough, dad".

Everett James Tyson, 35, Giles Lawrence Tyson, 41, and three teenagers, who cannot
be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter charges.

Everett Tyson was sentenced to eight years' jail, while Giles Tyson was sentenced to seven years.

Both men will be eligible for parole but no parole date was set.

The youngest of the teenagers, a 15-year-old, was sentenced to three years in juvenile
detention with a non-parole period of 14 months.

An 18-year-old was sentenced to five years' jail and a 19-year-old to four years for
their part in the attack.

Both were minors at the time.

Detective Sergeant Brian Tucker, who headed investigations into the brawl, said it
was "a terrible case" of an attempt to resolve a dispute through violence.

"There are examples throughout the world where whole communities have been destroyed
by these types of attacks," he said.

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