A 21-year-old man who admitted to a one-punch attack that left a father of four with an irreversible brain injury has been jailed for a maximum of six years.
Andrew Junior Apel Saulo pleaded guilty to recklessly inflicting grievous bodily harm in January after he punched the victim outside Canberra nightclub, 88mph.
The court heard he was serving an intensive corrective order for an “eerily similar” offence at the time, which occurred in September last year.
The ACT Supreme Court heard the attack left the victim with a broken skull, brain bleed and numerous other significant lifelong injuries after he was knocked unconscious by the offender.
When sentencing the man on Friday, Chief Justice Lucy McCallum cited a previous apology letter the offender had written for a similar prior offence in which he promised “this act will never happen again”, pointing out that this had not proved to be the case.
Saulo appeared emotionless as he was handed a jail term of three years non-parole, and ordered to pay $7,311.25 in reparations to the victim to help cover the cost of his dental treatment.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, the man said “[his] life has changed forever” and the attack had left him “broken”.
His wife similarly wrote of the “enormous strain” the offence has put on her marriage and how she often feels helpless and “cannot bring back [her] old husband”.
The victim lost four teeth in the incident and suffered a dislocated jaw, facial palsy and minor hearing loss.
Victim was celebrating a birthday on night of attack
The court was told the victim was out celebrating a birthday on the night of the attack.
He first encountered the offender while inside the nightclub after his female friend said she had been made to feel uncomfortable by one of Saulo’s friends.
The victim pushed the offender and his friends back from the woman but was knocked over by members of the group.
When both groups were thrown out of the venue, the wrestling continued.
The victim and his friend walked in the opposite direction of the men, but were followed.
It’s then that the woman stepped in to be the protector, putting herself between the victim and one of the men before Saulo “opportunistically” used the gap to swing — causing the victim to fall backwards into a gutter.
Saulo and his friends fled the scene before emergency services arrived.
The incident was captured on CCTV but the police did not have sufficient evidence to identify the offender at the time, and later issued a public appeal looking for the offender.
Saulo handed himself in shortly after ACT Policing shared his photo on social media, and admitted to the attack.
He will be eligible for parole in October 2026, taking into consideration time already served.