Kicked in the Head....Manslaughter

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Disappointment over karate kick manslaughter plea

The Crime Victims Support Association has complained to the Director of Public Prosecutions for accepting a manslaughter plea over a fatal hotel fight.

A 20-year-old martial arts expert has been sentenced to six years jail over the death.

The Supreme Court heard 18-year-old Aaron Linskens was watching a fight at a Glen Waverley hotel when he was karate kicked in the head and knocked to the ground in June last year.

Ryan Leigh Johns, of Rowville will serve a minimum of three and a half years in jail after pleading guilty to manslaughter.

The prosecution had earlier rejected the plea but accepted it on the fourth day of Johns’s murder trial.

Outside court the Crime Victim Support Association’s Noel McNamara said he was disappointed by the outcome.

“If someone kicks someone in the head and they’re a karate kicker, well as far as I’m concerned that’s murder. The whole thing is out of kilter,” he said.

The victim’s family said it was also disappointed with the manslaughter plea.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/australia/vic/metvic-28oct2003-6.htm

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Ummm, that doesn’t make any sense at all.

It says the guy who died was “watching” the fight, and then got kicked ? WTF ?

If he was kicked accidentally then it’s manslaughter, but I can’t really see how, unless the guy had 15 foot legs and scythed down the crowd as his opponent ducked ?

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a kick to the head is the same as a punch to the head.

Both can kill…

Im not sure of the exact situation, but MA’st get a bad rap for these types of things…its usualy accidental…but allot of society thinks MA’ist have lethal power which they are in full control of 100% of the time.

lol, the quote says it all. That guy thought that knowing karate means that the person ment to use just enough force to kill the person.

Iv heard it many times…“if you know karate you should be able to control if the other person gets hurt or not”

p.s. karate sucks. :smiley:

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Damn media brainwashing of the public. It convicts us all…and sells mcdojo contracts.

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This happened around where I live and made the papers here.

It wasn’t reported as ‘a fight’ in what I read, it was reported as a ‘soccer style riot’. Whatever happened, it looks like a lot of people were involved. I think the kid was watching and got a little too close and hence without intending to, got involved.

Very sad considering he wasn’t even involved, but not very smart. If I see a full on fight involving multiple groups of people who want to pound on each other, and have nothing to do with me, I’m walking in the other direction, not standing around to check it out.

Thats a bullshit argument though that because he was trained in karate its murder. Kicks to the head very rarely kill people. The kick itself didn’t even kill him, it was reported he fell down and badly hit his head on the ground.
I think manslaughter was the correct charge although the term should have been longer.

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Here’s another twist on that…

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,7694088%255E26462,00.html

Kickboxer killer gets six years
October 28, 2003

A YOUNG Melbourne martial arts exponent was jailed today for six years for the kick-box killing of a teenager.

Supreme Court judge, Justice Geoffrey Nettle, ordered 20-year-old Ryan Leigh Johns to serve a minimum non-parole term of three and a half years.

Johns has already served 16 months in custody.

He originally faced a murder charge, but his trial was stopped when the prosecution agreed to accept his plea of guilty to manslaughter.

The court heard that Johns, of Amazon Grove, suburban Rowville, admitted dealing the spinning kick blow to the head of the victim, 18-year-old Aaron Linskens, in a suburban hotel car park in the early hours of June 1 last year.

Mr Linskens fell backwards striking his head on the ground.

He suffered massive head and brain injuries and died later in hospital.

Johns maintained that he had acted in self defence.

But Justice Nettle said he did not accept the victim had either said or done anything that constituted a threat.

Justice Nettle told Johns: “You took calculated and cowardly advantage of your martial arts skills in order to kick the head of an untrained and unsuspecting victim”.

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FoM can you get us that link or find it?
Thanks…

Justice Nettle told Johns: “You took calculated and cowardly advantage of your martial arts skills in order to kick the head of an untrained and unsuspecting victim”.

Well what the bloody FUCK did you expect him to do?
Get beat up?
That is what martial arts is for…fucking up the other guy.

Funny in “my” article there is no mention of karate…

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Damn media bias…

So, if the victim HAD provoked the other man into kicking him by pushing or striking…would the verdict have been the same? Say Kungfoolss swings at me with wing chun hook, I duck, spin kick him in the head and then he falls and hits his head on the curb. Now, is that still manslaughter or just a sad consequence of me defending myself?

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FoM can you get us that link or find it?

I read it in the paper, not online.
I had a look for it on the papers website http://heraldsun.news.com.au/ but couldn’t find anything.

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Originally posted by PizDoff

Well what the bloody FUCK did you expect him to do?
Get beat up?
That is what martial arts is for…fucking up the other guy.

Funny in “my” article there is no mention of karate… [/B]

As usual you stylists can’t get anything right, what would you people do without me? (Smirks) ->

"Justice Nettle said Johns, of Amazon Grove, Rowville, launched himself from a car bonnet into a fight with a punching action. He said Johns approached Mr Linskens, who was near a grassy knoll watching a confrontation, and hit him with what was described as a roundhouse kick. Mr Linskens hit the surface of the car park, suffering massive head injuries and brain damage. Within minutes, he passed into a coma from which he never recovered.

He died in hospital two days later.

Justice Nettle said Johns used his martial arts skills to injure Mr Linskens for no better reason than the fun of it. He said the attack occurred despite Johns’s conviction in July 2001 after kicking another man in the head, and an incident in October 2001 in which he broke a man’s nose."