A Zambian immigrant has been jailed for assaulting a truck driver who filmed him and another African thug attacking two Afghan men in a road rage incident in Brisbane.
Joseph Kalwisha, 24, was charged with common assault, threatening violence, attempted armed robbery with personal violence, and assault occasioning actual bodily harm over the incident, which took place on busy Persse Road in Runcorn on August 27 last year.
He appeared in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Tuesday, and was sentenced to five years’ jail, but will be eligible for parole in April 2027, even though the court heard he was out on bail at the time of the attack for an unprovoked assault that left his victim with a fractured eye socket and nose.
Hammer and machete-wielding African thugs turn on a truck driver who filmed them attacking two Afghans in a road rage clash in Runcorn, Brisbane.
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Footage filmed by truck driver William Hughes shows Kalwisha running over the truck before grabbing the keys from the ignition, trying to stab Mr Hughes, biting him on the hand and arm, and trying to bite his face.
Congolose refugee Echibaketa Byamungu, 22, who walked free with time served in September after pleading guilty to similar charges, can be seen in the video waving a hammer and holding a long machete, and tried to stab Mr Hughes with the weapon during the attack.
The attack on Mr Hughes took place just a day before Byamungu avoided jail for savagely bashing on a bus driver, and Kalwisha was filmed outside court abusing and threatening media while dressed in the same clothes as during the road rage incident.
Byamungu was in court on Tuesday to support Kalwisha, and smirked and smiling during proceedings, before taunting Mr Hughes outside.
After Byamungu’s sentencing Mr Hughes told 9News the attack had a “significant impact” on him, and appeared sceptical about the refugee’s prospects of rehabilitation.
“He’s now out, and I guess we’ll see whether he reoffends,” he said.
Brisbane bus driver is attacked by an African thug as horrified passengers watch on.
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Kalwisha, who previously avoided jail over a 2022 attempted home invasion in Logan after a magistrate heard he suffered from trauma as a result of experiencing “extreme violence” and hardship in Africa.
He was spared a conviction, and sentenced to 18 months’ probation with court-ordered counselling to deal with his PTSD by Magistrate Tracy Mossop, who urged him to make the most of his new life in Australia, the Albert & Logan News reported at the time.
“Why someone with that [traumatic] background would choose to bring more difficulty into their life when they have been gifted the benefit of living in this country, which is not ravaged by war and violence, I don’t understand,” she told him.
“Why would you bring violence into this country?
“Maybe you do have mental health issues and if that is the case I am going to make an order to have a special condition on your probation so that you are rehabilitated. Because it is important that you live your best life here, not your worst.”
In March that year Kalwisha was sentenced to prison for separate serious offending that occurred after the attempted home invasion.
Header image: Left, Kalwisha the day before the attack (The Courier Mail). Right, Kalwisha (right) during the road rage attack (supplied).
