A Sudanese refugee who was jailed for just six years for killing an Australian grandfather in an unprovoked one-punch attack has been spared more prison time despite admitting to multiple new violent offences.
Ariik Mayot, 28, faced Queensland District Court on Friday where he pleaded guilty to two counts of serious assault of a public officer and assault occasioning bodily harm of a prisoner, the Australian Associated Press reported.
The African thug, who cannot be deported as he was given Australian citizenship, was the first person charged with killing someone under the state’s “one-punch laws” after striking Lindsay Ede, 55, in the head in Goodna, Ipswich, in 2015.
Mayot was sentenced to a maximum six years’ imprisonment in 2017 after Supreme Court Chief Justice Catherine Holmes accepted his claims he had seen Mr Ede as a threat and incorrectly thought he called him a “black bastard” and was carrying a knife, leaving the victim’s family furious.
On Friday Judge Gregory Lynham sentenced Mayot to 18 months in jail for the three violent offences, but ordered him immediately released on parole as he had already spent seven months behind bars.
The court heard Mayot attacked a security guard and resisted another after admitting himself to at Mater Hospital in South Brisbane for suspected methamphetamine-induced psychosis in January 2023.
Then while serving a jail sentence for another unrelated offence last year Mayot punched, kicked and kneed a fellow prisoner in an exercise yard, leaving him with serious injuries including a fractured jaw.
Defence barrister Elise Sargent told the court her client was “focused and motivated to deal with his problems” and was capable of changing his ways.
“His history shows he can go periods of time without committing offences of violence,” she said.
She informed the court Mayot will not walk out of prison until next week when he is sentenced for yet another unrelated offence.
After Mayot’s 2017 sentencing Mr Ede’s family said they were disappointed and had hoped for life in jail.
“Very sad day to be honest, I think my brother’s life was worth more than that,” family member Terry Bishop said at the time.
“At least 15 (years) would have been nice, you know, even 10. It’ll never bring back Lindsay.”
In a letter read to the court during sentencing Mayot said: “I have got a life sentence because even if I get out I have to live with the fact I took someone’s life.”
“I think about what I have done every day … what I did never gets out of my head. What I did will always be on my mind.”
Header image: Left, Ariik Mayot. Right, Lindsay Ede (supplied).
