A violent African woman who brutally bashed an autistic teenager on Altona Pier in Melbourne almost a year ago is trying to have her sentence overturned.
Alajeck Anai, 18, was in October given just six months in a youth justice training centre after pleading guilty to one charge of affray when police withdrew charges of intentionally causing injury and recklessly causing injury over the shocking February 28 attack, which was filmed and posted online.
Melbourne Magistrates Court heard at the time that Anai threw 43 of the 55 punches suffered by her victim, who was a complete stranger to her. Three other alleged attackers cannot be identified due to their age.
But now Anai is appealing to have her sentence quashed, and her lawyer argued in the County Court that her suitability for youth detention was never assessed, and claimed she suffered racial abuse online before the savage beating, Nine News reported.
Her legal team said there should have been a report assessing how Anai might cope at a youth justice centre, and giving an insight into her past traumas and state of mind.
The victim’s mother Anna Axiak said outside court her daughter was still not in school and was being forced to relive the attack all over again due to the appeal.
County Court Judge Pardeep Tiwana called the bashing “truly gut-wrenching” and a “dreadful, unprovoked and sustained group attack on a very young, vulnerable victim”.
He will hand down his decision in April after a report is finalised.
During sentencing in October Magistrate Justin Foster said it was difficult to understand how Anai could display such hate and anger towards someone she didn’t know, and called the attack “disgusting and outrageous behaviour”.
“You essentially beat the crap out of her and you did that without any provocation whatsoever,” he said.
When the video of the attack was shown to the court the victim had to leave the room and Mr Foster reprimanded a member of the public who commented “pack of wild dogs”.
The video shows several attackers repeatedly punching Dakota, pulling her hair, and pouring an energy drink over her head.
The savage bashing only stopped when an unknown man stepped in saying: “That’s enough, yeah? She’s little”.
Header image: Left, Alajeck Anai (Nine News). Right, footage of the attack.
