A 27-year-old science student who beat a grandmother unconscious on the steps of a South Yarra church will spend at least 3½ years in jail.
Amrick Roy was on a booze-filled night out in Prahran on March 13 last year when he assaulted three men, before spotting 78-year-old Penelope Katsavos outside the Greek Orthodox church on Barry Street and attacking her.
He approached the grandmother, striking her in the face and stealing her trolley.
Penelope Katsavos was violently bashed as she opened her local Greek Orthodox church in South Yarra in March last year.Credit:Nine News
Katsavos was found later that morning by council workers unconscious, bloodied and bruised. She suffered bleeding on the brain, a fractured wrist, severe facial injuries and a badly broken pelvis.
On Friday, County Court judge John Carmody condemned the “unprovoked and gratuitous” attack.
“Mrs Katsavos was an elderly woman alone, at a church door going about her charitable duties when you attacked her. You left her on a footpath unconscious and helpless after your cowardly assault,” Carmody said.
In the hours before attacking the grandmother of six, Roy was kicked out of Chapel Street’s Revolver nightclub after an altercation with a man about 4.55am.
Katsavos in hospital after the attack in a photo supplied by her family.Credit:Nine News
Once outside, he assaulted three other men, including a man outside a Bonds outlet store, another man who was waiting outside a shoe shop, and a rubbish collector working in Prahran Square.
At 6am, Roy then approached Katsavos as she was unlocking the front door of the Greek Orthodox church.
There, he began yelling at Katsavos before grabbing her shopping trolley and hitting her in the face, knocking her to the ground and then running off.
Council workers found Katsavos unconscious on the steps of the church and called an ambulance.Credit:Nine News
Katsavos said the unprovoked attack changed her life, leaving her unable to care for her elderly husband who she has since had to place in an aged care home.
In a victim impact statement read to the court last week, the grandmother said she now moved with the aid of a walker and struggled daily with feelings of sadness, loneliness and pain.
However, she said she forgave her attacker and only hoped he would learn from what he had done.
“Amrick Roy I forgive you for what you have done to me … [But] no sentence you are given will change the life sentence you have given me,” she wrote.
“My only hope is that somehow you will learn how to be a better person and that you find a way to make this world a better place before your time on this earth is up.
“I will continue to walk through this life with love and strength.”
Roy pleaded guilty to five charges, including recklessly causing serious injury, robbery and three counts of assault.
The court heard Roy, a former Woolworths employee who studied science at university, lived with schizophrenia and had been using cannabis and synthetic cannabis since the age of 15.
He was sentenced to five years’ jail with a non-parole period of 3½ years.
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