Vic: Man jailed for killing Chinese student

AAP General News (Australia)
02-12-2001
Vic: Man jailed for killing Chinese student

MELBOURNE, Feb 12 AAP - The killer of a young Chinese student had been on parole for
just four months after serving 10 years' jail when he attacked and raped a teenage girl,
the County Court in Melbourne was told today.

Thirty-four-year-old Mark Hastie (Hastie) Brown was today jailed for six-and-a-half years.

Judge Pamela Jenkins ordered Brown to serve a minimum non-parole term of five years.

Brown, having had his parole revoked, will begin the current sentence when he has completed
his 12-year maximum term for murder next year.

The court heard that Brown, with a history of sexual assaults dating back to his primary
school days, attacked the 18-year-old high school student on a bicycle path in Seaford
on October 20, 1999.

In sentencing, Judge Jenkins said that Brown, a convicted murderer at the time, qualified
as a serious violent offender.

Under Victorian criminal legislation, a serious violent offender may be sentenced to
a term longer than that which is proportionate with the gravity of the offence.

The judge said, however, she considered that although there was no guarantee Brown
would not reoffend, it was neither "necessary nor appropriate to impose on you a sentence
other than that which is proportionate to the offence".

But, the judge told Brown: "There is a real need to deter you from offending again.

"There is also a real, and, some might say, urgent need, to deter others who may be
tempted to perform, as you did, a brazen sexual assault on a young adolescent female in
a public place, in broad daylight."

She said the protection of other potential victims had to be borne in mind "as there
is certainly no guarantee at this point that there is no risk of you offending again".

She said that Brown's response to the charge of rape was to say that nothing of the
kind had happened.

He had never shown any remorse.

The court heard that the victim had been walking home when Brown rode past her on a
mountain bike.

A short time later she heard someone running up to her from behind; she was grabbed
by the neck and flung to the ground.

She hit her head on the concrete path and almost lost consciousness.

As she kicked and screamed, Brown, using considerable force, put his hands down her
underpants and digitally raped her.

She suffered bruises and scratches.

In a victim impact statement, the girl said she still had nightmares about the attack;
she no longer went out with her friends; and she was constantly looking over her shoulder
to see if there was anybody there.

A jury found Brown guilty of rape and recklessly causing injury.

In May 1999, Brown was released on parole after serving about 10 years for the murder
of Chinese student, Gong Qi, 25, who boarded with a family in suburban Mentone.

She was from Shanghai and had been in Australia for just one month when she was stabbed
to death by Brown as she walked home from an English class.

Brown pleaded guilty to the murder.

AAP sew/imc/mjm/de

KEYWORD: BROWN

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