Jason Galleghan: a teenager sentenced to 15 years in prison after leading a boy to be beaten to death
- 16-year-old sentenced to 15 years in prison for assaulting a teenager
- The assault, among many others, involved a pair of “stolen” AirPods.
A teenager who helped lure a boy to a suburban home and took part in the protracted assault that killed him has been jailed for at least a decade.
He was among a group of teenagers and adults who attacked 16-year-old Jason Galleghan in Doonside, Sydney’s west, on August 4, 2021.
Jason died in hospital two days later.
The teenager sentenced by the NSW Supreme Court on Wednesday pleaded guilty to murder but cannot be named for legal reasons as he was just 14 at the time, and several others are still in court .
He helped pick up Jason at a train station, kicking him 52 times in less than two minutes, kicking him in the head, then stomping on his chest in a guest bedroom in a nearby house.
This was captured in videos later posted online.
The convicted teenager was part of a group of teenagers and adults who attacked 16-year-old Jason Galleghan (pictured) in Doonside, Sydney’s west, on August 4, 2021.
The teenager had posted on social media a few hours before the attack that he was “bashing someone today, lmao”.
The attack lasted more than half an hour, but only about seven minutes were recorded and made available to the court.
A recording captured the teenager saying, “Oh, stop it…look at him.”
It has been argued that he realized the attack had gone too far, which proved controversial.
NSW Supreme Court Acting Justice Robert Hulme looked at the footage several times.
“I’m not convinced that that reflects any concern or that he was trying to persuade any of them that the assault should stop,” he said Wednesday.
Immediately before making the comment, the teenager was heard directing others in the assault, the judge said.
The teenager told a psychologist that he felt rejected by his father, who had entrusted him to an alcoholic mother.
By the time the threat of having his children in the care of the state became very real, his son’s behavior was “growing out of control” and he also began abusing alcohol and other drugs.
The teenager, who pleaded guilty to murder, took to social media just hours before the attack, saying he was ‘bashing someone today, lmao’. Jason Galleghan is pictured
The assault was sparked by an “unfounded and trivial accusation” that Jason stole a pair of Apple AirPods.
He fought and brought guns to school before he stopped going altogether, finding confidence and identity through association with a gang, and said he felt compelled to help in the attack.
The judge said Jason had been targeted with “a baseless and trivial charge (he) could have taken a pair of headphones” and that the teenager had participated in the attack “with as much enthusiasm as anyone Who”.
He was convinced that the teenager genuinely felt remorse, sentencing him to at least 10 years in prison, out of a total sentence of 15 years and six months.
Arrested the day after the attack, the teenager will serve his sentence in a juvenile establishment until he is 21 and will be eligible for parole in August 2031, when he turns 24.
Judge Hulme said Jason’s mother described the most terrible experience of losing her child in a victim impact statement, detailing “with great courage” the impact on her family and friends.
The judge lamented that the criminal courts could not do anything to solve this problem.
