A 19-year-old from Hobart has been sentenced to four years in jail in connection with the drowning of UTAS Student Deepinderjeet Singh in 2024.
In February last year, 27-year old Deepinderjeet Singh was seated with another woman at Hobart’s Franklin Wharf, when the assailant, then aged 17, pushed them into the water and stole the woman’s handbag.
The woman was able to hold on to a rail and call for help, but Singh, unable to swim and rescued by passerby’s and a police boat, couldn’t be revived.
The 19-yo who pleaded guilty to manslaughter and aggravated robbery, received a suspended sentence, meaning the last two years of his term will involve 100 hours of community service, regular reporting to a probation officer, and a condition of no consumption of alcohol.
Earlier on in the trial, Crown Prosecutor Elizabeth Avery argued the incident ‘didn’t occur out of the blue’ and was an ‘escalation’ of existing bad behaviour, advocating for imprisonment.
She said the 19yo, part of a group of four others involved in the incident, ran off ‘laughing’ with the handbag. The group later spent $200 on items from Kmart in Newtown using a credit card found in the bag, before being arrested the next day.
In his sentencing, Chief Justice Chris Shanahan acknowledged the ‘random and pointless’ nature of this ‘serious offending’.
“Your readiness to engage in pushing two people into a large body of water is a callous and deliberate act,” Chief Justice Shanahan said.
But defence counsel Phillipa Willshire told the court the 19-year-old had ‘responded well to rehabilitation’ and had ‘significant concerns’ rehabilitation efforts would be ‘unravelled’ if the 19-year-old was forced to serve time in an adult prison.
As such, Chief Justice Shanahan imposed the ‘unusual conditions’ of his suspended sentence to allow the 19-year-old, who was on bail at the time of the incident, a chance at rehabilitation.
“I’m told you’re deeply remorseful and your general attitude has improved,” he said.
“Nothing can bring back the life that has been taken, but this gives you the best chance at rehabilitation…whether you take it, that is up to you.”
During the trial, Ms Willshire also argued the 19-year-old had ‘no knowledge or appreciation’ that his actions could cause death, to which Chief Justice Shanahan said it was ‘commonly known’ that many people in places like India couldn’t swim.
Deepinderjeet Singh has been remembered by his family and friends as a ‘good person’ with a ‘cheeky smile’.
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