A cowardly teenage African killer has lost an appeal over his sentence for murdering Australian grandmother Vyleen White in front of her six-year-old granddaughter in Queensland.
The Sudanese refugee cannot be named because he was a 16 when he stabbed Ms White, 70, to death for her Hyundai Getz in the carpark of the Town Square Redbank Plains Shopping Centre in Ipswich in February 2024.
His lawyers appealed his 16-year sentence, which came with a non-parole period of less than 10 years, claiming it was “manifestly excessive” for a murder that was not premediated, and argued it was the highest ever for a 16-year-old for a single stable murder.
The appeal was heard before Queensland Court of Appeal president Justice Debra Mullins and Justices John Bond and David Boddice last month, who handed down their decision on Friday, the Australian Associated Press reported.
The murderer is likely to be released on parole in late 2033, around the time of his 26th birthday.
Attorney-General Deb Frecklington said in a statement: “No sentence will ever bring grandmother Vyleen White back, and my thoughts and prayers remain with Victor and the White family on what continues to be an incredibly difficult day.”
She also added that under new “adult crime, adult time” laws, the teenager would have faced life imprisonment.
Victims’ advocate Lyndy Atkinson said outside court the appeal was an insult to Ms White’s family, and warned there would have been community outrage if the original sentence had been overturned.
“Sixteen years detention for the offence of murder was not unjust,” she said.
During the appeal the killer’s legal team also argued that the sentencing judge erred when she found the murder was deliberate and determined and rejected a submission that the African teen acted in a “moment of madness”.
They also compared the sentence to that given to a teenager who stabbed a young mother Emma Lovell to death in a home invasion and was sentenced to 14 years.
But Director of Public Prosecutions Todd Fuller KC told the court the sentence was “well short” of being manifestly excessive, CCTV showed the stabbing was “very deliberate and intentional”, and that the stabbing occurred in different circumstances to Ms Lovell’s murder.
“The sentence properly reflects the tension that exists between the need to protect the community and the sentencing of a young offender for the serious offence of murder, “ he said.
During sentencing the Queensland Supreme Court heard that the then-16-year-old plunged his knife into Ms White’s heart without hesitation while trying to steal her car to use in a robbery with a group of other African teenagers.
The killer did not stop to check on Ms White, who suffered a 17cm-deep wound, and her granddaughter was forced to run up an escalator alone to ask for help after first running up to her.
Chief Justice Helen Bowskill took into account the murderer’s guilty plea, which she said showed he had taken responsibility for the crime, and that he came from a loving family who still support him despite his actions, and told him: “I also accept that you feel ashamed for what you have done”.
But she also called the killer “callous and cowardly”, noting that a “defenceless” Ms White had raised her arms in surrender while being threatened by the teenager, who “towered” over her.
Header image: Left, the killer being taken into custody (9News). Right, Ms White (supplied).
The post Sudanese refugee who murdered Vyleen White loses ‘insulting’ appeal first appeared on The Noticer.
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