A remorseless Sudanese refugee who stalked another African man through the streets of Melbourne before stabbing him 14 times has been jailed for more than seven years over the “pitiless” near-fatal attack.
Gatluak Gatluak, 34, was found guilty by a jury of intentionally causing injury and affray, and appeared before the County Court of Victoria earlier this month for sentencing over the attack on Origi Kwajakwan in Dandenong in the early hours of July 15, 2022.
The court heard that Gatluak, who came to Australia as a child only to travel back to African to fight in the Sudanese civil war, followed his victim for about 20 minutes after both men left the Players Hotel, caught up with him near the Ramada Encore Hotel, and punched, kicked and repeatedly stabbed him.
Mr Kwajakwan suffered 14 knife wounds, a collapsed lung, traumatic brain injuries, severe blood loss and multiple muscle and abdominal injuries requiring emergency surgery, and the court heard Gatluak buried the 10cm blade up to the hilt during the frenzied attack.
Judge John Kelly described the assault in sentencing as “callous, calculated, comprehensive and almost fatal”, and said Mr Kwajakwan would likely have died without rapid medical intervention.
Gatluak pleaded not guilty, but Judge Kelly noted CCTV footage showed his distinctive red shoes and a “red right hand”, while Mr Kwajakwan, who had known his attacker for about 18 months, testified that Gatluak yelled at him and said he had been meaning to fight him for a long time in the moments before the stabbing.
Defence lawyers argued Gatluak’s moral culpability should be reduced because he was exposed to civil war as a child, before being “retraumatised” by serving as a captain in the Sudanese army, where he said he witnessed killings, torture and the deaths of children.
The court also heard Gatluak had been diagnosed with PTSD, had a violent childhood, was a drug user, lost teeth in a machete attack in 2025, and has a brother who is “wheelchair bound and supported by the NDIS” after a car accident.
Gatluak previous convictions, including for robbery in 2010, intentionally causing injury in 2019, unlawful assault in 2021, family violence offences, and multiple other assaults.
In one incident in 2020, Gatluak repeatedly punched a stranger at a Dandenong service station before dragging him to the ground and biting his thumb.
In another, he and a co-offender chased a man into his house before assaulting him with a beer bottles. Later that year, he was found guilty of assaulting his own brother and rendering him unconscious.
The court heard that although Gatluak had three children with two women – two children live in Uganda with his first wife, and a third child lives in the Northern Territory with her mother – he had “not cultivated a relationship” with any of them.
Judge Kelly ultimately determined that Gatluak’s moral culpability was high, finding the attack was planned as he had armed himself and stalked his unarmed victim for a long period before launching the assault, which he described as “pitiless”, and then left him bleeding in the street.
“You tracked him for close to 20 minutes, you were armed and you were doubtless contemplating what to do to Mr Kwajakwan over that whole period. You stabbed him at night, on a public road. He had no one to intervene. He offered you no violence, no threat of violence. Your actions remain unexplained and motiveless,” the judge said.
He also said the PTSD considerations were outweighed by the seriousness of the offending and the need to protect the public, and noted Gatluak had volunteered to fight in the Sudanese civil war as an adult rather than being conscripted, and only returned to Australia to get medical treatment for a grenade injury.
“At 18, you chose to fight in the Sudanese civil war. You thrived in that environment. You say you led attacks and acted as a bodyguard to generals. You were promoted to the rank of captain. Your fighting career was cut short by an injury to your leg,” he told the court.
“I am prepared to sentence you on the basis that your exposure to violence in childhood and your further immersion in it during the Sudanese civil war reduces somewhat your moral culpability for this offending.
“But that reduction needs to be offset by the need for the community’s protection from someone who has been trained by war to dispense savagery.”
Judge Kelly sentenced Gatluak to 12 years and three months’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of seven years and six months, with 830 days of pre-sentence detention noted as time served.
“Your conduct needs to be denounced in the sentence I impose. Your prospects of rehabilitation are guarded, but I need to leave the door open. Your criminal history at the time you stabbed Mr Kwajakwan had been modest when set against this crime,” Judge Kelly told Gatluak.
“You have a loving and supportive family. You need therapy for the horrors you witnessed in Sudan. If that happens in custody, you may become receptive to programs which minimise or eliminate your risk of violent offending. The community’s best interests are served by that kind of reformation.”
Gatluak’s immigration status was not mentioned during the sentencing hearing, and it is unclear whether he will be deported after completing his sentence.
Header image: The scene of the stabbing (7News).
The post Refugee who went back to Africa to fight in civil war jailed for Melbourne stabbing first appeared on The Noticer.
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