Australian Sentenced to Six Years Term for Attacking Indian

An Australian has been sentenced to six-and-a-half years of imprisonment for attacking an Indian taxi driver with knife, an incidence that caused hundreds of Indian cabbies blocking streets in Melbourne last year.

Parrish Chales was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in jail by Justice Elizabeth Curtain, who observed that stabbing was “random, unprovoked and frenzied” and the fact that the 45-year-old attacker had a hunting knife hidden in his pants showed a degree of “premeditation”.

The unprovoked and unexpected assault, the judge said, on 23-year-old Jalvinder Singh was terrific and left Singh with ongoing mental and physical injuries that would change his life, said reports on Friday.

Charles stabbed Singh five times from behind with a hunting knife and the victim crawled bleeding from his cab and was found in the gutter hours later by a passing truck driver in April last year.

Charles drove off in the cab but crashed it nearby. The crime shocked the city and led to a mass blockade of Flinders and Swanston streets in central Melbourne by taxi drivers for 22 hours.

Victorian Government had to then agree to safety screens in cabs for drivers who wanted them, and pre-payment of fares to become mandatory at night.