A couple were viciously attacked by a group of young men inside their hotel, after first being taunted inside an elevator after asking them to wait for their own lift.<\/p>\n
Harper Keneally, an education support officer working with children with ADHD and autism, was sitting outside the Franklin Apartments around 3.32am on May 31, 2024 with three others, including his co-accused Tosh Comley, 19.<\/p>\n
The District Court heard the older married couple \u2013 whom The Advertiser has chosen not to name \u2013 returned to the hotel from a night out, using their fob key to gain entry to the foyer area, when all four young men followed them in.<\/p>\n
The husband asked the group to wait for another elevator because of their behaviour, but they refused and walked in behind them.<\/p>\n
As the man tried to apologise to the group to cool tensions, one of the group responded, \u201cwhat\u2019s your f**king problem grandpa, why are you being such a d**k you stupid old c**t\u201d.<\/p>\n
As the couple left the elevator, the man felt something wet land on him, and Comely charged at him with a flurry of punches, Judge Emily Telfer said.<\/p>\n
The man fell to the ground where his arms were held and another person put him in a choke hold, while someone else yelled \u201cchoke him out\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou might have thought at the time you were big powerful men acting in that way but you were cowardly and pathetic,\u201d Judge Emily Telfer said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI doubt you would have even considered behaving the same way if the people you had come across were a group of men who were a physical match for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Keneally hit the woman as she tried to help her husband, whose breathing was impaired.<\/p>\n
He suffered multiple facial fractures including to the eye socket requiring surgery and leaving permanent damage to his vision and face.<\/p>\n
The assault stopped when another hotel guest threatened to call police, at which the young men ran off and were later found inside their hotel room, with bloodstained towels.<\/p>\n
The couple have been left with permanent visible and invisible scars, the court heard, had lost their social life and friends, replaced with crippling anxiety, as a result of the attack.<\/p>\n
Keneally, who had turned 18 only two days prior to the assault, suffered from \u201cdifficulties with anger management and anxiety\u201d, the court heard.<\/p>\n
During sentencing, Judge Telfer said Keneally was also involved in a verbal altercation at the Zhivago nightclub while on bail, despite being banned from the CBD.<\/p>\n
The court heard he also assaulted a man with another group in Torrensville where a man was dragged into a car and beaten while being told to \u201ctake it like a man\u201d.<\/p>\n
Both men pleaded guilty to aggravated causing harm with intent while Keneally also pleaded guilty to aggravated assault.<\/p>\n
Judge Telfer sentenced Comley to two years, four months and 16 days, with a non-parole period on home detention of 13 months.<\/p>\n
Her Honour fixed a sentence of two years, ten months and 12 days with a non-parole period on home detention of 16 months for Keneally, <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A couple were viciously attacked by a group of young men inside their hotel, after first being taunted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[395,12937,23,133,12936,12935,12941,12934,3536,12932,12929,12930,9956,12933,12938,12940,12928,5684,12927,5697,120,12931,121,5703,12939,8194],"class_list":{"0":"post-12125","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-adelaide","8":"tag-adelaide","9":"tag-alleged-murder-witness","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","12":"tag-avoided-jail","13":"tag-brenton-edwards","14":"tag-brutal-couple-assault","15":"tag-cellar-door-rampage","16":"tag-court-reporter","17":"tag-education-support-officer","18":"tag-franklin-apartments-hotel","19":"tag-harper-keneally","20":"tag-home-detention","21":"tag-ing-problem-grandpa","22":"tag-innocent-hotel-guests","23":"tag-judge-emily-telfer","24":"tag-leah-smith","25":"tag-messenger-subscription-box","26":"tag-multiple-facial-fractures","27":"tag-non-parole-period","28":"tag-oceania","29":"tag-school-worker","30":"tag-south-australia","31":"tag-subscription-box-version","32":"tag-taunting-club-security","33":"tag-torrensville"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}