James Gargasoulas, who went on a rampage through Melbourne’s Bourke Street and mowed down pedestrians, has been found guilty of murdering six people and endangering the life of 27 others.
A Supreme Court jury took just over an hour to find the 28-year-old, who admitted killing six people in the rampage on January 20 last year, guilty of all charges.
Despite admitting his actions driving through the busy pedestrian mall and along footpaths caused death and injury, he pleaded not guilty to six charges of murder and 27 of reckless conduct endangering life.
Families of the victims welcomed the verdict.
“Today, the jury formally recognised that on 20 January, 2017, James Gargasoulas murdered six innocent people and recklessly endangered the lives of 27 others,” according to a statement from lawyer Genna Angelowitsch, who represents the families of five victims.
“His callous actions on that day shattered the lives of the family and friends whose loved ones he stole.
“The families of the victims are grateful to all those whose hard work secured today’s outcome, and for the ongoing support they have received during this difficult time.
“They appreciate the continued respect of their privacy as they prepare for the sentencing process,” said the lawyer, who represents the families of victims Zachary Bryant, Jess Mudie, Matthew Si, Bhavita Patel and Yosuke Kanno.
During the trial, Director of Public Prosecutions Kerri Judd QC told jurors it was “the clearest case of criminal liability that you will ever come across”.
The defence did not challenge the prosecution case, and Gargasoulas took the witness stand to offer an “explanation” in which he said he was sorry for his actions.
Gargasoulas told the court on Monday he hadn’t intended for anyone to die, but understood that “in a sense, yes” he knew when he was doing it that was the probable outcome.
“I apologise from my heart but that’s not going to fix anything … neither will a lengthy sentence fix what I done,” he said.
He claimed he had a premonition half an hour before the Bourke St attack giving him permission to run people down in order to evade police, but that he didn’t have permission to kill anyone.
Earlier jurors flinched and gasped as confronting and graphic footage of pedestrians being struck on January 20 last year was played close to three dozen times.
Top Comments
To be honest I'm not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, I'm pleased he's been found guilty and will hopefully be given an appropriate sentence. On the other hand, if he does have a mental illness then I hope he gets the help he needs because maybe if he had gotten help earlier this would never have happened. If he is mentally ill then regardless of what he's done please don't vilify the mentally ill and imply that we're all violent and evil. The stigma is bad enough after things like this happen. If you are someone who does something wrong and then blame it on mental illness, please stop you are making the stigma towards us even worse and if you are someone who thinks all mentally ill people are evil then please take a good look in the mirror at yourself.
I guess I'm saying all this because I feel angry, guilty, ashamed and embarrassed. I'm angry at this man because he did something so senseless and then used mental illness as an excuse to justify it (provided he wasn't mentally ill) but if he was mentally ill then as someone who has a psychotic disorder it's embarrassing and shameful to have such a diagnosis because people have a preconceived idea of what psychosis is and I feel guilty for having that diagnosis because society makes us feel as though we've done something wrong by having an illness that wasn't asked for and when something like this happens people use it to justify stigmatising the mentally ill.
You didn’t have a ‘premonition’, you idiot, you had an idea. Glad he’s been found guilty, now for a nice long sentence, preferably life with no parole.
And no concurrent sentencing. Consecutive sentencing thank you very much.