A remorseless teenage thug who stabbed a beloved doctor to death after robbing his home has been sentenced to jail.
But the now 18-year-old killer will likely walk free while he is still younger than his victim was when he died in a pool of his own blood.
Dr Ashley Gordon was just 33 when the 16-year-old repeatedly stabbed and hacked him to death on January 13 last year on Eildon Street in Doncaster, in Melbourne’s east.
On Tuesday, Justice Amanda Fox sentenced the teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, to 17 years in jail, setting a non-parole period of just 12 years.
Dr Gordon’s family and friends let out a gasp and then cried as the sentence was handed down.
With 685 days already served by the boy in youth detention, the killer will likely still only be in his late 20s when he’s released.
In a double blow for Dr Gordon’s heartbroken family, Justice Fox urged the Adult Parole Board to keep the youth locked in youth detention for as long as possible in order to spare him the harshness of adult prison.
‘Whether you are held in an adult jail or transferred to youth detention is a decision for the Adult Parole Board and not the court. I am, however, satisfied that it is appropriate to make such a recommendation,’ she said.
Dr Ashley Gordon was aged just 33 when he was murdered in cold blood
‘A key reason for this is it would allow you to continue your education, which in turn will enhance your prospects of rehabilitation.
‘Additionally, you are immature and impressionable. An adult prison will likely expose you to undesirable influences.’
The court had been packed with Dr Gordon’s friends and family, who just weeks ago laid bare their grief to the court through gut-wrenching victim impact statements.
Justice Fox defended her sentence, arguing she was not permitted under law to sentence the killer as she might an adult.
‘As a matter of law, a child is significantly less blameworthy than a grown adult would be if they behaved in the same way,’ she said.
‘All of these considerations can and do lead to child offenders receiving sentences which would be regarded as inappropriate, in the case of older offenders.
‘The law recognises that youth and rehabilitation are primary sentencing considerations when sentencing young offenders, particularly when dealing with first-time offenders who have no criminal history or entrenched patterns of offending.’
Justice Fox told the court the young killer remained completely remorseless over his offending and maintained his innocence.
The crime scene where Dr Gordon was brutally murdered
The youth had pleaded not guilty to murder and tried to convince a jury he had acted in self-defence.
‘You continue to maintain your innocence, and you have not developed any genuine remorse for murdering Dr Gordon,’ Justice Fox said.
‘Your lack of remorse is consistent with the fact that you do not accept the jury’s verdict and you have not taken responsibility for your crime.
‘These matters dampen your prospects of rehabilitation, but I am conscious that you are still young and capable of change.’
Dr Gordon had confronted the teen to perform a citizen’s arrest after he caught him breaking into his home on nearby Sargent Street with three of his mates.
He had been in bare feet and unarmed when he confronted the youths, telling them ‘hello boys’ before they fled.
The court heard Dr Gordon pursued the thieves in his car before attempting to apprehend his eventual killer.
The teenager stabbed Dr Gordon 11 times, inflicting a 10.8cm deep chest wound that pierced his lung and heart and a forehead wound so severe it shaved off part of his frontal bone.
Yet the brazen killer claimed self-defence, running a cynical defence which tried to portray the helpless innocent doctor as the aggressor in the midst of ‘roid rage’.
The quiet street where Dr Gordon was killed in cold blood
‘You had options. You could have surrendered. You could have left the knife in your pocket. You could have run. Physically, you were not trapped,’ Justice Fox said.
The jury dismissed the teen’s claims that Dr Gordon had ‘smirked’ at him and the killer’s other lies about the doctor’s fury fueled by vials of steroids the teen claimed to have in the doctor’s garage.
The heartless teen claimed the doctor shoulder-charged him into a garage door, prompting him to stab him repeatedly to free himself as he was held in a bear hug.
He said he feared for his life and never intended to kill or seriously injure Dr Gordon.
Justice Fox condemned the killer’s cruel claims about Dr Gordon in his final moments alive.
‘It was not reasonable for you to do what you did, and it was not necessary for you to stab Dr Gordon repeatedly,’ she said.
‘I do not accept that you believed he was going to kill you or cause you really serious injury or cause you any real injury at all. At the most, you were at risk of being tackled and perhaps placed in a headlock until police arrived.’
The court heard one of the killer’s co-accused kicked Dr Gordon in the face as he lay bleeding out.
‘A despicable act that cannot be attributed to you,’ Justice Fox told the teen.
Dr Gordon and his family in happier times
The heartbroken family of Dr Gordon told the young murderer what he did would not be forgotten – and would never be forgiven.
Tammy Gordon described the moment she pulled over while driving to Melbourne after learning her brother had been murdered.
She struggled to comprehend the meaning of her father’s devastating message, before later seeing her brother’s body which brought home the soul-crushing reality.
During a pre-sentence hearing last month she confronted the savage child killer face-to-face in court in a dramatic showdown.
‘You stabbed him 11 times. I saw him at the coroner’s, cold and rubbery – that wasn’t my brother,’ she said.
Sleepless nights and a heart filled with hate have left her unable to forgive.
‘Murder is beyond forgiveness,’ she said.
Ms Gordon said she was tortured by the thoughts of her brother’s final moments, knowing as a doctor he would have been aware he was dying.
Dr Gordon had just began operating his own medical practice and was saving lives
‘Alone, in pain, scared. These thoughts keep me up at night, preventing restful sleep,’ she said.
‘To have taken a life so viciously with a knife, stabbing him over and over, and then to laugh about it, you laughed.’
Known for his infectious smile and tireless commitment to saving lives, Dr Gordon was a ‘homegrown hero’ whose loss shocked a city caught in a seemingly endless crime wave.
More than 600 mourners had attended Dr Gordon’s funeral.
