Man jailed for 6 years over teen stabbing

A 28-year-old man has been jailed for six years over a tragic suburban confrontation between a group of youths and Halls Head family that saw a young teenager "in his prime" fatally stabbed. Supreme Court Commissioner Kevin Sleight thursday described 17-year-old footballer Rowan Davis as an outstanding athlete who had his life and dreams cut short when Scott Sievers stabbed him on January 21, 2011. The teenage victim was a player with the Peel thunder Colts and a cousin of former Collingwood footballer Leon Davis. Sievers was thursday sentenced after a jury cleared him of murder but convicted him of manslaughter last November. During his trial, the court heard that Sievers had been involved in an angry confrontation with about 15 to 20 youths after one of them threw a rock at Sievers’ mother’s car which was parked outside his fiance’s Halls Head home. Both sides yelled abuse at each other but the situation escalated after Sievers ran inside his house and grabbed a meat clever and a knife. Commissioner Sleight said the behaviour of the noisy and abusive group of youths, some of whom were involved in an earlier confrontation with a resident that night, had been unacceptable. The court heard the group yelled abuse at Sievers’ mother after she confronted them about the rock thrown at her car, and one youth made threats with a cricket bat during the altercation. "The community must understand that unruly and aggressive behaviour of (large groups of people) can lead to unpredictable consequences," he said. But Commissioner Sleight said it was no excuse for Sievers’ actions, which had seen him stab Mr Davis, fatally puncturing his heart. Teenagers testified at the trial that they had been walking away before Sievers’ threatened them with the blades, and that they had witnessed him die from the fatal chest wound. Commissioner Sleight said while Sievers’ had not intended to wound Mr Davis the way he had, his act had been deliberate and inexcusable and that if the family had gone inside their home and locked their doors the tragedy might have been avoided. The court heard Sievers’ mother had already called police when Sievers confronted the group with the knives. The Commissioner said Mr Davis had been affected by the "bravado of youth" and possibly the influence of alcohol but was unarmed when he challenged Sievers verbally. "Too often we have before the court... people who overreact to volatile situations." Commissioner Sleight said a "young man in his prime" had been killed, leaving his close-knit family shattered and struggling to deal with his loss. Sievers, whose heavy remorse was taken into account by the Commissioner, had his sentence backdated to January 2011 and can apply for parole after serving four years. Outside court, Mr Davis’ cousin Phil Walley-Stack struggled to hold back tears as he described the toll of the tragedy on the teenager’s family and their sadness with the sentence. "The family is not too happy (with the jail term) and feel a bit ripped off but on behalf of the family....they wanted to thank everyone... for understanding and supporting the family," he said. "Nothing can bring him back but it wasn’t enough... we weren’t asking for the world, we are not asking for the death penalty, we weren’t asking for 50 years, we weren’t asking for 20 years, we were just asking for something reasonable, just something for a bit of closure" "A lot of people always say when (relatives) pass away ’he was an angel’, ’they were special’, well this was one boy you could truly say that about," he said of his cousin. "My word to grown-ups if there is a group of teenagers outside your house running amok - be the grown-up,stay inside and call the police - simple as that. Why act tough? It gets you nowhere...It’s one of those freak things and unfortunately both lives, both families, are dealing with hurt," Mr Walley-Stack said. Commissioner Sleight took into account Sievers’ past lack of violence or aggression, noting he had long-suffered an anxiety disorder and that the stabbing was an out-of-character act that he was genuinely remorseful for.