Infamous coward punch killer Kieran Loveridge has pleaded guilty to heroin charges in a Sydney court, 14 years after he killed innocent teenager Thomas Kelly in an unprovoked attack on a King’s Cross street.
The 32-year-old was one month away from finishing his parole when police searched his Glendenning home in April, finding a bag of heroin next to his bed.
Loveridge served 11 years behind bars for the unprovoked one-punch attack that killed 18-year-old Kelly in King’s Cross in 2012. The crime led to Sydney’s controversial lockout laws.
“I think the thing that’s the hardest for me to try and comprehend is that he lost his life for nothing,” Kelly’s mother Kathy said at the time.
His lawyer told the Mount Druitt court on Wednesday that Loveridge turned to drugs after becoming a parent, knowing Kelly never will.
“The birth of his young child seemed to be a catalyst for an acute period of shame and guilt ... having taken that opportunity from that young man,” lawyer Andrew Sant told the court.
This time, Loveridge avoided a jail sentence. Instead, he was placed on a six-month community corrections order. One of his conditions is that he must continue medical treatment for drug abuse.
The government had tried to extend his supervision order for the manslaughter sentence when it expired in May. The application was rejected.
“I particularly understand the victim’s families who’d be, you know, very worried and horrified by this decision,” NSW Premier Chris Minns said at the time.
Loveridge’s lawyer said he started drug use after the birth of his child.
