The Australian man who threw a wine bottle from his high-rise flat, killing 73-year-old Muslim man Nasiari Sunee and injuring his wife Manisah, did so after drinking and subsequently getting angry about Islamist terrorist bombings that had killed 88 Australians in Bali in 2002 and Islamic State-linked stabbings in Melbourne in 2018.
The State Court heard on Friday (Feb 25) that the more the 49-year-old Andrew Gosling drank, the more significantly the thought “crossed his mind” that he should use a weapon to shoot at the family around the barbecue. After throwing the bottle at the group, Gosling shouted, “religiously motivated vulgarities” at the family.
Mr Nasiari’s oldest son told The Straits Times (ST) that the family heard the sound of two thuds, and then Mr Nasiari fell on the ground with a wound on his head. Afterwards, they saw the wine bottle.
The elderly man suffered multiple cardiac failures and eventually died in the hospital the following day.
However, it took 10 days before Mr Gosling surrendered himself to the police after the police had already combed through the housing block, talking to its occupants and asking for fingerprints.
Gosling’s defence lawyer Sreenivasan Narayanan, SC, argued that the former was prone to obsessive negative thoughts which were “not generally reflective of any anti-Muslim sentiment. This is not a religious offence. The thoughts he had that night drinking are not reflective of his thoughts [generally].”
Deputy public prosecutor Kannan Gnanasihamani said that Gosling’s act was not a rash one and that he had hostile thoughts and intended to startle the group, a report on The Sydney Morning Herald published.
Netizens who commented on the issue called it a racially motivated hate crime and asked for Gosling to be harshly sentenced.
The court also heard that Gosling had voluntarily offered $20,000 in compensation to Mr Nasiari’s family, and they have since accepted it.
Gosling is expected to be sentenced in April.
74-year-old dies after being hit by glass bottle thrown from 35-storey condo