Thao Thi Tran with Andy, 10, Danny, 8, and Claudia, 6.
Photo: Angela Wylie
Husband killer freed for children's sake
By Steve Butcher
Thao Thi Tran with Andy, 10, Danny, 8, and Claudia, 6.
Photo: Angela Wylie
The plight of three vulnerable children persuaded a Melbourne judge yesterday to free their mother after a jury convicted her of killing her violent husband.
Justice Stephen Kaye said it would be an "affront to common sense and human decency" to ignore the hardship and suffering of Thao Thi Tran's children in sentencing her.
Justice Kaye found the likely fate of the children - boys aged nine and seven and a girl, six - had combined with other mitigating factors to justify suspending Tran's three-year prison sentence.
The eldest child, who saw his mother stab his stepfather five times, had to "struggle on his own in coming to grips with that dreadful memory", the judge said. "I am persuaded that the plight of your children and their likely fate should you remain in jail, in combination with other mitigating factors... makes it just that I take the exceptional course of imposing a suspended sentence upon you," he told Tran.
Tran, 32, sobbed throughout the sentencing before her sister fell to her knees on the floor of the Supreme Court and bowed repeatedly to the bench.
Her solicitor, Alex Lewenberg, said later that "judicial wisdom" had prevailed and described Justice Kaye's sentencing remarks as exceptional.
A jury found Tran not guilty in April of the murder of Chung Manh Tran, 43, on November 4, 2003, but guilty of manslaughter.
Evidence at the trial established that the couple's relationship for years was tense and troubled and that Mr Tran was violent towards her, particularly after drinking.
Justice Kaye said when Tran arrived that November day at the couple's Flemington Housing Commission flat, Mr Tran subjected her to a brutal and cruel beating. He then smashed a Buddhist shrine sacred to Tran in honour of her deceased mother, sending her into an uncontrollable rage. In return, she slashed his cherished stereo speakers before neighbours again intervened, but Mr Tran returned to the flat after Tran rang him.
Tran said in evidence her husband then exploded in rage, smashed furniture and turned on her. Tran fled with him in pursuit before she faced him with a knife. She claimed she did not intend to kill him or cause him serious injury, but had acted in self-defence.
Justice Kaye said while Tran's defence did not raise provocation, he accepted one mitigating factor was that she suffered a "severe degree of provocation" from him.
School principal Janine Heley told the court Tran was a devoted mother to her bright and well-adjusted children, but since being remanded in custody to await sentence, the boys had suffered obvious difficulties.
Justice Kaye told Tran her husband was the primary victim of her offence, her children were the next most affected, and he did not play down the grief and distress to Mr Tran's family.
In prison, Tran suffered difficulties of isolation, a limited grasp of English and being ostracised by other Vietnamese prisoners for killing her husband.
Justice Kaye told Tran that "if not for the circumstances of the children, I would sentence you to a term of imprisonment, which would be substantially reduced due to other mitigating circumstances".
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