By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
MACHETE attack victim Nhial ‘Nelly’ Yoa walks with a limp — but he hasn’t lost his swagger.
On Anzac Day last year, Mr Yoa almost bled to death after he was horrifically slashed several times to the elbow, wrist and knee by a machete-wielding party-goer at a Sudanese beauty pageant in Braybrook.
His accused attacker, Deyom Machok, was last month jailed for three months and ordered to carry out 350 hours of voluntary community work.
Machok was found not guilty by a County Court jury of intentionally or recklessly causing serious injury, but guilty of common-law affray.
Mr Yoa was “shattered” by the outcome. It seemed to play down an act that almost ended his life.
“There’s got to be tougher sentencing,” Mr Yoa said. “The judge should set an example to the community. There’s no deterrent to young guys if they just get three months. I feel for [Machok] but I’ll never forgive him.”
Mr Yoa, who has lived in and near Dandenong most of his life, has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress, walks with a distinct limp and sports a metal plate where his elbow was broken. There is only a 20 per cent chance his nerve-damaged right arm will repair.
He still recalls clearly the night of the attack. Machok was part of a pack of men armed with golf clubs, machetes and baseball bats who had pursued Mr Yoa and his friends into a car park. He says he was struck on the right elbow as he blocked a machete swung at his mate’s neck.
Mr Yoa said he didn’t feel any pain as his arm and a knee — newly reconstructed following a soccer injury — were sliced open.
He walked away — then fainted in a voluminous pool of blood, his elbow and wrist broken.
During his 12-day stay in Royal Melbourne Hospital — two while critically ill — his surgeon said people did not usually survive such wounds.
“It was terrifying. I never thought he’d use the machete against me. I didn’t think any human being would produce a deadly weapon and swing it against you.
“A lot of guys in the Sudanese community do carry weapons because they want to look tough and intimidating. They want people to talk about them. But even within the African community in Melbourne, they are all against violence.”
The worst thing for Mr Yoa is his dream of being a professional soccer player has been hampered. A player for Dandenong and Oakleigh’s Victorian Premier League sides, the pacy goal-hungry striker says he’d be in the A-League and in contention for the Brazil World Cup 2014 if not for his injuries.
He wants to prove wrong his surgeon, who prognosticated he would never play soccer again. In an effort to be picked up by an A-League or an Asian league club, Yoa has been training five days a week with strength and conditioning coach Darren Campbell.
CUTTING EDGE
IN terms of weapon categories in Victoria, a machete is classified in the same bracket as a hammer or a screwdriver.
A machete is classified as a ‘dangerous article’ — a lesser category than a prohibited weapon or a controlled weapon.
A Victoria Police website states dangerous articles are “ordinary objects which are carried or modified with the intent to be used for violence”.
People cannot possess such articles in a public place without a lawful excuse. Examples include household tools, sports equipment — and machetes.
A spokeswoman for Police Minister Peter Ryan said the law recognised there was a legitimate use for machetes such as clearing undergrowth and pruning vines.
“Strict penalties apply for anyone attempting to use them as a weapon.”
The maximum penalty is $8450 or six months’ jail — double for being on or near a licensed premises.
