Geelong
Friday, 23 January, 2015
Connecting people and communities
Phone: 5249 6700 Trades and Classifieds: 1300 666 808
Teen’s multiple injuries from latest mall outrage
Kicked in the face by a thug
MASSIVE FESTIVAL TICKETS GIVEAWAY PAGE 2
By NOEL MURPHY
HEAT ON CALLS TO SILENCE ‘DENIERS’ PAGE 5 BASHED: Richard Vecoli recovering from his injuries at home this week.
Picture: Reg Ryan
RICHARD Vecoli could hardly have been less prepared for the cowardly boot to the face that fractured his eye socket in two places, tore his lip, smashed up his cheek and ripped the retina in his right eye. He was sitting with a mate on the Moorabool St footpath, leaning against a 7-Eleven wall head down, texting another friend in the early hours of last Saturday morning when the attack came out of nowhere. A stocky, fair-headed thug ran at Mr Vecoli and kicked him square in the face with all the full force of his combined weight and speed - without any prior conversation, provocation or warning. The lean 19-year-old tennis champion and Australian Open ball boy, soon to begin commerce studies at Deakin University, was badly hurt and shocked. Luckily he had the good sense to get away to avoid further injury as his attacker remonstrated with Mr Vecoli’s mate. The assault preceded an horrific assault on a 12-year-old girl just metres away in Geelong’s mall days earlier in broad daylight. Video of the later at-
FRACTURES: Mr Vecoli the day after he was bashed. tack received national media attention. The violence again depicted central Geelong as dangerous, violent and unsafe. “I’m still in shock,” Mr Vecoli told the Independent this week. “I go back to watch the footage to see if it really happened. I thought there’d be adrenalin but it was just pain, I was spitting out skin from the inside of my lip. “I have two fractures in my eye socket and tissue damage on my jaw. The specialist said the retina in my right eye was the most swollen he’d seen in a year - all this damage from just one kick. Continued page 2
FORD OWNERS For servicing and repairs with manufacturer’s warranty not affected see Geelong’s Ford Specialist.
T J B “The dealer alternative”
for all your automotive requirements
5244 3337 8 Maxwell Ave, Belmont 1064920-KG9-13
1168036-LB51-14
PH: 5224 1900
190 Latrobe Terrace, Geelong www.bikestudio.com.au 1132478-ACM18-14