One of the teenagers behind a Glenorchy bus stop attack that left a woman thinking she was about to die has had her sentence cut and her conviction wiped.
Tasmania’s Court of Criminal Appeal found the original penalty was too harsh for a young offender who was 16 at the time of the attack and had strong prospects of turning her life around.
The teen, identified only as LS, was first sentenced in August 2025 to 18 months’ detention, wholly suspended, plus 100 hours of community service. She was also convicted of assault.
The appeal court recently wiped the conviction and reduced the detention to six months, wholly suspended for 12 months.
The community service order stayed in place.
The attack happened outside the Club Hotel on July 31, 2024.
A 28-year-old woman was waiting for a bus when LS and 18-year-old Aleena Sandra Hovington demanded her phone.
Hovington pushed her against a wall. LS then grabbed her hair and threw her to the ground before kicking her in the head.
LS walked off but came back and stomped on the woman’s head. The attack was filmed and shared on a Snapchat account called ‘Fights Tassie’.
The victim suffered concussion and bruising. She told the court she thought she might die.
Justice Robert Pearce said the original sentence did not give enough weight to the teen’s chance of rehabilitation.
He pointed to her age and a childhood marked by abuse, neglect and time in foster care.
“The principal reason that the sentence first imposed was manifestly excessive was the length of the period of detention, combined with the order of conviction,” Justice Pearce said.
The court also noted Hovington, who was older, got a shorter 15-month suspended sentence with no community service.
Hovington’s sentence was not part of the appeal.
