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Family’s warning after son killed in coward punch attack
Parents who lost their son in a coward punch attack have called on Victorians to think twice about violent confrontations as COVID-19 restrictions ease.
Jaiden Walker would be 27-years-old this year if his life had not been cut short by a coward punch attack.
Jaiden was outside Cherry Bar in Melbourne when he was hit from behind in 2017.
The punch led to his parents eventually being forced to turn off his life support.
His father, Jon Walker, said he kept wondering what Jaiden would be doing now if he hadn’t suffered the tragedy.
“They say it gets easier with time but it doesn’t at all,” he said.
His parents are among campaigners urging Victorians to think twice about about their actions as nightlife returns and revellers let loose after COVID-19 lockdowns.
Mr Walker has warned people who consider resorting to violence.
“You’re going to mess up so many people, you’re either going to jail or you’re going six foot under,” he said.
Boxing champion Danny Green has been spearheading a campaign against violence, and says switching the language from “king hit” to “coward punch” is driving change.
“Confrontation between human being is never going to go away,” Green said.
“But by branding it and stigmatising the term with such a horrible connotation of being a coward, it’s had great effect.”
Since the year 2000, 172 Australians have lost their lives from coward punch assaults.
Pleasingly, deaths fell by 50 per cent between 2012 to 2018.
New research by the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine has found more than 70 per cent of assaults are happening outside pubs and clubs and victims are getting older.
