Second kangaroo torturer Ricky Swan jailed for ‘brutal’ attack

A SECOND of the four men charged over the kangaroo torture and killing that horrified Perth earlier this year has been jailed for five months.

Ricky Ian Swan (28), of Aveley, received a 12-month sentence suspended for seven months in Joondalup Magistrates Court today for stabbing a kangaroo with a knife more than 20 times at an unknown location between May 19 and June 16.

He is seen in a Snapchat video – filmed by co-accused and former bikie associate Luke Dempster and recovered by Joondalup detectives – abusing the animal with “come here c___” and “you mother f__er” before spitting on it.

Magistrate Deen Potter defined the kangaroo as a unique, definitive and iconic aspect of the Australian landscape and at 28 years old Swan “should have known better”.

He said the animal was “clearly distressed” and had tried to escape when Swan advanced upon it and stabbed it in the back of the neck.

As it lay on the ground struggling, Swan had in a “frenzy” stabbed it “another 20 times to the head and neck”.

Mr Potter said the animal must have felt pain and fear under the brutal attack and “vacillated between fight or flight”.

With regard to Swan’s claim that he was so drunk he could not remember stabbing the kangaroo, Mr Potter said his motor skills were “inconsistent with that level of intoxication”. He also questioned the claim the attack was not premeditated – there “must have been some”.

Mr Potter took into account his early guilty plea and noted his now “full appreciation of the gravity of his actions”.

He said it was clear Swan had not dealt with the death of his father and noted that he had sought counselling – albeit after the offence was disclosed – to understand “whatever dark motivation” was behind his actions.

“I don’t know what came over me, it’s disgusting,” Swan had said in court documents. “I wish it never happened, I thought I was fine but clearly not.”

Mr Potter noted that Swan had lost his fiancée and job.

His mother’s statement had said her son had lost everything in a “moment of recklessness under the abuse of alcohol”.

The magistrate noted that if the aim of co-accused Dempster’s filming was notoriety, it had been successful with Swan’s lawyer John Hammond saying in court last week that his client was now a “pariah” in the community.

He also acknowledged Dempster’s culpability as the “principal offender”, who was “encouraging you”.

Mr Potter told Swan jail “will be a confronting experience for you”.

He fined him $3000 for possessing the knife to inflict cruelty.

His suspended jail term of seventh months will apply for 10 months.