Teens sentenced for brutal pensioner attack

Two teenage boys have been sentenced to juvenile detention after savagely beating a 61-year-old man into a coma as bystanders looked on in Gothenburg in March.

• Pensioner awakes from coma after teens' attack (27 May 12)
• Teens' savage attack 'may have been filmed' (3 Apr 12)

The victim, Carl-Eric Cedvander, was in a coma for two months following the brutal assault on Kortedala Torg, western Sweden, on March 18th, where a gang of teenage boys beat and kicked the 61-year-old in a crowded square.

Doctors believe the injuries Cedvander sustained in the attack were life threatening and will be permanent.

Seven teenage boys were taken into custody after the attack, initially claiming that the man had instigated the violence and that they were acting in self-defense.

However, the court ruled Tuesday that the two teens were guilty of aggravated assault, and handed the them a juvenile detention sentence as well as a damages fee of 130,000 kronor ($19,816) and community service.

According to the court, the younger of the boys, a 16-year-old, was responsible for the kick that several witnesses suggested put an end to the assault.

"It was like he took a run-up, like when you kick a ball. After that, the man was just wheezing," one witness said in hearings, according to the Aftonbladet newspaper.

Both teenagers denied the crime.

Had the offenders been of an adult age, the incident would have left them with between one and a half and two and a half years’ prison, wrote the court in a statement.

“It’s mixed feelings. It’s disappointing that my client was not acquitted, but the good thing is that the penalty was more lenient than the prosecutor had requested,” said lawyer Per Söderberg, who represented the younger of the two boys.

TT/The Local/og
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