Liam Casley sentenced for role in brawl involving Cameron Smith

On the afternoon of November 25, 2020, Cam Smith was walking with a friend, Natasha Stroumos, near the beach in Seaford, southeast of Melbourne.

“F---ing fat b---h!” a man and a woman yelled out to Ms Stroumos.

“Sl-t!”

“You’re not fat,” Mr Smith reassured his friend. “You’re sexy.”

Within an hour, he would be dead.

Liam Casley, 19, was sentenced in the Supreme Court of Victoria on Tuesday to eight months prison and an eight-month community corrections order after pleading guilty to affray for his role in the ensuing fight. He was not accused of involvement in Mr Smith’s murder.

Casley’s friend Jack Ledlin is due to face trial for murder after he allegedly stabbed Mr Smith.

Casley is not accused of killing Mr Smith but he admitted to kicking him in the head while he was lying bleeding on the ground.

It was four against two: Mr Smith and Ms Stroumos attacked by Casley, Ledlin, Scarlett Taylor — who shouted the insults at Ms Stroumos — and a youth who cannot be named due to his age.

After being harassed while they were walking to their car, Ms Stroumos asked Mr Smith if he wanted to drive to the beach, their destination, instead of walking back past the rowdy youths.

But Mr Smith told her not to worry.

A fight broke out when they walked back past the four young people.

Mr Ledlin allegedly stabbed Mr Smith in the chest, and Casley and the youth offender kicked him as he died.

Justice Michael Croucher said Casley might not have known that Mr Smith had been stabbed in the chaos of the fight but his actions were still “sickening”.

“It was still a nasty and morally reprehensible thing to kick him while he was defenceless and completely outnumbered,” he said.

“I cannot fathom why anyone would stoop so low as to kick a defenceless man in the head.”

After the fight the foursome “scurried away like rats” through a train station carpark, Justice Croucher said.

After he was arrested Casley refused to co-operate with police, telling them it was due to his “morals”.

“You never dob one of your friends in,” he told police. “People have morals and my morals are not to dob my friends in.”

He told police: “I had so much drinks that day, I’m trying to piece it all together”.

Mr Smith was 26 when he died.

He was a carpenter and talented athlete, representing Victoria in long-distance running, Justice Croucher said.

“His family and friends are very proud of his achievements and always will be,” he said.

Casley’s upbringing was “sufficiently dire” as to explain his tendency towards violence, with domestic abuse and a “destabilising” mother, Justice Croucher said.

After already completing his eight months in jail in pre-sentence detention, Casley will be released into the community to complete his CCO.

Taylor has pleaded guilty to affray and will face a pre-sentence hearing on October 25.

The minor was sentenced to a 12-month youth supervision order.

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