‘Life is the most important thing’: Father’s tribute as mourners honour two boys killed in ambush

Holding hands, hundreds of mourners gathered at a community park in Melbourne’s outer west on Tuesday night, joined in prayer to honour the lives of two young boys who died within metres of each other.

The murder of 12-year-old Chol Achiek and friend Dau Akueng, 15, in an ambush by eight masked assailants in Cobblebank, near Melton, on Saturday has stoked fear in the community.

God and grace. That was the message to mourners from the families of Chol and Dau who joined the many people who turned out on Tuesday night, lit only by candlelight.

Chol’s father, Chuti Ngong, described his son as a peaceful, loving boy.

“Life is the most important thing that we cannot recover,” he told the crowd.

Ngong called on the community to help prevent further violence on the streets of Melbourne, and to protect children. “We are all human beings,” he said. “We all have blood. We all have pain. Let’s take care of one another.”

Before the vigil, a family whose three boys have all been stabbed outlined the fear those in Melbourne’s outer west are living with in the face of a youth crime crisis that the premier now concedes may need new police powers.

Henry Koor, a former neighbour of Chol’s and a father of five, said the boys’ deaths were devastating but not completely shocking.

Koor, who moved to Australia from South Sudan in 2007, is familiar with the violence being experienced in his community. Last month three of his nephews were stabbed in Truganina.

“Their mother was very committed, very vigilant about their safety, she was telling them, ‘Please don’t go outside,’” he said.

“They could not listen to their parents and left the house … and this is where they got stabbed. Luckily, all of them survived.”

The killings of Chol and Dau were the latest in a spate of violent and gang-related attacks in the area that has, Koor says, prompted parents to urge their children not to leave the house after dark.

“I will not allow my kids to walk on the street or go out at the wrong time,” he said.

Richard Deng, chair of the South Sudanese Community of Wyndham, said worried parents were keeping their children from school since the murders.

“This is the level this has gone,” Deng said. “Who knew at 8pm in Melbourne that kids can be attacked by thugs who cover their face?

“The community has started to be torn apart due to this crime; it is a next-level crime.

“Something’s got to change. These criminals need to be locked up.”

Peter Pal Yiech, president of the Union of Greater Upper Nile States, a local South Sudanese community group, said much of the country’s diaspora came to Australia fleeing civil war and seeking safety for their children.

“We ran away from the problems … in South Sudan, in Africa. We don’t expect them to happen here in Melbourne, where there is police, a system to protect them [our children].”

Deng met Premier Jacinta Allan earlier this week and called on the government to toughen bail and sentencing laws.

On Tuesday, the government said it would consider legislating new police powers. Allan conceded more had to be done following the weekend’s “senseless act of violence”.

She said the government was “absolutely working with police and potentially looking at what more, by way of powers and laws … need to be provided”.

“I think what we can absolutely recognise that there is, in some parts of our community, there is an ongoing pattern of behaviour, and we’ve toughened the bail books to deal with repeat serious offending,” Allan said.

“There is more work that needs to be done to understand what was behind this senseless act of violence on the weekend, and the way you do that is by listening to those community leaders and listening to Victoria Police.”

She did not provide more details on what extra powers could be considered.

The premier’s comments came before a fiery question time on Tuesday, which was dominated by questions about law and order and the government’s response to the boys’ deaths.

Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush has already backed a call for tougher youth crime punishments after one of his senior detectives, Detective Inspector Graham Banks, said on Sunday that penalties for serious crimes were not in line with community expectations.

Elbino Akueng, the father of Dau, said he was dismayed by a lack of police action after recent incidents of teens wielding machetes in his area.

While Allan has not flagged any imminent changes to sentencing laws, she said it was her “absolute expectation” that the courts and the entire legal system put community safety first.

On Monday, the premier announced a South Sudanese youth justice working group, which will include ministers and police. She said solutions to the fight against violent crime had to come from within the community.

Opposition Leader Brad Battin said the government needed to ensure sentencing was in line with community expectations but did not provide details of any potential opposition policies.

Battin said the opposition was examining all possible policies to help reduce crime – including crime prevention to keep children out of jail – and punitive measures, such as tougher sentencing.

Allan defended taking two days to publicly respond to the deaths, saying her focus was supporting the grieving families.

“I will not act in a reckless, politically point-scoring way like the leader of the opposition does time and time and time again,” she said.

“That is not leadership, that is not looking at addressing the challenges that have been faced by many in our community. That is just reckless … political behaviour that is all about political point-scoring, not about supporting communities and not about understanding what is driving this dangerous behaviour that we all need to address together.”

Liberal MP Trung Luu, who represents the Western Metropolitan Region in the upper house, said a spate of violent youth crime and the murders had rocked his community.

“Residents in Melbourne’s west have endured countless serious crimes resulting in the deaths of young Victorians,” he said.

“These tragedies can be avoided. My community is fearful and demands action from the government now.”

The calls for tougher penalties come despite the government having recently introduced law and order changes. Last month, parliament passed stricter bail conditions for serious repeat offenders and new “post and boast” laws targeting criminals who film their offences.

A statewide ban on machetes also came into effect at the start of September, carrying penalties of up to two years’ prison or a $47,000 fine. An amnesty for people to surrender the weapons is in place until November 30.

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