A CASTERTON man who stabbed three men, two of them fatally, during a neighbourhood dispute has had his jail sentence slashed on appeal.
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Aaron Jamie Ball, 34, of Miller Street, was serving a 20-year prison term, with a non-parole period of 17 years, after he pleaded guilty in the Warrnambool Supreme Court in November last year to charges arising from a brawl at his Casterton property in September 2011.
That sentence was reduced to 17 years and six months, with a 14-year non-parole period.
Ball, who believed he was a grandson of Adolf Hitler, pleaded guilty to two charges of defensive homicide and one charge of recklessly causing serious injury.
Three unarmed men came on to Ball’s property on the night of October 4, 2011, in a culmination of long-running friction between neighbours.
Neighbour Raymond McCombe was stabbed 34 times, including to his genitals. Warrnambool’s Toby Lynch was stabbed to the chest and later died of his injury.
Judges considering the appeal agreed the original sentence was excessive because it did not give sufficient weight to Ball’s serious mental illness, including schizophrenia and persistent delusions. AAP