The law gets tough on the drunk cowards

SEVEN people have been charged with fatal coward punches under the state’s tough new laws, with four of them facing a mandatory jail term of eight years if convicted, because they were allegedly drunk.

They include a son who police claim hit his father in the head after an afternoon’s drinking, and a man who allegedly knocked his partner unconscious in their bedroom.

Both victims died.

In another case, a male nurse died after he was allegedly struck once in the face outside a 21st birthday party as he tried to intervene in an argument between his alleged killer and the man’s girlfriend.

The controversial laws were introduced two years ago to curb alcohol-fuelled violence after the fatal one-punch attacks on teenagers Thomas Kelly and Daniel Christie in Kings Cross.