Tragic end of a tragic tale.
The tragic tale of Chris Davidson reached its denouement, yesterday, as Grant Coleman was officially sentenced to five years in prison over killing the preternaturally gifted surfer with one punch outside of a Sydney pub in 2022. The case had slowly unspooled for years with Coleman arguing that he had attacked Davidson to protect the community because he was a convicted child sex offender.
The judge, Peter McGrath, did not accept that as reason, declaring that Coleman had taken the law into his own hands, stating, “He was judge and jury of Mr Davidson. Tragically, Mr Coleman also became Mr Davidson’s executioner.” McGrath went further, adding that Coleman had developed a “fixation” on Davidson, calling him a “paedophile” several times before delivering the fatal strike to the 45-year-old after he had approached a 19-year-old girl at the bar.
For his part, Coleman insists that he is haunted by the night. “[When] I realised what I’d done. I wanted him to wake up, to regain consciousness.”
The remorse did not warm over Davidson’s sister who insisted, “[Chris] spent all of his life surfing and he was never attacked by a shark but he was taken by a human shark. We can never forgive and forget and this incident should just never have happened.”
Davidson was exceptional in the water, bursting onto the world scene as a wildcard by beating the greatest ever surfer Kelly Slater not once, but twice, at the 1996 Bells Beach Pro. At the time of his death, Slater posted that he was “one of the most naturally talented surfers he had known.”
