Victorian police are investigating circumstances around a three-on-one brawl outside a Melbourne pub that put the one man in hospital with serious head injuries.
Around 9:30 last Wednesday night a confrontation between one 42-year-old man and three others resulted in all going outside to settle a dispute. The solo man reportedly punched one of the three, who then seriously assaulted him including inflicting a deep cut to his face with what was believed to be a box-cutter stolen from the pub.
Bleeding profusely, he ran several hundred metres to nearby Parliament Street, where he sheltered in the yard of a woman, reported by Seven News as a grandmother named Effie.
“All of the sudden the doorbell goes very furiously … and all I could hear [was] this man saying ‘quick lady ring the police because someone is going to try and kill me’.
“The side of his face was badly bleeding … very badly bleeding.”
The man said he had been slashed across the face, and kicked in the head with steel-capped boots.
He was taken to The Alfred hospital where he was reportedly placed in an induced coma, likely due to complications arising from kicks the head. A spokeswoman for The Alfred today told PubTIC he is in a “stable condition” but could not provide any further information as his injuries.
Police have been told the individual approached the three men at Brighton’s New Bay Hotel. It is unclear whether he provoked the fight or whether it was indeed provoked with all three of the others, who included two men aged 47 years from Brighton and Caulfield, and one aged 29 years.
The two older men returned to the hotel after the incident, where they were later arrested. The younger man handed himself in to police the next day.
The Brighton man was charged on Thursday with intentionally causing injury, and appeared in Moorabbin Justice Court Friday.
Victorian police today told PubTIC the case has been adjourned until 29 September. The other two men were released pending further enquiries, which continue.
Detective Sergeant Gerry Richardson told media police are puzzled over the incident, involving three men in their forties brawling like adolescents on a Wednesday evening.
“These are more older-type people involved, so therefore it’s just an unusual set of circumstances,” he said.
The New Bay Hotel declined to comment as the matter is before the courts.