Industry and the community are rallying behind a revised sentence for the man who bashed the manager of the Oatley Hotel last Christmas and got a 12-month good behaviour bond.
In the afternoon of 18 December last year security escorted a man and his brother from the Oatley after one of them was “nearing intoxication”. Outside, bar manager Trent Marsden offered to arrange a taxi, which they accepted.
CCTV footage shows the brother of the evicted man, Haze Aupouri, suddenly lunge at Marsden, striking him in the face. Marsden falls backward against a barricade and onto the ground, where Aupouri delivers another eight blows. He had had no contact with the men prior to their coming outside.
The two men run off before security emerges from the hotel, but were arrested a short time later by police.
Marsden had two front teeth knocked out, and suffered nerve damage to the face and severe concussion. He was taken to hospital for treatment and has only recently returned to work at the bar and as a fire-fighter.
Last Thursday Aupouri represented himself to a Sydney court, where he pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Controversially, magistrate Clare Farnan did not view the provocative CCTV footage and applied merely a 12-month good behaviour bond to Aupouri for the brutal and completely unprovoked attack.
NSW Police has lodged an appeal against the sentence, and Marsden has appeared on media including Nine’s Today Show suggesting justice was not reflected in the punishment.
The public outcry has been significant, with Marsden thanking the many “if not thousands” of people that contacted him with messages of concern.
Noting that the callous act could have happened to anyone in the “wrong place, wrong time” he thanked supporters, in particular the industry-prominent owner of the Oatley Hotel.
“Her support, her strategies, and her professionalism were second to none, I am forever thankful,” Marsden relayed via Facebook.
As advocates of a revised sentence on Aupouri gather in number, Marsden states he is pushing for a new decision that will help serve as a deterrent to this kind of stupidity.
“We will seek the maximum, we will seek justice, because where you belong, is nowhere on our streets!”
PubTIC was unable to contact the owners of the Oatley in time for this publication.
