Assailants have been sentenced after serious alcohol-soaked assaults that nearly killed innocent victims, with a Victorian teen facing greater time than two Sydney men.
In June, 2015, brothers Kye Smith and Corey Lucas beat and seriously injured Keighery Hotel assistant manager Tony Pearson when he forced them to leave.
After drinking “all day” the pair began arguing with other patrons in the Auburn hotel and were escorted out. Seven News published CCTV showing Smith returning to confront Pearson at the door and being pushed away. This prompted the two brothers to attack him, raining punches and Lucas kicking the 27-year-old man in the head.
The result was breaks to his nose, collarbone and jaw, missing teeth and a fractured skull, and the young father had to undergo brain surgery.
A Sydney judge found the pair had acted on impulse, as opposed to a “premeditated attack”. Despite the potentially lethal behaviour of the pair, each appearing to where tradesmen’s boots, they were each sentenced to around three years’ jail with consideration for time already served.
This means Lucas, who is eligible for parole after just 19 months, could be out January, 2017. And Smith, who received 25 months, could be out the following July.
Meanwhile, Bendigo County Court last Friday heard the case of 19-year-old Mitchell Mansfield, who coward punched and beat another patron in an Echuca nightclub.
Mansfield was part of a group at Echuca’s American Hotel on the evening of 19 December, 2015. Some of this group went on to OPT nightclub, where Mansfield believed he saw a man flirting with his girlfriend on the dancefloor. A friend told him the man was part of a group he had clashed with at the American.
In view of several witnesses and CCTV, Mansfield ran at the 20-year-old would-be flirter, punching him to the back of the head. The man fell, unconscious, and Mansfield went on to punch him a further half-dozen times, resulting in two fractures to his vertebrae, a fractured cheek bone and eye socket, and broken teeth that would later have to be removed. Two bystanders had to pull him off the immobile man.
The Court heard he would have known the victim was unconscious, and remained so for several minutes. He was taken to Echuca Regional Hospital where he underwent CT scans.
“He was just, you know … staring straight at me, jumping around … I seen him look her up and down … he looked aggressive … I hit him out of anger”, the defendant told police.
Counsel for the defence offered Mansfield had long-term anger management issues and suggested a community corrections order.
Judge James Montgomery would have none of it, telling the defendant “You’re going to jail”.
Mansfield was sentenced to four years and three months, with non-parole period of two years three months. With time served, he will be eligible for release March, 2018.
