UPDATE 3.40pm: Robert Cooper has lodged an appeal against his four month jail term.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Cooper, of Cromwell Street, was granted appeal bail on Monday afternoon with strict bail conditions, including a ban from all licensed venues.
His appeal will be heard in the County Court at a date to be fixed.
UPDATE 2.40pm: A man who was four times the legal limit when he head butted a hotel employee has been jailed.
Robert Cooper was jailed for four months on Monday afternoon after pleading guilty to intentionally causing injury, assault with a weapon and assault a police officer.
On the remaining seven charges Cooper was placed on a 12-month community corrections order with conditions to undergo assessment and treatment for alcohol abuse, which will commence once he is released from prison in April.
He was also convicted and fined $600.
Magistrate Cynthia Toose told Cooper the community and courts would think prison was warranted for anyone who acted the way he did.
Following sentencing Cooper, who was still in a neck brace as a result of the incident, apologised to the court.
"Now I've gone and done all this I look like a bloody idiot," his apology statement read.
"... I know I've hurt people and I'm sorry."
EARLIER: A drunk man who assaulted staff and police after being ejected from a Ballarat hotel was four times the legal limit, a court has heard.
Robert Cooper has pleaded guilty to 10 charges relating to the same incident in the early hours of September 29.
The Ballarat Magistrates' Court heard Cooper had been ejected from the Lydiard Street hotel for being abusive, only to return a few hours later unsteady on his feet.
Staff refused Cooper alcohol and offered him water before asking him to leave again.
Police prosecutor Senior Constable Clint Prebble told the court Cooper then went to the gaming area where he threatened to glass an employee.
He then went behind the bar and head butted the same employee, before going on to cause $5651 worth of damages to the bar area.
When police arrived Cooper then began verbally abusing officers, kicking and attempting to spit at one, and telling another two they were "dumb stupid moles".
The verbal abuse continued at the hospital where staff were forced to shackle Cooper.
Tests revealed Cooper's blood alcohol level was 0.25.
Cooper's lawyer, Scott Belcher, said it was accepted immediate jail was probably the only sentencing option available.
Magistrate Cynthia Toose responded with: "Anyone who spits in the face of police officers and conducts himself the way he did is going to jail".
Describing his client's behaviour as "sad", Mr Belcher said Cooper had significant issues with alcohol and abusive behaviour.
He said Cooper started drinking at the age of 14 after being given a drink by his alcoholic father, and became "a very angry man from 16".
Mr Belcher added while his client had taken a number of things from anger management programs in the past, things went down the wrong path when alcohol was involved.
Ms Toose remanded Cooper while a community corrections order, which would encompass rehabilitate conditions to follow any jail term, was completed.
He is due to be sentenced this afternoon.
