A woman has been sentenced to jail after assaulting a female medical student late at night in Ballarat's CBD.
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Casey Hetherington, 28, on Thursday appeared in the Ballarat Magistrates Court and pleaded guilty to one count of recklessly causing injury following the attack just before 1am on February 18 last year.
The court was told the victim was walking with family on Lydiard Street in between the Regent Cinema and the George Hotel when she passed Hetherington who yelled "you wanna go? you wanna f**king go?”.
She became afraid and tried to run but Hetherington lunged forward, pushing her in the back and knocking her to the ground.
The victim, who was in her final year of medical school, said her neck hyper-extended when she hit the ground.
She managed to escape and a friend of Hetherington’s apologised.
On Thursday, defence laywer Scott Belcher said Hetherington was remorseful as he handed up a letter of apology to the victim and two character references to Magistrate Brian Clifford.
The court heard Hetherington had a difficult upbringing, caring for her younger siblings after her mother died of a heroin overdose. She was also convicted for an assault against a girlfriend’s former partner in 2013.
Mr Belcher pushed for a conviction and a hefty fine to be imposed, saying Hetherington “froze” after the woman fell and did not continue in the attack unlike the 2013 incident.
However, Magistrate Clifford rejected this, telling Hetherington to stand as he sentenced her to one month’s jail.
“People who innocently walk down the street are entitled to feel safe,” Magistrate Clifford said.
“You instigated this and you have blatantly assaulted this woman and fortunately for her there were no major injuries but that could have been the case.”
Members of Hetherington’s family, including her grandmother, became tearful as she was led away into the cells.
However, she appealed her sentence and was granted bail to appear in the County Court at a later date.