A 22-year-old Ballarat man, who was charged with unlawful assault after he hit and kicked another man in a Ballarat hotel, has narrowly escaped a more serious penalty.
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Defence lawyer Andrew Madden appealed for leniency for Kobie Powell, who pleaded guilty in the Ballarat Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
Mr Madden said it was a first offence and submitted evidence of his client’s mental health issues.
Magistrate Bob Kumar told Powell he was “very lucky” and were it not for his age, the guilty plea and his “psychiatric issues”, he would have been sentenced to a “term of imprisonment.”
“The matters for which you are here today all carry prison terms,” he said.
“There is an unnecessary level of violent behaviour in society today. I sit in the night and I see this behaviour and unnecessary violence like this gets no sympathy from the courts these days,” Mr Kumar said.
The police prosecutor submitted that it should be taken into account that the violence was an unprovoked attack that had occurred in licensed premises.
Mr Kumar agreed that alcohol-fuelled violence had led to some serious incidences and that recent cases of alcohol-related violence had revealed anyone could be vulnerable to an unexpected assault.
In Victoria, tougher laws have been introduced, including an amendment in 2014 which introduced a non-parole period of at least 10 years for adults convicted of manslaughter, “when committed by a single punch or in circumstances of gross violence".
Powell was placed on a 12-month adjourned undertaking and fined $750.
Mr Kumar further instructed that he complete a mental health program.