By JOLENE OGLE
“YOU go to country pubs, you get drunk, you have a fight.”
That’s the way it goes according to the victim of an alcohol-fuelled assault outside a regional hotel last year.
Ewen Murdoch-Green, 21, and Jai Murdoch, 19, pleaded guilty to assaulting the victim on the main road of Kenilworth on 19 October last year, after arguing inside the pub earlier that night.
After being asked to leave the venue, Murdoch tried to punch the defendant but missed and the two men began to push each other before the hotel’s courtesy bus driver, also Murdoch’s father, tried to break up the scuffle.
The court heard the victim continued to provoke the men, yelling abuse and threats as the two defendants attempted to walk away. It was then Murdoch-Green turned and punched the victim in the jaw.
The victim fell to the ground and split open the back of his head.
The man needed 11 staples to the wound, but Murdoch-Green’s defence lawyer Anna Smith said that was the full extent of the victim’s injuries.
Ms Smith pointed to the victim impact statement which made dramatic allegations of medical and mental injuries as a result of the assault, but said there was no evidence before the court to sustain the claims.
In sentencing, Magistrate Cliff Taylor said he agreed the victim impact statement contained a number of claims that were not supported.
He agreed the two men were provoked, and said alcohol-fuelled violence was not accepted by the community.
Murdoch-Green was fined $1000 and ordered to pay $500 compensation to the victim for pain and suffering.
Murdoch was fined $800 and also ordered to pay $500 compensation to the victim.
Neither man had a conviction recorded.
