Man fined $600 on assault charges

Press, 13 March 1985, Page 6

Man fined $600 on assault charges

A labourer’s “debauched” drinking and illicit drugtaking, before being involved in an incident at a Sunday evening theatre screening on October 22, during which a constable suffered a broken nose and other injuries, was criticised by Judge Bradford in the District Court yesterday. Fining the defendant, Scott Kenneth Mackenzie, aged 21, a total of SSOO on two assault charges, the Judge said that society should be very alarmed by the way in which young men were abusing liquor and illicit drugs. The defendant, who was represented by Mr D. I. Jones, was fined $5OO on a charge of assaulting Constable R. W. Barlass with intent to obstruct him in the execution of his duty. Half the fine is to be paid to Constable Barlass.

On a charge of assaulting Constable M. D. Willis in the execution of his duty the defendant was fined $lOO, and he was ordered to pay costs of $35 on a charge of possessing cannabis plant material.

The defendant had been convicted of the offences at an earlier hearing and had been remanded to yesterday for sentence so that defence submissions could be made on the degree of the defendant’s involvement in causing the injuries.

Mr Jones said yesterday that he took issue with any suggestion that the defendant caused all the injuries to Constable Barlass. Two

other defendants had been charged with a similar offence. He said the defendant accepted that he could have caused the injury to the constable’s nose, which appeared to have been broken.

Mr Jones said the defendant had attended a friend’s twenty-first birthday party and had been drinking most of the day, including cactus juice in addition to liquor. He had gone to the Academy Cinema with his girl friend. His friends in front caused a disturbance which led to the police being called, and the defendant “lost control” and went to assist a friend who was being held by a constable. He struck the constable several blows.

Mr Jones said the defendant’s behaviour was reprehensible but it was out of character, when he had been drinking excessively all day. The defendant was genuinely remorseful for his actions.

The Judge said that, hours after their “debauch,” in which the defendant had become inflamed with a cocktail of liquor, cactus juice and drugs, he went to the Academy Theatre with his friends “and made spectacles of yourselves.” One companion was still drinking in the theatre at midnight. “Naturally, the management called the police to remove your friends, who just did not know how to behave and were disturbing decent citizens in the

theatre,” the Judge said. He said the public had been long-suffering in regard to this violence in the community, in which one in three policemen were assaulted each year “by. yahoos like you when drunk and almost out of your mind.”

At previous hearings three other young men appeared on assault or other, charges arising from the same incident and were convicted and fined. Two were involved in assaulting Constable Barlass and fines of $5OO were imposed, with half the amounts to be paid to the constable.