LAST year’s festive season did not prove so jolly for a young Goulburn man, who has landed himself a suspended jail sentence and a fine for a string of offences.
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Brody Lea Drew, 19, formerly of Opal St, was charged with reckless wounding after he punched another man in the head at a local club last December.
He was also fined $500 for trespassing, when he fell six metres at a building site in the early hours of New Year’s Day.
But, Magistrate Geraldine Beattie said Drew was “lucky to be alive” after such a fall.
Drew pleaded guilty to charges of reckless wounding and entering enclosed lands when he appeared in Goulburn Local Court on Wednesday.
Police said Drew was in the smokers’ area of the Goulburn Workers Club at 12.40am on December 12, last year, when another man entered and allegedly exchanged words with him.
Drew then threw a punch to the other man’s head and a scuffle ensued.
During the fracas, Drew lost his footing and pulled the other man to the ground, resulting in this man striking his head on the metal louvres surrounding the area. This caused lacerations to the top of the other man’s head, which bled freely.
Police attended and found the victim a short distance away in Clifford St. They took him to Goulburn Base Hospital for medical treatment.
Police said the ‘entering enclosed lands’ charge related to a later offence, at 5am on New Years Day, when Drew and another man climbed over a steel fence, erected around the St Patrick’s School construction site before the Christmas break.
They were well-intoxicated at the time, as they climbed up scaffolding to the second floor of the building. Drew then unwound the wire holding a door closed and walked through it, falling six metres onto the concrete floor below.
The other man raised the alarm and an ambulance arrived and took Drew for treatment to Canberra Hospital.
Drew volunteered himself to the Goulburn Police Station on January 7 this year in relation to both matters.
In court on Wednesday, Drew’s solicitor said the fight at the club was “not unprovoked” and that it started after the other man made comments about Drew’s relatives.
She said he also suffered skull fractures and bleeding on the brain after the New Year’s Day fall and that these two events had served as a wake-up call for him in relation to his alcohol use.
She said Drew was attempting to relocate to Melbourne to start afresh.
Magistrate Geraldine Beattie told Drew that even if people said things that he did not like there was no need to respond with violence. She said he was also very lucky to still be alive after a fall from such a height.
She noted there was nothing prior on his record, but issued Drew a stern warning, considering the seriousness of the reckless wounding offence.
“If you keep going you will be locked up for a long time,” she said.
She gave Drew a 12-month Section (12) suspended jail sentence and fined him $500.
