Fork attacker wants compo
A MAN who hacked at a man’s head with a garden fork wants taxpayers to compensate him for being stabbed in the face with a butter knife in jail.
Dylan Joel Hartwick smashed his way into his former wife’s Leopold home before puncturing the man’s face, shoulder and neck in a jealous rage with the small fork he had found in the backyard in December 2014.
The man’s ear was ripped open before Hartwick fled.
The now 41-year-old recovering ice addict was then set on at the Melbourne Assessment Prison, days after being charged for the aggravated burglary, assault and criminal damage.
Six months later, Hartwick’s former wife Teegan Kelly drove her car into him and his then girlfriend, breaking his leg and leaving his now former partner badly injured and in hospital for weeks.
Hartwick was sentenced in February last year in the County Court to four months’ jail, a 200-hour, three-year community corrections order with conviction and fined $400 for the attack on his ex-wife and her boyfriend.
Judge Gerard Mullaly said the penalty was discounted by his guilty plea and because of the attack he suffered in jail.
“You have had surgery and been left with nerve damage. Also, and perhaps most prominently, you have developed a post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety, especially at the prospect of returning to custody,” Judge Mullaly found.
“You have, in this rather brutal way, come to appreciate and empathise with the male victim of your crimes.”
In a writ lodged in the County Court, Hartwick claims he was locked in a cell with Joseph Griffiths, a prisoner with a history of mental illness, when he was attacked.
He claims a prison guard told him his cell mate was “cuckoo” and alleges before the attack Griffiths exhibited signs of acute disturbance.
“About 7am Mr Griffiths pressed the intercom and said words to the effect, ‘I need to see a nurse’. The guard responded with words to the effect, ‘It is only 20 minutes until you will be let out’. No nurse or medical attention was provided to Mr Griffiths,” the writ alleges.
About 30 minutes later, Hartwick claims he was asleep when Griffiths stabbed him multiple times in the face, head and arm.
He claims such an incident was foreseeable and accuses the state of breaching its duty of care towards him.
His writ alleges 15 instances of negligence from putting him in a cell with Griffiths, to failing to provide Griffiths with appropriate mental health care and giving him access to the metal butter knife.
Hartwick is seeking unspecified damages.
Kelly was sentenced in the County Court in October last year to a minimum of three years and three months’ jail for ramming Hartwick and his former partner.