CBD attack ‘disturbing’
A HIGHTON teenager who kicked a man as he lay unconscious on Moorabool St and produced a knife when he was involved in a second fight in the CBD has been spared jail
Ahmed Alabdullah was 19years old, “intoxicated on alcohol” and on bail when he punched a man he got into an argument with in the early hours of July 4.
Alabdullah kicked the man in the back and ribs after the man hit his head on the footpath, the Geelong Magistrates’ Court heard. The court was told the victim was concussed during the attack and left with lingering symptoms for weeks.
But on Tuesday, Alabdullah was spared a conviction and given a chance to address his anger and mental health issues.
When police interviewed Alabdullah about the assault, he said: “He who puts hands on a woman deserves to get punched in the head, not the shoulder.”
Referencing that comment, Magistrate Simon Guthrie said: “You made a comment that just sent shivers up my spine. That disturbed me greatly.”
Mr Guthrie said he considered jail for Alabdullah, but instead fined him $1000 and sentenced him to an 18-month community corrections order.
“The nature of the offences, which you pleaded guilty (to), is very serious,” Mr Guthrie said. Alabdullah pleaded guilty to affray, assault, committing an offence while on bail and weapon possession.
Under his community corrections order, Alabdullah will have to undergo treatment for alcohol, drugs, mental health and anger-management issues.
Mr Guthrie warned Alabdullah that if he breached any conditions of the community corrections order he risked three months in jail.
“You don’t want to do anything foolish and hang around with the wrong crew because I will know.”
The court heard Alabdullah was also brawling “in the middle of the street” on May 15 when he pulled out a knife and threatened members of another group.
The court was told Alabdullah, who was with eight other men, lunged at a group of four during a heated argument near the corner of Moorabool and Little Malop streets that caused members of the public to scurry away.
At an earlier hearing, Alabdullah’s lawyer Adrian Paull said both matters were “troubling” and that his client grew up in war-torn Iraq, amid religious persecution and violence, before he came to Australia in 2014.
Mr Paull said that Alabdullah was exposed to violence as a child, including once when he was hit so hard by a soldier in Iraq that he was knocked out.
The court heard Alabdullah was working in the plumbing industry.
Alabdullah will return to court in February to explain to Mr Guthrie how he is progressing on the community corrections order.