Ex-soldier convicted of attacks

A FORMER soldier has avoided a stint behind bars for viciously attacking two men at Airlie Beach after he was heckled inside McDonald’s.

Dylan George Leahy of Port Douglas walked up to the group and said hello before delivering a blow to one of the victims, knocking him to the ground and breaking his jaw in two places.

Leahy then assaulted a second man, punching him in the eye and throat in the early hours of October 14, 2017.

“It was gratuitous and it was in a public place,” Crown prosecutor Will Slack said arguing for up to 3½ years jail to serve a third.

The Mackay District Court was told Leahy had been eating when one of the men in the group had drunkenly heckled him, touched his food and stood over him.

Defence barrister Bronwyn Hartigan, for Fisher Dore Lawyers, said there was provocation by the group, who were ejected from McDonald’s for their drunken behaviour.

Leahy, 31, pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm and assault occasioning bodily harm.

The court was told Leahy saved up $10,000 to offer as compensation to the first victim, who needed surgery as a result of his injuries.

Leahy was handed a threeyear term of imprisonment with immediate parole release.

Convictions were recorded and Leahy was ordered to pay $10,000.