Drunken assault leads to hefty compensation bill

A DRUNKEN assault based on an unverified rumour has left a Toowoomba man with community service and a hefty compensation bill.

Jai Maurice Whiteley had been with friends at Club Glenvale on the evening of September 15, last year, when another man he didn’t know with another group of people was pointed out to him.

The 23-year-old approached the other man from behind and grabbed him in a headlock, swinging an arm around the other man’s neck, Toowoomba Magistrates Court heard.

Calling the victim “You dog **** ”, he had then struck him to the head causing the man to fall to the ground with a bleeding head, police prosecutor Katherine Steele told the court.

The victim was taken by ambulance to Toowoomba Hospital where he remained for three nights.

Ms Steele said police sought compensation as the victim had time off work and had to have minor dental surgery to repair a cap which had been dislodged in the incident.

Whiteley pleaded guilty to a charge of assault occasioning bodily harm in a public place while adversely affected by liquor.

His solicitor Joe McConnell (MacDonald Law) told the court it had been grand final day and his client had been quite drunk at the time.

The 23-year-old became angry when he was told the complainant man had done something untoward some time ago but he accepted he had done the wrong thing.

Magistrate Damian Carroll said Whiteley should have verified the allegation in the first place.

“This was a cowardly attack as you had approached him from behind,” Mr Carroll told the defendant.

“Courts won’t tolerate gratuitous violence.”

Noting Whiteley had no previous convictions, Mr Carroll ordered the conviction not be recorded but ordered he do 80 hours community service and pay $1000 compensation for his victim.