Free after punching paramedic

Police condemn assault

AN APPRENTICE mechanic who punched a paramedic trying to treat his injuries outside a nightclub will only have to perform 200 hours community service and pay $1000 for his crime.

Jay Volkmer was tightlipped as he left Southport Magistrates Court on Wednesday morning. The 26-year-old had pleaded guilty to serious assault of a public officer causing bodily harm.

Shocking CCTV footage and body-worn camera vision of the attack showed Volkmer lash out at the 58-year-old paramedic at the top of the stairs outside Cocktails Nightclub about 11.30pm on January 18 this year.

The paramedic can be seen crouching down trying to treat Volkmer’s head injuries.

Volkmer punched the ambulance officer in the face, knocking him back. The paramedic suffered a split lip.

Volkmer’s friends can be heard yelling in the background: “Stop it, they are trying to help you bro”.

Police prosecutor Senior Constable Dan McShane said paramedics were called after Volkmer had been involved in an incident inside the nightclub which left him with head injuries.

“The community at large will denounce this kind of conduct towards a person who is just trying to help him,” he said. “The paramedic is at his work and he has been assaulted.”

Magistrate Michelle Dooley sentenced Volkmer to 200 hours community service and ordered he pay the paramedic $1000 in compensation.

The maximum penalty for serious assault of a public officer is 14 years.

“Our community could not function without paramedics,” she said. “I do accept you had some injuries but also clearly you were affected by alcohol or drugs in some way.

“That was something you had chosen to do and the person who had to bear the brunt of that was this paramedic.”

Defence lawyer Shane McDowell, of McMillan Criminal Lawyers, said Volkmer had been out celebrating his sister’s 22 birthday. “He was unconscious at some stage inside the premises.” Mr McDowell said Volkmer was in a stable relationship and his partner was pregnant.