Father in attack on neighbour

A CLUDEN man punched his neighbour after being told he had made a sexual gesture to his 8- year- old son.

Single father Braden Jay Rowbottom, 29, pleaded guilty to assault causing bodily harm in Townsville Magistrates Court on Monday.

Prosecutor Sergeant Sharna Pegg said Rowbottom approached the man as he was taking out wheelie bins on the afternoon of October 17.

She said the neighbour denied the claim and was non- confrontational, but Rowbottom punched his chest and continued yelling abuse.

Rowbottom punched the man in the jaw and tried to strike him again.

The man had bruises to his jaw and bled from a split lip.

“A ( man) who was passing by in his motor vehicle stopped and made attempts to break up the fight,” she said.

“( Rowbottom) then left and returned to his home.”

Sgt Pegg said the pair had an ongoing neighbourhood dispute, over a range of issues, for the past two years.

She said Rowbottom admitted to the assault in a police interview.

“He said that he’d done so in the heat of the moment after he’d received information that ( the victim) had insulted his son,” she said. “CCTV footage of the incident, reviewed by police, shows that there was no insult or altercation prior to the assault.”

Rowbottom, who represented himself in court, said he was a fulltime painter and single father to two boys, aged eight and three. “The other person made sexual gestures towards my ( eight- year- old) son. I have no doubt in my mind that that was the case. He doesn’t lie,” he said.

Magistrate Steven Mosch said there was no basis to support the allegation.

“I appreciate as a father you might have had some concerns about what your son had told you, but there’s a way of dealing with it and it’s not to engage in physical violence on the footpath of a neighbour,” he said.

“Neighbourhood disputes can’t be resolved by resorting to violence.”

Rowbottom was sentenced to a fully suspended three- month jail term.