Jailed over bat attack on uncle

A GAGEBROOK man who hit his uncle on the head with a baseball bat and fractured his skull has been sentenced to 18 months behind bars.

In the Supreme Court of Tasmania before Acting Justice David Porter, Barry James Ambrose Cook was sentenced on Wednesday after he was previously found guilty by a jury of causing grievous bodily harm.

The court heard Cook struck his uncle Reginald Cook, who is also known as Reginald Cowen, with a baseball bat to the head at a property in Gagebrook on February 10 last year.

Mr Cowen was 62 years old at the time of the offence and had been staying at his nephew’s home before a disagreement, which led to the incident, with Cook first trying to attack him with a chainsaw, but could not get it to start.

The court heard Mr Cowen left the property and was later taken by ambulance to the Royal Hobart Hospital, where he spent a number of days in the neurological ward with a deep laceration on his head, a skull fracture and bleeding around the brain.

Acting Justice Porter said Mr Cowen had written in his victim impact statement the immediate impact of the blow was “intense pain” and he was emotionally hurt his nephew would do such a thing to him.

Acting Justice Porter said Cook had prior convictions for violent offences.

Cook was sentenced to 18 months’ jail, with three months suspended, and he will be eligible for parole after serving half his sentence.