Jail time for bus assault
Ex-bikie associate locked up for violent, unprovoked attack on driver
FORMER Comanchero bikie associate Liam Scorsese will spend the next three months behind bars after a sickening attack on a bus driver in the heart of Surfers Paradise.
Scorsese, 30, yesterday pleaded guilty in the Southport Magistrates Court to assault occasioning bodily harm after he punched the driver of a tourist bus in the jaw last August.
He also pleaded guilty to resisting arrest and obstructing police officers after they tried to control him on Savoy Drive, Broadbeach Waters, and in the back of an ambulance, after he stabbed himself several times in the chest in December 2016.
Scorsese was given a head sentence of 18 months’ jail but will be released on parole in November.
Magistrate Andrew Sinclair said Scorsese had attacked a bus driver who had not provoked the assault.
“He was doing nothing but parking his vehicle ... it was you that inflicted serious violence.”
The court heard Scorsese and another man abused the driver, who was carrying a load of international passengers on Cavill Ave, about 5pm on August 21, after they had illegally parked their car in a bus zone.
The court heard the driver asked the men: “Excuse me, are you going to be much longer?” before they walked across the road yelling and Scorsese punched the man in the jaw causing him to fall.
When the driver returned to the bus to try and phone police, the pair returned. The court was told the other man threatened the driver saying: “Hey brother, if you ring the (expletive) police I’ve got your number plate. I know exactly who you are and we’ll come to your house. Do you understand?”
Scorsese then grabbed the driver by the legs and dragged him out of the bus, causing him to hit his head several times on the steps, the court was told. It wasn’t until three men ran to the driver’s aid the pair fled.
The court heard Scorsese had also resisted arrest after being involved in a traffic accident in Broadbeach Waters, about four months after the assault. He abused police and ambulance officers and had to be restrained on the way to hospital after he had stabbed himself in the chest following a relationship breakdown.
Defence barrister Angus Edwards said Scorsese was “remorseful, indeed ashamed” of his actions in both instances.
He said he was not in a stable psychiatric state when he stabbed himself and assaulted police. Scorsese was ordered to pay a total of $3000 compensation to all officers involved in the Savoy Drive incident.
He pleaded guilty to possessing a quantity of testosterone in Southport last August.