R v Lenaghan-Britton [2006] NSWDC 8

New South Wales District Court

CITATION: R v Lenaghan-Britton [2006] NSWDC 8

HEARING DATE(S): 06/05/2005

JUDGMENT DATE: 6 May 2005

EX TEMPORE JUDGMENT DATE : 05/06/2005

JUDGMENT OF: Berman SC DCJ

DECISION: See Para 12

CATCHWORDS: Criminal Law - Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily Harm - Malicious Damage - Sentence

PARTIES: DPP Michael Lenaghan-Britton

FILE NUMBER(S): 04/11/0828

COUNSEL: J Bowers - Crown C Salsone - Offender

SOLICITORS: NSW DPP Andrea Jane Turner

SENTENCE 1 HIS HONOUR: Michael Lenaghan-Britton pleaded guilty on 1 February 2005 to two offences which he committed on 9 August 2003, some considerable time earlier. One was an offence of assaulting Sami Kukuljac thereby occasioning to him actual bodily harm. The second offence was maliciously damaging Mr Kukuljac's property, in particular a Ford Falcon sedan.

3 Mr Kukuljac was working as a security guard. He parked his vehicle in a position where he could observe a partially completed apartment building, the security for which he was responsible. At about 10.20pm on 9 August Mr Lenaghan-Britton and his carer Patricia Kiernan were walking along the road. They had been at a hotel. For reasons which are not at all apparent, the offender's attention was attracted to the security guard. It may be that Mr Lenaghan-Britton thought the security guard was up to no good, and may be that Mr Lenaghan-Britton had a short fuse and that something was said. It is likely that the fact that Mr Lenaghan-Britton had been at a hotel had something do to do with what then followed.

4 The offender became abusive towards the security guard. The offender put his hands partially through an opened car window. Mr Kukuljac closed that window, momentarily jamming the offender's fingers. No doubt this caused some significant pain and anger on the part of the offender, however, he seems to have overacted rather significantly. He kicked the door of the car, he took a crutch that Miss Kiernan was using and smashed the driver's side window of the car, he then punched Mr Kukuljac several times to his face. He also used the crutch as a weapon and finally he went to the front windscreen and smashed it with the crutch before returning to further assault Mr Kukuljac.