A 24-year-old man has been jailed for at least two-and-a-half years over a horrific, drug-fuelled glassing at the Warilla Hotel that left the victim with a 15cm neck wound.
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Wollongong District Court judge Paul Conlon said had had “no idea” how the male victim was not fatally wounded the night Mitchell Bleimuth slammed a glass into his neck in an apparently unprovoked assault.
“Mr Bleimuth is fortunate he’s not facing a charge of murder, how it [the glass] missed the [victim’s] carotid artery I have no idea,” Judge Conlon said.
”It’s deplorable conduct.”
The court heard the victim and a friend were playing the poker machines around 8pm on March 6 last year when Bleimuth came and sat near them and began staring in their direction.
The victim went to the bathroom but on his return found Bleimuth standing in the entry doorway, holding a beer glass.
CCTV footage shows the pair having a brief but apparently civil exchange of words before Bleimuth launches into an unprovoked assault, punching the victim twice in the head with his empty left hand, then swinging his right hand, containing the glass, into the victim’s neck.
The pair wrestled for a short time before being separated by bar staff.
The victim was left with a 15cm-long, 3cm-deep cut to his neck which required specialist surgery.
Bleimuth received a deep cut to his hand in the dispute and attended Shellharbour Hospital later that night for treatment. He too required specialist surgery, which occurred on March 8.
He handed himself in to police on March 11 and has been in custody ever since.
In court, Bleimuth’s mother said her son had been in the grips of an ice addiction at the time of the assault.
“The ice was affecting his mind, his body, his whole life,” she said.
In handing down the sentence, Judge Conlon said there was a great need to “denounce and deter” such terrible behaviour.
He also found Bleimuth’s prospect of rehabilitation was “guarded”.
Bleimuth will have to serve a further 18 months on parole when he is released from custody in September 2017.