An Albion Park truck driver responsible for attacking a man outside a Tongarra Road liquor shop on New Year’s Eve has been convicted of an assault charge.
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Jarryd King repeatedly punched the victim in the face after taking offence to what he had said during some light “banter” between the pair inside the liquor store moments earlier.
A police statement of facts presented to Wollongong Local Court said both men were not known to each other before the incident and had been part of separate groups at the Albion Park Hotel that afternoon watching a pay-per-view fight event.
Both groups left the hotel about 4.50pm and headed to the bottle shop across the car park, where King grabbed two cases of beer and took it to the counter to pay.
The victim approached King and the pair “engaged in conversation which was initially a bit of banter”, however King took offence to some of the words being directed at him and confronted the victim.
The pair began pushing each other until they ended up outside the shop, where they began to fight.
King repeatedly punched the victim in the face, causing a deep cut to the man’s nose and head and chipping his tooth.
King was eventually pulled away from the victim by friends and left the scene.
The man was taken to hospital where doctors applied stitches to his nose and head.
King was arrested an hour later at his home in Borrowdale Close and charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
In court this week, Magistrate Chris McRobert ordered King to perform 100 hours of community service as punishment, noting a sentencing options report prepared by Community Corrections had been positive about King’s remorse and rehabilitation.
