A court has heard a Dubbo teenager was seeing red before a late night attack outside the Commercial Hotel which left a man with fractures to his nose.
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Jeramy John Hanna, 19, had been drinking at the Commercial Hotel on July 10 this year before an altercation broke out with another man.
According to police, Hanna had been drinking with a woman when her ex-boyfriend arrived and approached Hanna.
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Two witnesses ushered the man out of the hotel and sat in a garden across the road from the pub.
Shortly after the man had left, Hanna and seven male friends left the pub and walked in the opposite direction to the man.
However, council CCTV captures Hanna and the men walking around the block, south along Brisbane Street, west along Wingewarra Street, north along Macquarie Street and east along Church Street before coming across the man still seated within the garden with two friends.
Hanna approached the man and began kicking and punching him all over his body and head while he was on the ground.
The witnesses tried protecting him and attempted to break up the fight. Eventually Hanna was captured on CCTV fleeing and running into the Castlereagh Hotel.
Police arrived and saw the man sitting in the garden with facial injuries and a large amount of blood running from his nose. Paramedics were called and he was taken to Dubbo Hospital.
According to court documents the man's nose was bleeding heavily and he suffered multiple fractures to his nose as a result of the attack. Police said the victim did not fight back at any time and curled himself into a ball to protect himself.
Nine days later, Hanna attended Dubbo Police Station where he made full admissions of the assault.
In Dubbo Local Court last Wednesday, Hanna pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Defence lawyer Michael Powell said his client and the woman were in the very early stages of dating when her disgruntled ex-boyfriend arrived at the pub.
"It would appear the former boyfriend still held strong feelings for the young lady ... to the point where he was trying to draw her close," Mr Powell said.
Mr Hanna, there's no excuse for this type of behaviour, no matter how drunk you were, or how put out you were.
- Magistrate Gary Wilson
Mr Powell said Hanna was sitting down when the man approached him and almost pushed him off his stool while calling him a "c--t".
"Mr Hanna was still visibly upset because he hadn't said anything to this bloke, let alone done anything," Mr Powell said.
He said Hanna had left the building to cool off but when he saw the man he "just saw red".
"He just snapped," Mr Powell said.
"He can't explain, it was just on."
Mr Powell said Hanna had been diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of 14 and was required to wear special glasses, for which he "received a lot of teasing".
The court heard he "had enough" and left school in year 11 before working in a supermarket, but this year started work for directional drilling specialists P&TS in Dubbo.
Mr Powell argued the injuries to the man were just "some discomfort and bleeding".
But images that Mr Powell said he hadn't seen were tendered in court by the prosecution which revealed fractures to the man's nose.
"We don't know if they're hairline fractures, longline fractures," Mr Powell said.
However, Magistrate Gary Wilson highlighted that "fractures are fractures".
"You can interpret it one way, I can interpret it another," Magistrate Wilson told Mr Powell.
"If you're going to make that submission, you should have subpoenaed the hospital record."
Taking into account Hanna's early plea of guilt, Magistrate Wilson said he was "fortuitous" not to have a criminal record.
"Mr Hanna, there's no excuse for this type of behaviour, no matter how drunk you were, or how put out you were," he said.
Hanna was convicted and sentenced to a 12-month community corrections order, and fined $1000.