Two men with a history of violence have been banned from drinking alcohol for 12 months after a pub brawl which broke out following a funeral in Dubbo.
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Scott Pigram, 36 from Gunnedah and Adrian Smith, 34 from Dubbo had been at the Castlereagh Hotel with a group of people on January 19 this year, after attending a funeral earlier that day.
According to court documents, Pigram and the group were the last ones drinking in the hotel at about 12.55am, when a verbal argument began between two other men, and a beer was thrown.
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Police said Pigram was standing near the bar, when part of the beer splashed his back.
As a result Pigram turned around and grabbed the man who threw the beer by his collar and began throwing several punches to his head. One of the men fell to the ground when the bar tender stepped in to intervene.
Things briefly settled before a Smith walked toward one of the men and grabbed him by the collar and punched him several times in the head.
After tables and chairs were knocked over and punches were thrown by Smith and Pigram, the bar tender once again tried to intervene, but struggled to break up the group.
Eventually the bar attendant escorted Pigram and Smith from the building, when police arrived a short time later.
Police said when they arrived the group were "not forthcoming" with their information. Pigram and Smith were stopped by police nearby.
After viewing CCTV footage from the hotel, police said the actions of Pigram and Smith were "excessively violent" and were the clear aggressors in the brawl, continuing to instigate violence even when they were separated.
You've seen the footage, which is a pretty ugly scene that the both of you generated from something quite innocuous.
- Magistrate Gary Wilson
The pair both pleaded guilty to affray in Dubbo Local Court.
On Thursday, Magistrate Gary Wilson described Pigram's response to being splashed by beer as a "bit of an overreaction".
"You've seen the footage, which is a pretty ugly scene that the both of you generated from something quite innocuous," he said.
Magistrate Wilson recognised there was "heightened emotions" going on that day, mixed with "too much alcohol", but highlighted pub brawls happened in Dubbo "all too often".
He noted Dubbo's history which had "a lot of very bad outcomes" as a result of similar alcohol fuelled acts of violence, and it was "just fortunate none of that occurred" in this instance.
The court heard both Pigram and Smith both had a history of violent conduct, with Pigram previously imprisoned for past offences. Taking into account the circumstances and gap in offending, the two were both convicted and sentenced to a two-year community corrections order to be of good behaviour, and ordered to abstain from alcohol for 12 months.