Michael Smith sentenced for Nambucca boardwalk assaults and kicking dog
Trying ice for the first time didn’t agree with an ex-armed forces soldier who assaulted four random people along a busy Mid-North Coast boardwalk, breaking an 87-year-old’s collarbone, punching a female jogger in the face and kicking a dog.
Trying ice for the first time didn’t agree with an ex-armed forces soldier who assaulted four random people along a busy Mid-North Coast boardwalk, breaking an 87-year-old’s collarbone, punching a female jogger in the face and kicking a dog.
Michael Smith appeared in Macksville Local Court on Thursday to be sentenced after pleading guilty to various charges stemming from the bashings along the Nambucca boardwalk.
Leading up to the incident Smith had tried ice for the first time and “it didn’t react very well with him at all,” his lawyer Carlo Bianchino told the court.
It all unfolded about 10.30am on Sunday June 1, when Smith approached an 87-year-old who was walking on the boardwalk alongside Riverside Drive at Nambucca Heads and pushed him in the chest, making him fall to the ground.
As a result the 87-year-old man sustained a broken collar bone.
Smith then continued to walk along the boardwalk before he punched a 28-year-old woman in the head as she jogged by.
She sustained an injury to her face and neck.
A short time later he approached a 52-year-old woman who was walking with her two dogs - punching her in the face, cutting her lip then kicking one of her dogs before walking off.
About 30 minutes later Smith approached a 70-year-old woman who was walking towards Gordon Park along Wellington Drive.
She was carrying a coffee tray which Smith swiped out of her hand hitting her ear.
When police arrived they arrested Smith and took him to the Nambucca Heads Police Station and charged him with two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, two counts common assault and one charge of committing an act of cruelty upon an animal.
It was heard in Macksville Local Court on Thursday that a previous attempt to have the charges diverted from the criminal system into the mental health system was unsuccessful.
He pleaded guilty to all five charges on September 4.
Magistrate Theresa Hamilton outlined the details of the “unprovoked serious attack on a number of people” noting the injuries caused including the elderly man’s broken collarbone and the dog-walker’s split lip.
She recognised that he had served in the armed services and suffered PTSD as he had “witnessed atrocities” during his service.
For the four assault charges he was sentenced to a 10-month intensive corrections order.
As part of that order he has been directed to perform 80 hours of community service.
For the charge of committing an act of cruelty on an animal he was convicted but no penalty imposed.
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Originally published as Michael Smith sentenced for Nambucca boardwalk assaults and kicking dog
