Damien Yeend throws coffee table at dad, stepmum during family goat farm feud at Cummins

Infuriated about the running of a goat farm, a man assaulted his dad before hitting him and his stepmother with a coffee table, causing serious injuries, a court heard.

A son angry about a dispute involving a family goat farm picked up a coffee table and swung it over his shoulder – fracturing his father’s face and injuring his stepmother, a court has heard.

Damien Lee Yeend, 34, launched the coffee table after first punching both his father and stepmother several times while at their house on the outskirts of Cummins, on the Eyre Peninsula.

He pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated causing harm with intent and aggravated assault causing harm over the March 19, 2022, attacks.

In sentencing in the District Court at Port Augusta this month, Auxiliary Judge Gordon Barrett said the family members had been discussing the running of the farm when Yeend became angry.

He went to hand his father his cigarettes but purposely dropped them on the floor.

“When your father went to pick them up you punched him in the face,” Judge Barrett said.

Damien Lee Yeend launched a coffee table at his father and stepmother during an argument about the running of the family’s goat farm near Cummins on the Eyre Peninsula.

He said a vicious attack involving “continuing blows” followed and Yeend’s stepmother tried to block the assault.

“You punched her multiple times … you picked up a wooden coffee table and swung it over your shoulder at your father. He was standing next to your stepmother.

“The table struck your father in the head and shoulder and your stepmother in the head.”

Yeend’s stepmother suffered a scalp laceration requiring stitches, bruising and pain to her forehead, neck, arms and fingers.

His father suffered “extensive” acute facial fractures, a brain bleed, bruising and a head laceration requiring stitching and ongoing monitoring for the possibility of a brain injury.

Both were cared for at Cummins Hospital.

Judge Barrett said he had “some reservations” about Yeend’s expression of regret. He said both victims were left “terrified” of Yeend.

Despite the attacks, Yeend hoped to continue working on the family farm but Judge Barrett said that was “quite an unrealistic expectation”.

He said Yeend had a history of behaving “erratically and violently”, including against other family members and police officers over the past 10 years. Those offences included throwing a brick through a car window and assaults against his sister and brother-in-law after a separate argument about the family farm.

Yeend had also punched two police officers in separate attacks and wrote his name on a paver and lobbed it through the windscreen of a police car.

After discounts for the guilty pleas, Judge Barrett jailed Yeend for three years and five months. He set a non-parole period of two years and two months, backdated to his arrest in March last year.