Lachlan Anderson jailed over attack on good Samaritan in Gympie CBD

Harrowing footage of an attack on a 46-year-old Good Samaritan, who was just trying to protect two terrified young girls from catcallers, has been played in a Gympie court.

Confronting footage of a brutal assault on a 46-year-old man in Gympie’s CBD has been shown in court, as one of his two attackers was sentenced to jail.

Lachlan Anderson, 19, was supported by his father in court on Monday, as video of the moment the then-18-year-old and a teenage assailant ganged up on a Good Samaritan after they began catcalling two teenage girls, was shown in Gympie Magistrates Court.

The case has been before the courts since May when Anderson first pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm and public nuisance.

Footage of the attack on October 30, 2021, was captured on Gympie council CCTV cameras in Smithfield St.

In the video, Anderson and his teenage accomplice are seen following closely behind the young girls in Smithfield St when an older man across the street shouts at them to stop.

The two teenage boys then cross the road and approach the man in an aggressive manner.

Lachlan Anderson in 2020. Photo: Facebook

They corner him, and Anderson is seen goading his accomplice by pushing him towards the man.

The man is then suddenly pulled to the ground and wrestles with the teenager, while Anderson is seen kicking him to the head, chest and abdomen.

Magistrate Chris Callaghan said he counted eight kicks in total, though the first two missed the man entirely.

A car is then seen rounding the corner onto Smithfield St from Young St just as the scuffle breaks out.

Several witnesses rush to the man’s aid while Anderson and the other teen argue with some of the bystanders.

They then leave the scene.

The court heard the man suffered a fractured nose and shattered cheekbone, which caused his cheek to droop two centimetres.

Defence lawyer Chris Anderson said his client, who worked as a civil construction worker on the Gympie bypass, was abusing alcohol at the time of the attack.

He had since stopped.

Mr Callaghan said the attack was “unprovoked” and “cowardly”, though it was fortunate the man was not more seriously.

“Two people on one is an unfair advantage,” he said.

Anderson turned around and looked at his dad in horror as his sentence was handed down.

He was sentenced to nine months behind bars for the attack, but he will only serve three months before he is eligible to be released on parole in October.