Man offers to compensate victim after attack

A PROSERPINE man has been issued with hefty fines and a suspended prison sentence after seriously assaulting his 67-year-old neighbour in February 2016.

SERIOUS ASSAULT: A man has been charged for assaulting a 67-year-old man in Proserpine. Picture: Peter Carruthers

A PROSERPINE man has been issued with hefty fines and a suspended prison sentence after seriously assaulting his 67-year-old neighbour in February 2016.

Todd Jenkins-Cuso, who attended court visibly unwell, wiped tears from his eyes as the court heard how the Good Samaritan had found him outside his residence with injuries to his wrist and made a pad out of paper towel to assist him.

Mr Jenkins-Cuso, who was 23 years old at the time of the assault, had requested that the man contact his mother rather than 000, but while the victim was dialling the number, he attempted to grab his head, forcing him to retreat backwards through the kitchen door.

The victim fell to the ground on this back, at which point Mr Jenkins-Cuso positioned himself on top of him and began to claw at his face, dripping blood from his injury onto the victim as he did so.

Mr Jenkins-Cuso fled the scene leaving the victim with cuts and scratches to the face and elbows and pain in his neck.

Police were called and located Mr Jenkins-Cuso in a residential yard from where he was transported to Mackay Base Hospital for treatment. During this time he told emergency crews that he was "going to bash somebody”.

Mr Jenkins-Cuso handed himself in at Mackay Police Station and co-operated in a police interview, although he denied recollection of any events prior to being transported in the ambulance.

Magistrate Simon Young said the assault could only be explained as reprehensible.

"The serious assault, I can only describe as a drug-induced, crazed attack upon your neighbour, who was trying to help you. Someone was trying to help you and you've attacked him,” he said.

Mr Jenkins-Cuso expressed remorse for his actions and appeared significantly distressed in court, voluntarily offering to compensate the victim for the distress and pain he had caused, particularly in light of having injured him at a time when he was being offered assistance.

He was sentenced to four months imprisonment wholly suspended for 18 months and ordered to pay $750 in compensation to the victim.

Mr Jenkins-Cuso was also issued a $1000 fine over four drug-related charges dating from October 2015 to January 2016.

Among these were possession of a home-made water pipe for smoking cannabis, a glass pipe used to smoke methamphetamine and possession of 0.1g of cannabis and 0.1g of methamphethamine.

Mr Jenkins-Cuso was fined a further $300 for one charge of failure to appear in court in January 2016.