Keep quiet: Man, 70, attacks neighbour with cricket bat
A long-running dispute between two elderly men has ended with a broken rib for one and a jail sentence for another in a case so unusual police didn’t know what sentence to recommend.
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A LONG-RUNNING dispute about loud music has ended in a rare criminal conviction and jail sentence for a pensioner.
The case was so unusual even the police prosecutor said he was “pretty much at a loss’’ as to what sentence to recommend to the magistrate.
The trouble started in 2018 when Spanish immigrant Maurico Severiano Beltran, now 70, got fed up with the loud music being played by his neighbour Charles Hayes, then aged 63.
After raising the matter with the body corporate of his Upper Mt Gravatt unit complex, the matter came to a dramatic head on December 30.
Holland Park Magistrates Court heard that Beltran began banging on the wall of his unit when Hayes started playing music once again.
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Police prosecutor Sgt David Low told the court Hayes then knocked on Beltran’s door and told him to stop banging.
As Hayes went to walk away, Beltran began repeatedly hitting him with a cricket bat.
Another neighbour pulled the men apart, but when Hayes woke up the next day he was in great pain and had bruising to his ribs, knees and the side of his face.
He was x-rayed and found to have a fractured rib.
Beltran, speaking through an interpreter, pleaded guilty to one count of serious assault of a person over 60.
His lawyer, Garry Wooler, said Beltran had no previous criminal history and had tried to resolve the matter peacefully through the body corporate, to no avail.
Other neighbours had also complained about the music and there was some dispute about whether Mr Hayes was walking away at the time of the assault.
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Mr Wooler also said a conviction might leave his client, who had divorced in Spain and left his children and family over there to come to Australia, at risk of deportation.
“He’s not a violent man, he has no history of violence, he does not go around attacking people,’’ he said.
“He has come to this country just to get a bit of peace and quiet.’’
Sgt Low said although imprisonment was an option open to the court, he did not know what “utility’’ there was in jailing an elderly man.
“I’m pretty much at a loss as to where to go penalty-wise,’’ Sgt Low said.
“It’s not the usual type of offending. Even if there was a suspended sentence, what’s the utility?’’
However magistrate Simon Young said there was a need for general deterrence.
“The sentence today must serve as a warning for other people not to do this type of thing,’’ he said.
“This disgraceful and cowardly act must be denounced by the court... notwithstanding Mr Beltran’s otherwise good character.
“Punishment must fit the crime. This behaviour is unacceptable regardless of somebody’s age, background or cultural heritage.’’
Mr Young imposed a three-month prison sentence, wholly suspended for six months. He ordered a conviction be recorded.