Dad-to-be sentenced after Club Tavern attack
A painter celebrating news he was going to be a father with a cocktail of alcohol and drugs has been sentenced for a gruesome attack on a security guard at a pub north of Brisbane.
Moreton
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A security guard at a Caboolture hotel thought his cheek was going to tear as a drunk patron carved his fingernails through the inside of his mouth, a court has heard.
Ben David Johnson, 39 of Glasshouse, was celebrating news he was going to be a father at the Club Tavern in Caboolture on July 13 when he drunkenly attacked the security guard after he was cut off at the bar.
The court heard the guard was gently pushing Johnson to the exit when the intoxicated patron struck him in the face with his hand.
Magistrate James Blanch heard Johnson then fell back on the guard, grabbed him by the face and forced his fingers into his mouth, scratching the inside of the guard’s cheek while saying “f*ck you black c***”.
“Your actions that evening were more like an animal than a human being,” Magistrate Blanch said.
The court heard Johnson, a painter who was already on a suspended jail sentence at the time, had taken methylamphetamine for the first time that evening and could not remember the incident but was shocked when he was told what he had done.
He pleaded guilty via video link from custody and was sentenced to seven months’ jail for assaulting the security guard and two months’ jail for causing a public nuisance. Both sentences were immediately suspended, and will remain suspended for a period of 24 months.
Johnson was also ordered to pay $700 in compensation to the victim.
The suspension period for an existing jail sentence was also extend by six months, leaving Johnson’s release from custody now in the hands of the parole board.
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