Norlane man Grant Tuffnell-Vince came close to killing someone with meat cleaver

A Norlane man came close to facing a murder charge after he attacked another man with a meat cleaver during a chilling attempt to steal drugs, a court was told.

Grant Tuffnell-Vince charged towards two men with a meat cleaver. Picture: Facebook.

A Norlane man who came close to killing another man with a meat cleaver was brought undone by a UDL can.

Grant Tuffnell-Vince, 28, went “straight for the head” with the cleaver during a terrifying assault on Norlane’s Spruhan Ave earlier this year when he and three co-accused were looking for drugs.

Prosecutor Trevor Wallwork told the County Court of Victoria if the victim had “turned his head or neck a different millimetre” during the assault, Tuffnell-Vince might instead be facing court “for murder”.

Tuffnell-Vince pleaded guilty to nine charges on Wednesday, including recklessly cause injury and aggravated burglary.

About 3am on April 6 this year, Tuffnell-Vince and three others drove to the Norlane home with the intention of stealing drugs.

Two men who lived inside barricaded themselves for safety but Tuffnell-Vince, who found an unlocked window, made it inside and charged towards them with the meat cleaver.

Grant Tuffnell-Vince came close to killing a man with a meat cleaver. Picture: Facebook.

When a third victim arrived to help, Tuffnell-Vince ran towards him and launched a frightening assault with the cleaver that left the man with a 4cm laceration.

At the same time, a co-accused person drove a car “terribly close” to the men while they were fighting, Mr Wallwork said.

“It speaks of the great risk and idiocy of what is happening,” Mr Wallwork told the court.

Tuffnell-Vince was placed at the scene when police found fingerprints on a UDL can and in a car that was present during the assault.

Judge John Smallwood said Tuffnell-Vine was “lucky” to be in the County Court, and not facing the Supreme Court of Victoria, because he went “straight for the head” with the meat cleaver.

Referring to a victim-impact statement from one of the men inside the house, Judge Smallwood said the victim felt “worried and paranoid”.

“That is a natural consequence of this sort of offending and one of the reasons why it usually carries a significant jail period,” he added.

Lawyer for Tuffnell-Vince, John Moore, said he had a “fairly sad chronology” of coming into contact with the court system.

“It has been a chronology of ongoing offending and slowly but surely (there has been) increased incarceration. This will be a fairly significant punctuation mark in that trajectory,” Mr Moore said.

Tuffnell-Vince was sentenced to five years imprisonment with a non-parole period of three years.

Originally published as Norlane man Grant Tuffnell-Vince came close to killing someone with meat cleaver