Bjordie Spanton, 40, convicted of intimidation and damaging property after Byron Bay assaults involving fellow homeless men

A 40-year-old has been sentenced over a string of frightening attacks on other homeless men in the Byron Shire.

A North Coast man who repeatedly assaulted a fellow homeless resident and damaged the van of another has been sentenced for his crimes.

Bjordie Spanton, 40, had been sentenced in February to a community corrections order for three charges of common assault which stemmed from a string of incidents in Byron Bay on November 10 last year.

Spanton, who appeared by video link from custody in Byron Bay Local Court on Monday, was living an itinerant lifestyle in the Byron Shire at the time of the incidents.

According to court documents, Spanton took a walking stick from his 57-year-old victim, who was also experiencing homelessness, in Apex Park that afternoon before striking him with it, causing him to fall to the ground in the first of the November assaults.

Later, outside a kebab shop on Jonson St, Spanton slapped and threatened his victim, who had just returned from Byron Central Hospital and later in the evening, he shoved the same man.

In the second altercation Spanton told the man he was a “dog” for reporting him to police.

According to court documents, he said “get out of town to I will cut your head off with a machete” and in the final incident that day, he said “you don’t belong here”.

While he was on bail for those assaults, Spanton chased the same victim in Mullumbimby on the afternoon of December 31 and when police searched him, he was found with 8g of cannabis.

Just two days after he was sentenced for the November assaults, Spanton targeted another homeless man who was sleeping in a van in the car park of the Mullumbimby Presbyterian Church on February 17 this year.

He repeatedly struck the man’s van, causing damage.

Spanton’s solicitor confirmed to the court his client was pleading guilty to the newer charges of stalking or intimidation with intent to cause fear of physical or other harm, possessing a prohibited drug and destroying or damaging property.

He had earlier pleaded not guilty to the intimidation charge; a hearing listed for June 29 was vacated when he changed his plea on Monday.

The court heard Spanton had been in custody since February 18.

His lawyer made reference to Spanton’s “difficult” upbringing, alcohol and drug problems and “a desire to attend rehab”.

Magistrate Karen Stafford said the intimidation was made more serious in the context of Spanton’s previous assaults against the same man.

She said there was “no doubt” Spanton’s victim was “extremely fearful” in those circumstances.

The court heard the man tried to take refuge in several places before knocking on the door of the police station.

Ms Stafford said the February incident involved the “deliberate kicking and punching to the van”.

“The owner who was inside, that was his home because he was a homeless man and that places him in a vulnerable state,” Ms Stafford said.

She convicted Spanton of each offence and found a breach of his community order was made out.

Spanton received nine months’ prison, with his non-parole period backdated to February and expiring immediately.