A Goonellabah man who assaulted a good Samaritan, police and security guard, after being asked to wear a mask, has been sentenced for the attack

He has also been re-sentenced for other offences, including those related to a community corrections order which be breached four times.

A man who assaulted police, a security guard and a good samaritan after refusing to wear a mask has been imprisoned. Picture: D-Keine

A man who assaulted police, a security guard and a good Samaritan, after he refused to wear a mask in a Lismore shopping centre, blacked out during the incident, a court has heard.

Goonellabah man Steele Terrar Davies was visibly upset when details of his offending were recalled during his sentencing hearing before Byron Bay Local Court on Tuesday.

The court heard the 22-year-old was grappling with substance addiction and had broken his sobriety before the April 1 incident at Lismore Central Shopping Centre.

He entered the shopping centre without a mask while they were mandatory in indoor commercial settings across the Northern Rivers, following a Queensland-based Covid-19 outbreak linked to a group of people who visited Byron Bay while infectious.

A security guard offered him a mask and he responded by punching him in the head, the court heard.

A good Samaritan tried to intervene and was assaulted in the same manner.

Police attended and Davies resisted and attacked them, kicking one officer repeatedly when they tried to place him in a police vehicle.

He also attacked the custody manager at Lismore Police Station, biting him twice and causing an injury and defecated in the holding cell.

Davies pleaded guilty to two counts each of common assault, assaulting police, resisting police and destroying or damaging property and a single charge of behaving in an offensive manner.

Before the April incident, Davies had been re-sentenced three times for domestic violence matters for which he was serving a community corrections order.

Defence lawyer Rachel Thampapillai said the incident unfolded “in the context of Mr Davies feeling under a lot of stress at the time”.

He was reporting to police on bail every day on unrelated charges and was serving a community corrections order for previous offences.

“He had broken his sobriety and was under the influence of a large amount of alcohol and recalls to me that he virtually blacked out,” Ms Thampapillai said.

She said Davies wrote to police and one of his other victims, expressing his remorse.

The court heard her client had a challenging upbringing marred by the alcohol and drug use of the adults around him.

Magistrate Karen Stafford was sentencing Davies six sets of offences in total with 19 charges between them.

“You’ve been given so many opportunities by the court to stay out of jail but you keep reoffending,” Ms Stafford said.

Ms Stafford said Davies’ behaviour at the shopping centre was “atrocious”.

But she said a letter of remorse was “very moving” and she accepted Davies was “genuinely sorry for what happened”.

Ms Stafford sentenced him to two years’ prison, backdated to take into account the time he has been held on remand.

His non-parole period will end on October 22.