Stabbing victim convicted over fight with attacker

A man has faced court after he was involved in a brawl with another man who allegedly stabbed him in the neck during an earlier altercation.

A Grafton man has been sentenced for affray over a fistfight in a street with another man that stabbed him, a court has heard.

After using a fence paling to swat away a man that stabbed him with a knife, a Grafton man was later found engaged in a fistfight with his attacker on a street surrounded by more than 40 people, a court has heard.

Anthony Stephen Skinner faced Grafton Local Court on Monday where he was sentenced after pleading guilty to affray.

The court heard at about 12.55am on Saturday, January 9 the 26-year-old was walking to his cousin’s house when he was approached by another man holding a knife and a bottle in each hand, yelling and swearing at Skinner.

Court documents state that at some point the man swung the knife at Skinner, who stepped back to avoided the swing, but the man swung again and cut Skinner on the neck, causing a 5-8cm laceration. Skinner ran to pick up a fence paling and used it to keep distance between himself and his attacker.

The court heard officers from Coffs/Clarence Police District arrived shortly after and yelled at Skinner to drop the fence paling, and the second man fled the scene. Police spoke with Skinner about his injury, however he declined to identify the attacker or make a formal statement. Skinner was asked if he required an ambulance, which he declined, but told police he would go to hospital.

Court documents reveal that after police left Skinner continued to walk to his cousin’s address when he spotted his attacker, and yelled out “you stabbed me”.

Police were called to the scene a second time and when they arrived found a crowd of around 40-50 people surrounding the accused and his attacker fighting in the middle of Weiley Ave. At this stage police were powerless to disperse the crowd and waited for additional officers to attend, and activated their body-worn cameras to capture video of the pair shaping up and swinging punches at each other. Court documents state that once more officers arrived at the scene the crowd was dispersed and the pair arrested.

In court on Monday, Skinner was convicted by magistrate Kathy Crittenden and sentenced to an 18 month community corrections order. Skinner was also convicted of contravening a prohibition/restriction of an AVO sentenced to a nine month intensive corrections order. Both sentences combined included a total of 180 hours community service work.

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