Galambany Circle Sentencing Court gives Blake Aldridge good behaviour orders for affray

A young man is lucky he did not kill the victim of a “cowardly attack” near a Canberra convenience store, a magistrate has said.

Blake Aldridge leaves court after being sentenced on Tuesday. Picture: Blake Foden

A young man is lucky he did not kill the victim of a “cowardly attack” near a Canberra convenience store, a magistrate has said.

“People can hit their head on the pavement and die,” special magistrate Anthony Hopkins said in the ACT’s Galambany Circle Sentencing Court on Tuesday.

“It didn’t happen here, but it can happen.”

Dr Hopkins made the remarks while sentencing Kaleen resident Blake Brian Aldridge to a series of good behaviour orders that will span the next 18 months.

Aldridge, 21, had previously pleaded guilty to charges of affray, property damage and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

The ACT courts, where Blake Aldridge was sentenced. Picture: NCA Newswire

The court heard Aldridge committed the first two crimes in March 2022, when he and two unnamed men got into an altercation with his first victim in the driveway of a home in the ACT suburb of Giralang.

A prosecutor said Aldridge smashed a rock through the windscreen of a Holden Cruze the man had been sitting in.

She said another member of the group threw a bottle at this victim’s garage.

The victim also reported that someone had kicked the door of his home once he had retreated inside, but the court heard it was unclear which of Aldridge’s group had done this.

In February 2023, while Aldridge was on bail in relation to the Giralang incident, he was out with an older man in the early hours of a Sunday morning.

The prosecutor said the other man “catcalled” some women who were leaving a convenience store in Canberra’s city centre.

This triggered a confrontation with Aldridge’s second victim, who was a male friend of these women.

The prosecutor told the court Aldridge’s companion tried to punch the male friend but missed, instead striking one of the women by accident.

She said Aldridge’s companion then corrected his aim and punched the intended target repeatedly, causing blood to pour from his nose.

After initially standing back, Aldridge eventually entered the fray by approaching and pushing the bloodied man.

Not deterred by the sight of police arriving at the scene, he then punched him in the face.

The court heard he subsequently fled, jumping over several tents that had been erected in central Canberra for the National Multicultural Festival.

Police eventually found Aldridge hiding behind a piece of plywood and arrested him.

During a conversation with Indigenous elders, who play a role in the sentencing of offenders in the specialised circle court, Aldridge said his childhood “wasn’t the best”.

“My mum used to, like, get on heroin and crack,” Aldridge said, detailing how he did not start attending school properly until year six.

He also described how he had “turned down a bad path” and started using drugs at a young age.

The 21-year-old said the birth of his daughter had prompted him to “pull my head in pretty quick”, but she was now four and he no longer had contact with her.

Now employed full-time in construction, he said he just wanted to focus on work.

In sentencing, Dr Hopkins said Aldridge had made “impressive” progress in turning his life around since his offending.

Without this, he said the court would probably have imposed a suspended jail sentence.

Dr Hopkins acknowledged Aldridge’s disadvantaged youth, telling the offender “no child should have to face” the circumstances of his troubled upbringing.

However, the magistrate said it was important for the court to denounce Aldridge’s offending.

He said the second incident had been particularly serious.

“[The assault victim] didn’t ask for this to happen,” Dr Hopkins told Aldridge.

“It came upon him. It was a cowardly attack.”