Bateau Bay Hotel: Noah Leslie Donald Leach, 20, pleads guilty to glassing

‘Buy us a drink? How about you suck my d**k first’ — read how a misunderstood joke sparked a vicious glassing at a popular Central Coast pub.

A man was viciously glassed in the face at a busy pub by a drunk who “snapped” after the victim joked he should buy him a drink, a court has heard.

Noah Leslie Donald Leach, 20, of Long Jetty, faced Wyong Local Court on Wednesday where he pleaded guilty to glassing a man in the face at Bateau Bay Hotel on July 8.

The court heard the full-time roof tiler was at the pub with his partner and three mates when they went out into the beer garden after watching the footy about 9.30pm.

An agreed set of facts states Leach walked past a table when a man, 27 — who knew of but the pair weren’t friends — said “something about” getting him and others a drink “in a joking manner”.

Leach and his mates had gone out into the Bateau Bay Hotel beer garden before things turned ugly quickly. (File image)

However Leach took it in an “antagonising manner” and said “well I’m not getting you anything”.

“At this point both the victim and the accused said certain words to each other,” the facts state.

“The victim states that the accused said `for that to happen (buying them drinks) you’d have to suck my d**k’.”

Leach later told police the victim pointed at his partner and said something that set him off.

“Upon hearing this, the accused states that `I snapped’ and `I didn’t mean to. I didn’t even blink, it just happened. It was a complete and physical mental break down. I lunged at him’,” the facts state.

Leach lunged at the victim with his glass. Picture: NewsLocal

Leach slammed a glass tumbler into the victim’s face, cutting him above his left eye and forehead, before both men were escorted outside by hotel security who called the victim an ambulance.

The victim waited for a while but then went to The Entrance Police Station to report it.

The facts state police, meanwhile, arrived at the pub where they obtained CCTV of the incident.

The following morning Leach rang the police “to identify himself as the offender and to make admissions” and also called the hotel to apologise for his behaviour.

Later that afternoon he attended Wyong Police Station where he participated in a recorded interview, telling police he was “extremely remorseful”, that he had a history of abusing alcohol and had previously sought help for undiagnosed psychological issues.

Leach’s solicitor, leading criminal lawyer Samar Singh-Panwar, tendered a mental health plan formulated by Leach’s GP and told the court his client’s admissions demonstrated remorse.

Leach will have plenty of time for self assessment when he begins his mental health plan after glassing a bloke at the pub. Picture: Facebook

He said Leach, like many young men, had not fully matured and while there had been delays in seeing a psychologist, he had since secured an appointment.

Magistrate Alan Railton said it was “objectively a very serious matter” but accepted it was an angry spontaneous reaction with “no planning” and that Leach was remorseful.

He said Leach had “gone out of his way to admit it” and his prospects of not coming back to court for further offending were “very high”.

“I doubt we will see you back here again,” Magistrate Railton said.

Leach was convicted of reckless wounding and sentenced to a community corrections order for 18 months.