Gosford Hotel assault: Dylan Brady, 29, pleads guilty to violent assault

Police have described an assault at Gosford Hotel in February as “one of the most sickening and unprovoked” they have seen. It comes as the man responsible pleads guilty.

A 29-year-old student has pleaded guilty to what police have described as one of the most “sickening” assaults they have seen.

Dylan Brady, of Davistown, appeared at Gosford Local Court on Friday where he entered guilty pleas to one charge of affray and one charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm before Magistrate Jennifer Price.

The set of agreed facts tendered to the court state that they are backed up by CCTV footage from the night of February 6 this year.

Police released CCTV images Brady after the attack. Picture: NSW Police

“Upon review of the CCTV footage of this incident by the Gosford Hotel by seasoned police officers, the assault has to be quoted as one of the most sickening and unprovoked assaults that they had been privy to,” the documents state.

The facts revealed that the men were not known to each other before the night. At around 11.20pm, Brady was in the poker machine room at Gosford Hotel sitting with a woman.

The victim, aged 40, approached Brady and the woman to borrow a cigarette lighter before sitting at a poker machine.

“After about a minute the accused approached the victim and without hesitation or provocation the accused has swung his arm and slapped him with his right hand, striking the victim to the left side of the head,” the facts stated.

Brady has pleaded guilty to the unprovoked attack on the 40-year-old victim. Picture: NSW Police

The victim put his hand up to block Brady who then leant down and head butted him before shifting his weight and swinging a “haymaker” punch at the victim’s head.

He then slapped him again and the victim put his hand up to protect himself.

The facts say Brady then stepped out of view of the CCTV before returning with a “coward punch to the back of the victim’s head” which caused him to slump in his chair.

“The accused has then bent over, put his face near the victim and thrown an upper cut hitting the victim in the head causing him to slouch over the poker machine.”

His final act was another punch to the victim’s head with CCTV showing the victim was “motionless”.

Brady will be sentenced in April. Picture: David Swift

Brady left the scene and staff from the hotel took the victim to Gosford Police Station where an ambulance was called due to the “severity of the injuries”.

The next morning the police spoke to the victim who said he couldn’t remember anything after the first punch and was unable to defend himself.

Officers then went to Brady’s house and noticed “significant swelling to his right hand”. Brady was arrested and declined to be interviewed.

The matter was adjourned until April 8 for the court to receive psychologists reports and a sentence assessment report.