Harley Barwick: Woy Woy man’s birthday drinks end up with him in jail after stabbing

A man was celebrating his 25th birthday when a drunken argument ended with him stabbing his sister’s boyfriend in the neck, a court has heard.

Harley Barwick, 25, was sentenced for stabbing his sister’s boyfriend in the neck. Picture: supplied

A man had been on a bond for punching a stranger in the face several times at a pub for just a month when he stabbed a friend in the neck following a drunken argument, a court has heard.

Harley Barwick, of Woy Woy, was sentenced in Gosford District Court on Friday after pleading guilty to recklessly causing grievous bodily harm.

An agreed set of facts states Barwick and a number of others had been drinking at various locations on February 21 last year when they headed back to his address on Ocean Beach Rd, Woy Woy, about midnight.

The facts state the group was drinking alcohol and smoking cannabis when Barwick’s sister’s boyfriend, 33, fell asleep on a lounge.

Barwick was sentenced in Gosford District Court. (AAP Image/Sue Graham)

Barwick used a texta to write on the man’s forehead and arms before the man woke up and went into the bathroom.

The facts state the man returned and started arguing with Barwick in the kitchen where Barwick accused him of sleeping with his partner.

A witness said they heard Barwick call out “what the f..k” before seeing blood “spraying” from the victim’s neck.

Barwick asked for a towel and applied pressure to the wound as he walked the victim outside and yelled for people to “call an ambulance”.

“My sister will never forgive me,” Barwick was heard to say.

“What have I done?”

Barwick walked off and a member of the public noticed him shortly before 4am and asked if he was okay.

“No I’m not okay, I just stabbed my brother in the neck because he kissed my girlfriend,” Barwick told the man.

Paramedics took the victim to Gosford Hospital where he underwent emergency surgery to a partially severed jugular vein and carotid artery.

The man was taken to Gosford Hospital in a critical condition. Picture: file

The man suffered a stroke as a result of a “circulatory collapse”, which left him unable to speak or understand general questions.

Barwick handed himself in to police on March 2 and has been in custody since.

The court heard Barwick was sentenced on January 23, 2020, to an 18-month community corrections order for an unprovoked assault occasioning actual bodily harm at the Ocean Beach Hotel on October 24, 2019.

The court heard he had been on this order for a month when he stabbed his sister’s boyfriend in the neck in the early hours of Barwick’s 25th birthday on February 22, 2020.

Judge Jane Culver said the use of a knife should be “abhorred’ and there was evidence blood was spraying from the victim’s neck.

“One can only imagine how terrifying that would have been,” she said.

Judge Culver sentenced Barwick to four and a half years jail with a non-parole period of two and a half years.

With time already served he will be eligible for release on September 1, 2022.