Lake Munmorah: Clint Alaban appeals jail sentence for bashing neighbour over bins

A man who went ballistic at a neighbour over the placement of his rubbish bins, leaving him in hospital for a week with a broken wrist and shattered leg, has appealed his two-year jail sentence.

A man blamed PTSD from a traumatic childhood among the reasons he snapped at a neighbour over the placement of his weekly bins before bashing him with a wooden pole, a court has heard.

Clint Alaban, of Lake Munmorah, faced Gosford District Court on Wednesday where he appealed the severity of his two-year sentence he received in Wyong Local Court last November.

The 41-year-old had pleaded guilty to one count of inflicting reckless grievous bodily harm.

An agreed set of facts states Alaban had lived next door to his neighbour on the Pacific Highway for about eight years however the relationship had become acrimonious in recent years, particularly about where their respective bins were put out each week.

Alaban and his next door neighbour’s falling out occurred over where their rubbish bins were put out each week. (File image)

On August 17, 2020, Alaban had a confrontation over his neighbour’s bins and his neighbour’s partner went out and moved them.

The neighbour told Alaban “I’ve had enough of youse coming here whinging about these bins” the facts state.

At 7.30am the next morning Alaban was out the front of his neighbour’s house yelling obscenities and calling the victim to “come outside”.

The victim told him to “f. k off” before reporting it to police.

Later that afternoon the victim’s partner was hanging out washing on the line when Alaban started banging on the shared fence.

About 4.40pm the victim went outside and started walking up the street when he saw Alaban who said “let’s go, come on” while banging on the fence.

The victim felt fearful and started walking back to his house before he yelled to Alaban “go and pick the bins up you idiot and apologise”.

Clint Alaban pleaded guilty to one count of recklessly inflicting grievous bodily harm. (2008 picture)

Alaban came out with a wooden pole and confronted him on the footpath. The victim asked “do you really want to do this?” and stepped back two or three steps.

“The offender struck the victim using the pole that he was holding,” the facts state.

“He struck the victim on his head and body. The victim was hit hard across his head and again on the back of his leg.”

The victim suffered a wound to his head that required staples, a black eye, a fractured left wrist, a fractured right shin which required metal plates and screws to be inserted and significant bruising to his back.

He underwent surgery the next day for the tibia fracture and spent six days in hospital before spending a further 12 weeks as an outpatient with the fracture clinic.

In his victim impact statement the man said he suffered “extreme trauma” as a result of the assault and continued to walk with a painful limp.

Judge Tanya Bright said she accepted this “would have been a wholly terrifying and traumatic event for the victim”.

Alaban appealed the severity of his sentence in Gosford District Court. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Swift

“The victim was struck by a weapon and struck repeatedly,” Judge Bright said.

“The facts, as I said, indicate that it was for 36 seconds that the assault continued. That is a very significant period of time particularly having regard to the fact the victim was lying on the ground at this stage.”

The court heard Alaban had been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder from a troubled childhood and suffered depression when he could not provide for his family.

Judge Bright said ultimately Alaban’s appeal had sought to serve the rest of his sentence in the community by way of an intensive corrections order.

While she found the custodial sentence imposed by the Local Court was “appropriate” Judge Bright allowed the appeal and changed the non-parole period from 16 months — or 66 per cent of the head sentence — to 12 months or 50 per cent of the total sentence.

With time served Alaban will be eligible for parole on November 18 this year.