Long Jetty rocket park assault: Keith Dargin sentenced

A crazed dad assaulted an innocent couple in a terrifying attack at a kid’s birthday party at Long Jetty’s rocket park after a simple misunderstanding over a set of swings.

Keith Dargin, 36, has been convicted and sentenced for assaulting a couple at the popular `rocket park'.'

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Long Jetty’s `rocket park’ has delighted families for generations.

That was until public “menace” Keith William Dargin accused an innocent bystander of threatening three of his children during a terrifying incident that left two people assaulted, kids screaming and a seven-year-old’s birthday in tatters.

A court was told shortly before 3pm on Sunday, March 10, a man was pushing his four-year-old daughter on a swing in the popular park when two boys came over and started pushing their younger brother on the other swing.

Lions Park at Long Jetty, commonly known as the rocket park, has been an iconic playground for generations. Picture: Google

Wyong Local Court yesterday heard the boys started pushing their brother “roughly” and the man asked them to slow down because the little boy was crossing into the path of his daughter.

The young boy started complaining that he wanted to get off but his brothers continued and the dad, worried there was going to be an accident, told them “can you please stop swinging like that otherwise someone will get kicked in the head”.

His daughter’s legs and feet almost collided with the little boy’s head and he was worried “someone would get hurt”, a set of agreed police facts tendered to court read.

Wyong Local Court heard the man pushing his daughter was worried someone would get hurt.

He was at the park with his wife and daughter for a seven-year-old’s birthday party.

A woman then approached him and said “excuse me did you threaten my kids?”.

The man said “no, I simply said someone would get hurt”.

She replied: “don’t you threaten my kids you f...ing c...”.

The man said “I was simply looking after the wellbeing of my kid and your kids”.

She told him she was going to get her partner and “he will f...ing kill you, you’re f...ed dog c...”.

“This was all said in front of families and children whom were at the park enjoying the day,” the police facts read.

The rocket has been a feature of the park for decades. Picture: Facebook

Twenty minutes later the man saw the woman return in her car and 36-year-old Dargin got out of the passenger side and approach him.

“Did you threaten my kids you dog c...?” Dargin asked the man before punching him to the left side of his face, causing him to fall over.

The man’s wife told Dargin “it’s a kid’s party, just leave” but he shoved her backwards.

Her husband got back to his feet and Dargin punched him again before he was able to grab Dargin’s legs and tackle him to the ground where he was helped by two witnesses.

The police facts said they got up and dusted themselves off when Dargin, a labourer with a civil construction firm, went back to his car and got a stick.

Keith Wiliam Dargin, 36, of Jilliby, was convicted of two counts of assault. Picture: Facebook

He returned to the park where the man told him to “drop it” before Dargin threw the stick into the water under a nearby bridge.

By now police arrived after being contacted by scared onlookers.

He was charged with affray, two counts of common assault and being in custody of an offensive implement in a public place.

Dargin initially pleaded not guilty but later pleaded guilty to the two assault charges and the affray and offensive implement offences were withdrawn.

Dargin. Picture: supplied

At his sentencing yesterday Magistrate Peter Feather described his actions a “appalling behaviour” from a man who’s five-page criminal record showed had “a propensity for violence”.

“You’re a menace, you’re a menace to the community,” Mr Feather said.

The magistrate said a pre-sentence report found he had “no insight” to his offending or empathy for his victims and instead “placed blame on the victim”.

Dargin’s Legal Aid solicitor told the court he had since come to feel remorse because he did it in front of his children.

Mr Feather sentenced him to a 10-month intensive corrections order, which is the court’s equivalent of a jail term but served in the community.