Rory Toko pleads guilty to Long Jetty affray and Blue Haven coward punch

A man has pleaded guilty to leading a wild affray at Long Jetty where he bludgeoned a man with a hammer and a month later coward punched a teen, leaving him with hearing loss.

An 18-year-old will be sentenced next month after pleading guilty to leading a wild affray at Long Jetty armed with a hammer and a baseball bat and a coward punch assault on a love rival at Blue Haven.

Rory Toko, of Woongarrah, pleaded guilty to intentionally or recklessly destroying property, two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and affray over an incident at Long Jetty on February 18.

He also pleaded guilty to causing reckless grievous bodily harm to a man, 18, at Blue Haven on March 13.

An agreed set of facts states a 15-year-old boy was being harassed by a group of people, including his ex-girlfriend at Westfield Tuggerah when he called his dad to come and pick him up about 3pm on February 18, 2021.

The boy called his dad to pick him up from Westfield Tuggerah. Picture: Mark Scott

His dad and uncle attended the shopping centre where they yelled at the group and chased them for a distance of about 40m before stopping to speak to a security guard.

They left and went to the boy’s ex-girlfriend’s parents house to discuss the issues between her and the boy.

About 9.30pm they were at an address on Toowoon Bay Rd when the boy’s uncle went outside and was confronted by a group of about 20 people including two people armed with machetes.

A male punched the boy’s uncle, aged 35, who punched back before arming himself with a T-shirt he used to “flick at the attacker’s heads when they approached him”.

Toko, armed with a baseball bat, smashed the windows of the uncle’s Holden Commodore.

The boy’s father came outside, along with his partner and the boy’s grandmother and they yelled at the group to “f..k off”, “what the f..k is going on?” and “get the f..k out of here”.

The facts state most of the group had their faces covered and were throwing objects at the victims including a lump of wood, which hit the boy’s grandmother.

It appeared to the victims the group had two “leaders”, one with a white jacket around his head as a mask and the other being Toko, who did not cover his face.

”After approximately five minutes of pushing the attackers back from the house (the uncle) was struck on the top of the head with a hammer by the Offender,” the facts state.

The boy’s father heard someone call out to him and “as he turned the Offender struck him to the left side of his head with a metal baseball bat”.

The man was knocked unconscious and woke up later bleeding from “either his head or his ear”.

The facts state the group fled when they heard the sound of sirens.

On February 23 Toko presented to Wyong Police Station and participated in a recorded interview in which he made “full admissions to the assaults”.

He was later charged on March 1.

Toko presented to Wyong Police Station where he made “full admissions”.

On March 13 Toko was invited to an 18th birthday party at Blue Haven along with about 50 others including a young woman he had befriended a couple of months earlier.

The woman, also 18, arrived at the party with another man she had been friends with for three years, however she “intended to develop the relationship romantically”, an agreed set of facts states.

Toko was introduced to the man and repeated his name as he shook his hand in a way that made the woman feel he was being “overly fake and petty towards the victim”.

As the party went on Toko tried a number of times to pull the woman towards him by the hips and at one point carried her over his shoulder.

“The victim tapped the Offender on the back and said `Mate, just put her down’,” the facts state.

Later Toko spoke to the victim who said he didn’t “want any beef” with Toko and “I don’t have a problem, I just want us all to be good”.

But Toko threatened him “If you hurt her feelings, I will bash you” before swinging his right arm towards the victim, striking him to the left side of the face.

The man collapsed unconscious and started vomiting for about five minutes.

He was taken to Wyong Hospital and discharged the following morning but was readmitted for a CAT scan when he continued to vomit the next day.

The scans revealed two skull fractures and he lost hearing in his left ear, requiring a cochlear implant.

Toko was later interviewed and told police he was “smashed the whole time” having consumed nearly a full bottle of vodka and consumed `ice’ at the party.

He will be sentenced in Wyong Local Court for the Long Jetty incident next month and face Gosford District Court on December 2 to set a sentencing date for the coward punch offence.