The Entrance: Kyle Anthony O’Brien pleads guilty to coward punch and separate affray

A man who coward punched a stranger after his drunk girlfriend sideswiped the victim’s parked camper van has been warned he could be facing jail. Read the full story.

The public multi storey car park off Coral St at The Entrance where Kyle O’Brien coward punched a man. Picture: Google

It wasn’t enough Kyle Anthony O’Brien’s drunk girlfriend sideswiped a camper van in a public car park late at night.

The 25-year-old then made things a lot worse for the poor van owner by coward punching him when he went to call the police, a court has heard.

O’Brien, of Mannering Park, faced Wyong Local Court last week where he pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm as well as affray and reckless grievous bodily harm over a separate, unrelated incident.

Magistrate Lucas Swan expressed his surprise that O’Brien wasn’t refused bail for not one but two violent offences.

He adjourned O’Brien to September 3 to undergo a full pre-sentence report and warned him to “make Community Corrections your best friend otherwise I would not be making any plans for the fourth of September”.

Don’t make plans: O’Brien was warned he could go to jail for his offending after appearing at Wyong Local Court. Picture: file.

An agreed set of facts states O’Brien was in the passenger seat with his girlfriend Tiarntay Heather Wallace-Hoyle driving shortly before 11pm on Saturday, April 12, when she clipped a parked camper van in the Coral St multi storey public car park at The Entrance. There is no suggestion that incident occurred deliberately.

A man was asleep in the camper van and woke up before approaching Wallace-Hoyle’s window to see if she was okay.

O’Brien’s girlfriend Tiarntay Wallace-Holye was drink-driving when she clipped the man’s camper van. Picture: Google

“As the victim looked down at his mobile phone to call police the accused has walked towards him and without being provoked, the accused has lunged towards the victim with a closed right fist and punched the victim in the left side of his face, connecting with the victim’s cheek bone causing him to fall to the ground,” the facts state.

“As the victim has fallen the accused has pushed the victim into the ground.”

The facts state O’Brien then stood over the victim and slapped him to the back of the head when he tried to stand up before the man managed to scamper away.

Police arrived a short time later and spoke to O’Brien but he refused to answer any questions.

Officers also tried to speak to Wallace-Hoyle but could not get a statement out of her because of her “level of intoxication”.

Police later obtained CCTV from the car park “which clearly depicts the accused assaulting the victim without provocation or retaliation from the victim”.

Wallace-Hoyle was charged with high range drink-driving and also faced Wyong Local Court last week where she pleaded guilty.

She was fined $1500, disqualified from driving for six months an put on an interlock order for another 24 months.

Meanwhile O’Brien also pleaded guilty to his role in a separate wild brawl at Bonnells Bay Hotel on October 5 last year.

Facts in that matter state O’Brien was at the hotel with some others in the smoking area when another, unknown group took issue with how loud they were.

After being told to keep it down, O’Brien walked over to one of the other group and punched the man three times to the side of the face, sparking a fight involving several people.

The facts state O’Brien’s victim suffered damage to the discs in his neck that a specialist doctor reported was “unlikely to change” and therefore permanent.