Wyong: Jamie King, 47, pleads guilty to home invasion, bashing over mistaken identity
A “surfie” came unstuck when one of the men he bashed over a $600 debt — in a case of mistaken identity — later recognised him at an employment agency.
Central Coast
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One of two intruders who forced their way into a home and violently assaulted the two male occupants over a $600 debt — only to realise they had the wrong people — came unstuck when one of the victims later recognised him in a dole queue.
Jamie Joseph King, of Mardi, faced Wyong Local Court on Tuesday, when he pleaded guilty to aggravated breaking and entering to commit reckless wounding and reckless wounding in company.
The 47-year-old’s bail was continued until August 29, when he is set to face Gosford District Court to fix a sentence date.
An agreed set of facts states King and another man bashed on the door of a house on Byron St, Wyong, about 10.20pm on July 21 last year.
The two male occupants, aged 48 and 53, had just finished watching football on TV when the younger man answered the door.
As he opened the door, the other offender “smashed” the man in the face.
King walked in behind him and told the other resident: “You have nothing to do with this. Stay out of it.”
The facts state King punched the resident in the face two or three times as his co-offender continued to assault the younger victim while he was on the ground.
That victim could feel “holes in his skull” and that his “skull had been punctured”.
At one point as King assaulted the younger victim, that man “ripped” one of the dreadlocks from King’s head.
King and his co-offender then picked him up and threw him out the front door and down the stairs.
Later, King’s co-offender told the younger victim “this is what you get for not paying your debt”, to which the victim asked: “What debt?”
The co-offender said “you owe Bel $600”, but the victim replied: “What Bel? I don’t owe anybody nuthin”.
King asked him “what’s your name?”, to which the victim replied “Liam, why, who the f... are you after?”
“The two offenders looked at each other but didn’t say anything,” the facts state.
King’s co-offender said “you’re lucky you didn’t get f...ing get stabbed”.
The victim replied: “I did get f...en stabbed, you did f...en stab me”.
But King’s co-offender denied this, saying: “I was just hittin’ you hard in the top of the head.”
King’s co-offender later apologised and asked if anyone else lived there, prompting them to learn the man they were after had only moved out a couple of weeks earlier.
King and his co-offender were then seen leaving the house “casually” by a witness who described King as a “surfie”.
Police were called and established a crime scene, where they seized the dreadlock of King’s hair and several screwdrivers.
The two victims were taken to hospital, where the younger one received several staples and glue to suture cuts to his head.
He also suffered two “black eyes” and multiple bruises.
The other victim suffered a bad cut to his lip that needed stitches, as well as loose teeth, swelling to his upper and lower lip and a sore left shoulder and elbow.
Six days later, one of the victims was at an employment agency in Wyong when he saw King and “recognised him instantly” by his dreadlocked hair pulled back in a ponytail.
King was arrested but declined to be interviewed.
The facts state that despite King’s guilty pleas, he makes “no admission” as to the identity of the co-offender.
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