Thomas Wightman: Rebels bikie jailed for Mungindi bashing
A man who threatened a Rebels bikie was beaten so badly that he was left with multiple fractures to his facial bones. The man was knocked to the floor in the two on one onslaught and was defenceless as multiple blows rained down on his head.
Central Sydney
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A Rebels outlaw bikie bashed a man so ferociously that he left his victim with multiple fractures to his facial bones and upper jaw.
A Rebels outlaw bikie bashed a man so ferociously that he left his victim with multiple fractures to his facial bones and upper jaw.
Thomas Hilton Charles Wightman attacked the man alongside an associate after the victim had threatened them back on May 27 2019.
Although a district court judge found Wightman, from Moree, had acted in self-defence he jailed him for 14 months.
Wightman appeared via video link to the Downing Centre court from Bathurst Correctional Centre on July 7 to hear his sentence.
The 58-year-old victim, high on the drug ICE, had been hired to drive Wightman and his co-accused from Mungindi to Boomi, where they spent one-and-a-half hours in the Pioneer Hotel, before driving back.
They returned to Mungindi, and Wightman and his friend had soon left the victim and began walking down an alleyway.
The victim checked his wallet and believed $260 was missing.
The victim saw the pair crouching behind a car parked in a nearby backyard, and so held his hands behind his back and told the two men he was holding two knives, even though he was unarmed.
“This is where you are you f****** low life c****, where is my money?” he yelled at them, to which one of the co-accused replied “What f***ing money?”
The victim threatened to stab them if they did not return the money, according to court documents.
One of the co-accused replied: “You’re nothing but a kid f***er, we’ll give you money” before approaching the victim and beginning the assault.
They continued to hit him even after he fell to the ground.
“While on the ground, the victim did not fight back and attempted to protect his head and body,” court papers read.
“The victim felt being hit with a hard object.
“The assault continued for an unknown period of time before they stopped.”
The court documents added: “Notwithstanding his methylamphetamine use some hours prior he was still experiencing severe pain and soreness to the head and body”.
Medical scans days later found multiple fractures to facial bones and the upper jaw.
Wightman was charged with reckless grievous bodily harm in company.
Judge John Hatzistergos sentenced Wightman to 14 months in prison, backdated to the first day of custody on November 4, 2019.
He will be eligible for parole on January 4, 2021.
The court heard, Wightman, who has been charged with numerous serious assaults in the past, grew up in a neglected and overcrowded household, where drug and alcohol abuse, and violence was rampant.
In 2017, he spent eight months in prison for an assault against a public officer performing duties, causing bodily harm.
“(His) home life taught him to be violent,” the court heard, and violence was “normal”.
He started drinking daily when he was 16, according to a court-appointed report, and “acknowledged he had to do more” with his anger, drug and alcohol problems.