Berkeley businessman Aaron Johnston convicted of drunken assault
An Illawarra sole trader has been ordered to fix his booze problem after he left a security guard needing an operation on a busted leg.
Illawarra Star
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A sole trader who left a security guard with fractures to his leg and face after taking umbrage at being asked to leave his local pub has avoided a jail sentence.
Aaron Phillip Johnston, 35, learnt his fate in Port Kembla Local Court on Wednesday following guilty pleas to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and failing to leave a premises when required.
Documents tendered in court stated Johnston arrived at the Berkeley Hotel with a group of people at about 12.30am on Sunday, November 28, last year – four days after his 34th birthday.
CCTV recorded Johnston going to the bar and buying a Jack Daniels and coke before walking to the poker machine area, where he joined the people he entered the pub with.
Shortly before 1am, Johnston was seen at the front door with his hands in the air and slowly walking out of the pub.
The documents stated the security guard could be seen gesturing for Johnston to leave, but the intoxicated patron stood in the doorway for a short period before his brother joined him.
Johnston handed his brother a phone and a wallet before kissing him on the cheek and walking back into the pub, where he went towards the bar before being grabbed by the security guard and pushed outside.
A scuffle broke out, with the two men falling to the ground before Johnston jumped on top of the security guard and struck him multiple times in the head.
The duty manager rushed outside and broke up the fight, which left the victim unable to get up while Johnston and his brother left the vicinity.
The security guard went to Wollongong Hospital, where scans revealed he had sustained a left orbital floor fracture and left tibial plateau fracture, with the latter requiring surgery.
Police attended Johnston‘s home in March this year, where he told officers he couldn’t remember the incident due to having a “foggy memory”.
Johnston did remember being with his brother on the night, and he told police he recalled having an argument with the victim about his phone and accused him of “trying to throw him off the railing”.
The court documents also stated Johnston told the police he remembered being on the ground with “someone trying to choke him out”.
Johnston mentioned to police he “wasn’t normally like this” and said he had an issue with alcohol, but the need to work as a sole trader in order to put food on the table for his family meant he had difficulty accessing treatment.
In court on Wednesday, Magistrate Michael Ong placed Johnston’s offending at the higher end of the charge and said “it goes to my mind that jail is a possible result”.
“You put your business and your family at the back of your mind and put at risk you being in the community,” Mr Ong said.
The magistrate also noted Johnston’s criminal record which includes another assault charge and one case of mid-range drink driving.
“[A criminal record] is not nothing,” Mr Ong said.
“Most people don’t go around with a ’little’ criminal record.”
Johnston was convicted and placed on a two-year conditional release order which required he undertake alcohol rehabilitation.
Mr Ong also ordered him to complete 180 hours of community service and fined him $660 for not leaving the pub when instructed to do so.
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