Billy Jo James Brown pleads guilty to grievous bodily harm over stabbing attack on Ryan Duck at Pacific Palms

An itinerant with a history of mental illness has admitted to a random stabbing at a mid-north coast holiday park which left a champion bodyboarder with critical injuries.

Tiona Holiday Park nestled between the lake and the ocean at Pacific Palms.

A man has admitted to the stabbing attack of champion Newcastle bodyboarder Ryan Duck at a holiday park near Forster.

Billy Jo James Brown, 37, was due to face a trial in Taree District Court before pleading guilty on Tuesday to one count of reckless grievous bodily harm after prosecutors withdrew the more serious charge of causing grievous bodily harm to a person with intent.

Brown attacked Mr Duck near the Tiona Holiday Park on The Lakes Way at Pacific Palms in the early hours of November 28, 2022.

Mr Duck, a champion bodyboarder and well-known Newcastle licensee, had been away with staff to celebrate a great year of business.

Instead, he was left clinging to life with staff members laying on him to apply pressure to a wound would had pierced his left bicep and into the side of chest and a second which had penetrated his stomach.

He had been enjoying a night of fishing and a few beers before Brown, a stranger with a history of mental illness, launched after midnight.

Ryan Duck's abdomen after surgery following the knife attack at Pacific Palms on November 27, 2022. Picture: Supplied.

Mr Duck was able to stumble back to the park’s reception area before sitting down as someone ran to a beach for better reception to raise an ambulance and others worked to stem the bleeding.

“I just had two or three of my staff like just pretty much holding me, keeping pressure [on the wounds] because I knew I was in a bad way,” Mr Duck told this masthead at the time.

Newcastle bodyboarder Ryan Duck. Picture: Dan Proudman

Emergency services arrived and treated Mr Duck before he was flown by the Hunter Westpac rescue helicopter to John Hunter Hospital in a critical condition.

Surgeons worked throughout the night to rebuild parts of his stomach, liver, spleen and diaphragm.

The wound through his bicep missed the major nerve by millimetres, allowing him the possibility of a full recovery and full use of his left arm.

He spent almost a week in hospital and headed home only for an infection to send him back to John Hunter for several days the following week.

The injuries to Ryan Duck's chest after a knife was plunged through his bicep and into his chest. Picture: Supplied.

Mr Duck has now made a full recovery.

Brown was arrested near a war memorial on The Lakes Way, about five kilometres from Forster-Tuncurry, on dawn and later charged over the attack.

He had initially been charged with causing grievous bodily harm to a person with intent, a count which carries a maximum jail term of 25 years.

But Brown pleaded guilty on Tuesday to reckless grievous bodily harm, a charge which carries a maximum jail term of 10 years.

A court had previously heard that Brown had been living an itinerant lifestyle in recent years and suffered from complex PTSD and potentially other undiagnosed mental health issues.

A psychological report and sentencing assessment report has been requested before his sentencing hearing.

The matter was adjourned to August 12.