Mathew Ernest Harsh Gloucester axe fight case verdict at Taree court

A man wielding a hockey stick had his foot partially amputated with an axe after a fight in the main street of a small Mid-North Coast town in early 2020. Now a jury has reached a verdict.

Taree Courthouse.

A man had his foot partially amputated with an axe after a fight in the main street of a small Mid-North Coast town in the middle of the day after a fight over a minor drug deal got out of hand in early 2020.

A witness giving evidence at the trial of Mathew Ernest Harsh which wrapped up in Taree on Thursday, told the court he heard a man repeatedly screaming - “he cut my f**king foot off”.

Harsh was facing two charges — cause grievous bodily harm to person with intent and reckless grievous bodily harm in relation to an incident just after midday at Gloucester on January 3, 2020.

Harsh who was 45 at the time and the victim, 42, were both living in Gloucester and had met at the local Soldiers Club in 2019 and had become friends.

They soon fell out when a dispute over a minor drug deal got out of hand and Harsh went over to a Church St apartment where the victim was staying carrying an axe and a hammer in a hessian bag according to facts tendered to court.

Mathew Ernest Harsh.

The victim who came out onto the stairwell of the second storey apartment picked up a hockey stick when he saw Harsh approach.

The trial began on June 13 and the jury heard early on in the proceedings that a previous trial had been abandoned, but they were told not to speculate as to why that may have happened.

In previous recorded evidence replayed to the jury in the current trial, Harsh said he had been acting in self defense and that the axe was “very heavy” and he was trying to “block the blows from the hockey stick” and didn’t mean for it to “go down like it did.”

Witnesses in the current trial told the court they saw Harsh raising the axe in an overhead manner.

Gloucester main street. Several Gloucester CBD shop assistants gave evidence in the trial including a man working at the newsagency in Church Street around noon on January 3, 2020.

Harsh’s evidence went on to describe what happened when he walked away from the scene towards Billabong Lane.

“I had an axe and a hammer and I was frightened and worried about what would happen. I didn’t want to be walking along the road with an axe in my hand.”

The court heard he later put the axe and hammer in a garbage bin near the library which police located around 2.10pm on the afternoon of the altercation.

The 42-year-old victim was flown to John Hunter Hospital for surgery to reattach the severed portion of his left forefoot.

The victim subsequently suffered necrosis of the third and fourth left toes resulting in them being surgically amputated.

On Wednesday, June 28, the jury retired and took three hours to deliver their verdict - not guilty for causing grievous bodily harm to person with intent and guilty to reckless grievous bodily harm.

Harsh has had his bail continued and the matter adjourned for sentencing to October 9.

The court heard that in the three-and-a-half years Harsh has been on bail there has been no further offending.

He was arrested on the day of the incident and released on bail on February 10 so spent just over a month in custody.