Zone Bowling: Shane Hughes jailed for bowling alley assault
A young man punched his childhood friend in the face outside of a busy bowling alley in Sydney’s west after accusing his mate of something — which turned out to be false.
Penrith
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A man who punched his childhood friend after falsely accusing him of following his sister into a bowling alley toilet will spend the summer behind bars.
Shane Hughes, 24, of Cherrybrook, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm in Penrith Local Court on Tuesday over the incident at Zone Bowling, Rooty Hill, on August 29.
According to court documents, Hughes, Dylan Condon, and Hughes’s sister arrived at the bowling alley just after 11am to play several games of tenpin bowls.
During this time, Hughes consumed several alcohol beverages.
After the games, Hughes went outside for a cigarette while Condon and his sister both went to separate toilets.
Once they were done, Condon told Hughes he wanted to go home but Hughes didn’t want to leave.
Court documents say Hughes began to make false statements towards Condon, accusing him of following his sister into the toilet.
He said “Oh you were following my sister to the toilet, you’re doing things behind my back” and told him to “wait till we get outside”.
Once outside, Hughes pushed Condon with both hands to the chest before grabbing his collar with his left hand for approximately one minute.
During this time, he repeatedly said “following my sister to the bathroom, what kind of dog friend would do that?”.
Hughes eventually punched Condon with his right fist, forcing the sister to get between them.
He was arrested in Jamisontown on September 26 where he made admissions to the assault. According to police, Hughes told them Condon had allegedly “touched up his sister previously”.
Court documents show that the sister had never made any allegations against Condon, and said nothing had happened in the bathrooms.
The court heard Hughes had a history of violent offending and an 11-page criminal record.
Magistrate Geoff Hiatt said jail was the only option and sentenced Hughes to a seven-month term with a non-parole period of five months.
Hughes will first be eligible for release on February 28.