Tadeusz Kijek: 80yo man assaults and pulls knife on Malabar neighbour
An elderly man in Sydney’s southeast has faced court after he pulled out a knife in a neighbourly dispute.
Southern Courier
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An elderly Malabar resident assaulted and pulled a knife on a neighbour following a dispute between the pair, a court has heard.
Tadeusz Kijek, 80, was accompanied by an interpreter at Waverley Local Court on Tuesday where he pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and armed with intent to commit serious indictable offence.
The court heard he had lived at his public housing unit in Malabar for a long period of time with no criminal history prior to the ugly incident on April 4.
The agreed facts stated Kijek took a kitchen knife from his Karoo Place home that morning and went to confront a neighbour who lived a few units down.
About 10.30am, the victim Alwyn Fogarty returned to his unit and was confronted by Kijek who started yelling at him.
“The accused went to hit the victim with two closed fists, however, the victim managed to grab his wrists and yelled ‘stop it!’,” the agreed facts stated.
During the tussle, the victim fell down some stairs before Kijek pointed the knife at him and threatened him.
A witness helped pull Kijek away from the victim and he dropped the knife in the process.
The agreed facts stated Kijek returned to his unit and was later arrested by police who also seized the 20cm-long knife. The victim suffered minor injuries in the incident.
Kijek’s lawyer said his client had been “harassed” by the neighbour prior to the incident. He also said his client did not agree with all the police allegations but accepted he had used the knife which was at the centre of the charges.
Magistrate Jacqueline Trad said she accepted there had been an element of provocation leading up to the incident but stated they were serious offences.
She convicted Kijek on both charges and sentenced him to a community correction order for a period of eight months.
She also changed conditions to his AVO which effectively allowed Kijek to reside at his home in Malabar again as long as he did not try to approach, harm or communicate with the victim.