Tahlee-Lee Bennett: Kurnell woman jailed for glassing patron at Northies Cronulla

A 21-year-old Kurnell woman has been jailed after she glassed a Northies patron, spat on police and ambulance officers and damaged a poker machine and door during three alcohol-fuelled rages.

A young Kurnell woman has been jailed for at least six months after she glassed a patron in the back of the head at a popular Cronulla hotel.

Tahlee-Lee Bennett, 21, was sentenced to 18 months behind bars following the vicious and unprovoked attack on February 28 this year while out with a friend.

The court heard Bennett had spat on an NSW Ambulance officer’s face and towards a police officer who were trying to help her after she had become so drunk and aggressive that she broke a poker machine and a glass door of Kurnell Recreation Club before passing out.

Bennett previously pleaded guilty to a number of charges including assault, resisting police, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and possessing a knife related to three incidents over two months earlier this year.

Tahlee-Lee Bennett has been jailed for glassing a woman at Northies Cronulla nightclub. Picture: Facebook

Agreed facts tendered to Sutherland Local Court on Tuesday said Bennett and her friend were at Northies Hotel on February 28 when a woman, who was at the venue watching a football game with friends, entered the bathroom and suspected the women of taking drugs in a stall.

The patron advised them to close the door which made Bennett angry before she swore at the woman and closed the door. The woman, who did not know Bennett, left the bathroom and returned to her seat and friends.

Moments later Bennett walked towards the woman with a glass in her hand and struck her in the back of the head causing it to shatter before she hit the woman again.

Staff intervened and pulled Bennett away.

The woman was facing away from Bennett and did not see her approach. The force of the blow caused the victim significant pain, loss of consciousness and dizziness and ambulance officers were called to the club.

Bennett and her friend were told to leave the hotel. Police were called and reviewed CCTV footage, which captured the whole assault.

The victim was taken to Sutherland Hospital with minor lacerations to the top of her head and she sustained no major injuries.

Police patrolled the area and found Bennett in a nearby laneway where she was arrested. She had a flick knife on her. Bennett was taken to a police station and charged.

Meanwhile, a month earlier, Bennett was out drinking and celebrating her 21st birthday with friends at Kurnell Recreation Club on January 20.

A manager responded to a commotion in the pokies room where he found Bennett bleeding significantly from the hand after she had smashed and completely destroyed a poker machine.

When Bennett was asked to leave the club she struck the front glass swinging doors destroying them before police and paramedics were called.

Officers arrived to find Bennett unresponsive laying in a pot plant shortly before 11.30pm, covered in her own blood and her hand bandaged by club staff.

She was unable to be roused and was verbally aggressive towards paramedics before she was transported to Sutherland Hospital.

During the journey she repeatedly tried to take off her mask and was told to put it back on.

Bennett kept waving her injured hand in front of a male paramedic before she spat on him, with her saliva landing on his shirt.

Once at the hospital, police arrested Bennett shortly after she spat at a constable, but her saliva did not make contact.

The court also heard on the night of her birthday, January 6, she was out with her brother and sister-in-law at a tavern in the Lake Macquarie area before she got into an altercation and was asked to leave the premises by a security guard. She refused to leave and grabbed the guard’s hair.

Bennett’s brother removed her and she was restrained before police arrived. She struck an officer and was taken to a police station where she spat in the face of a constable with her saliva landing in his right eye.

The court heard Bennett had an alcohol dependency and became aggressive when intoxicated.

Magistrate Philip Stewart took into account Bennett’s age, that it was her first time in custody, her difficult upbringing and issues with drugs and alcohol but determined the risk was too great to the community if Bennett served her jail sentence in the community.

She was also placed on 12-month community corrections orders for the assaults on police and ambulance officers.

She will be eligible for release to parole on August 31.