Anthony John Bates and Amanda Jane Ahoy sentenced over bloody Hamilton South street fight

A court has heard how three people underwent surgery, including one woman needing to be revived after being stabbed in the neck and a second suffering skull fractures, after two couples began brawling on a suburban street.

The couple were sentenced in Newcastle District Court on Thursday.

It was a street fight between two couples which turned bloody after one woman was “clubbed” over the head with a steering lock, causing part of her brain to poke through a skull fracture, and a second woman needing to be revived after being stabbed in the back of the neck.

Now, 21 months after the Hamilton South brawl prompted three surgeries and a significant police investigation, one of the couples has been sentenced.

Anthony John Bates, the now 39-year-old who stabbed the woman in the neck and cut the woman’s partner’s finger and hand with the same knife, received an aggregate maximum term of four years in jail after pleading guilty to two counts of reckless wounding and one count of affray.

With time already served taken into account, Bates could be eligible to be released as early as March next year after being sentenced to a non-parole period of 27 months.

Newcastle District Court Judge Peter McGrath SC found Bates had pulled a knife after seeing his then partner, Amanda Jane Ahoy, cracked over the head with a steering lock and fall to the ground following the impromptu melee.

The court heard both couples were involved in the brawl on Hassall St at Hamilton South. Picture: Google Maps.

Ahoy, now aged 36, suffered a fractured skull and needed emergency surgery for wounds to her forehead.

The court heard emergency services arrived at Hassall St on December 21, 2022 to find Ahoy’s brain protruding from a fracture after Bates had called triple-0.

The court heard the brawl began over a dispute over money. (File picture)

The couple, who had been rendered homeless after a house fire destroyed all of their belongings, had been involved in the street fight with another couple following an ongoing dispute over money.

The court heard all four people were involved in the brawl before Ahoy was “clubbed” over the head with the steering lock.

Agreed facts said it was only after Ahoy fell to the ground that Bates pulled a knife from a backpack, which he had held for protection while sleeping “rough”, and stabbed the other woman to the back of the neck while she was on the ground.

His male victim suffered a wound to his hand after trying to grab the knife from Bates.

The injured couple fled before the woman was found outside the Mater Hospital suffering severe blood loss from the neck wound.

She was revived and underwent emergency surgery for the wound. She also suffered a vertebrae fracture, which didn’t need medical treatment, and also had a blood transfusion before being released after spending time in the hospital’s intensive care unit.

Ahoy, who the court heard would suffer continued medical issues because of her head trauma, pleaded guilty to one count of affray and was sentenced to a maximum 16 months.

With her sentence backdated to January this year, Ahoy will be eligible for parole on September 27.

Judge McGrath found both Bates and Ahoy had survived tough upbringings.

He said Ahoy’s criminality was limited to the brawl before she was struck with the steering lock and noted Bates had only pulled the knife after his partner had been “clubbed”.