Zac Rolls-Fitzgerald jailed for violent stabbing near Broadmeadow train station

They agreed to meet at a Newcastle train station, but it soon turned bloody when a Bar Beach man pulled out a knife in a violent stabbing attack. The attacker finally learns his fate.

The man was stabbed near Broadmeadow train station on April 14, 2023. Picture: Dan Proudman

A court has heard a one-legged man responsible for a violent stabbing attack near a Newcastle train station was considerably impaired by drugs and alcohol.

Zac Rolls-Fitzgerald, 26, from Bar Beach had agreed to meet a man at the Broadmeadow train station on April 14 last year at around 10am.

But after a short conversation with the 28-year-old, things turned bloody when Rolls-Fitzgerald pulled out a knife and started swinging it before stabbing him to the right side of the body according to police facts.

Injured and bleeding heavily, the victim fled down Broadmeadow Rd but Rolls-Fitzgerald was in pursuit.

Court documents said luckily for the victim, police happened to patrol past the two men and saw Rolls-Fitzgerald holding the knife.

The crime scene where the man was stabbed near Broadmeadow train station. Picture: Dan Proudman

Officers yelled at him to stop and the then 26-year-old threw the knife into a nearby hedge before catching up with the other man as the two broke out into a scuffle.

“He stabbed me,” the man yelled to police as they broke up the fight according to police facts.

Despite officers trying to arrest Rolls-Fitzgerald, and yelling at him to stay away from the victim, he continued to pursue him before he attempted to grab an officer’s baton.

He pleaded guilty to a charge of reckless wounding and hindering police.

In Newcastle District Court on Friday it was heard Rolls-Fitzgerald, who had lost a leg in a motorbike accident, was on a community correction order (CCO) when the attack happened.

A man was stabbed near Broadmeadow train station on April 14, 2023. Picture: Dan Proudman

Judge Ian Bourke SC said Rolls-Fitzgerald had a “very unlucky and difficult” start to life and that was a significant factor to be taken into account on sentencing.

The court heard he had a genuine wish to rehabilitate himself, get off the drugs and stay out of jail but that treatment would most likely take several years and he would remain a risk until he could get his drug use under control.

Mr Bourke made a finding of special circumstances relating to his mental health findings and jailed him for two years and six months with a non-parole period of 18 months for the reckless wounding charge.

A two year CCO was also imposed for hindering police with an added condition he engage in treatment or counselling for his drug use, along with a recommendation he be housed in a unit for prisoners with a disability.