Frontline workers rocked by alleged spitting attacks, assault
Healthcare workers and a bus driver are reeling after two separate alleged attacks in Sydney, including one that left a security guard and female nurse smeared in blood and saliva.
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Hospital staff are waiting to find out if they have contracted HIV, and a bus driver has been assaulted by a repeat offender too ill for prison in unrelated alleged spitting attacks.
Mark Turjman, 41, is accused by police of breaching a personal violence order at Missenden Rd, Newtown, before punching a Royal Prince Alfred Hospital security guard, biting another on the forearm and then spitting blood and saliva into the face of a female nurse.
The Carpet Call business development manager appeared briefly at Central Local Court on Tuesday after he was charged with three counts of common assault, stalking or intimidating with intent to cause fear and contravening an AVO.
The court heard the police were initially seeking an adjournment of six months in anticipation of test results to determine whether Turjman had passed on HIV to one of the complainants.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Chris Manning told the court Turjman was likely to receive a lengthy likely jail term if convicted when his matter eventually goes up to the District Court.
He was denied bail and will reappear in court next month.
Minutes earlier the same courthouse heard of a separate incident where a woman spat in a Sydney bus driver’s face when he told her to stop smoking.
The woman who suffers “complex” issues including mental health and HIV, was later arrested at her Surry Hills unit and charged with assault.
She was already on five community correction orders which she breached when she attacked the driver, the court heard.
The 32-year-old, visibly distressed, was hysterical on the videolink from the cells of Surry Hills Police Centre as her lawyer entered a guilty plea.
“Please miss, I want to go home, let me go home,” she sobbed to the magistrate.
Her lawyer, Alex Lachsz, described her as one of the community’s most vulnerable and was reliant on numerous support services including the public guardian to navigate her life.
But she didn’t shy away from the seriousness of the assault in the time of COVID-19.
“The offence is undoubtedly serious, particularly given concerns the victim would have in the current climate of a pandemic,” her lawyer said.
But, Ms Lachsz continued, the attack was not in any way premeditated and was attributable to the mental difficulties she faces.
The magistrate found that she was a high risk of reoffending but her conditions meant her behaviour wouldn’t be deterred by time behind bars.
Despite her history of violence and property offences the court handed down another community corrections order - her sixth - noting any time in custody would simply make her more vulnerable and the community less safe.