Wayne Young pleads guilty at Bendigo Magistrates Court to stomping, kicking his unconscious son in street fight

A Bendigo thug and father-of-three is facing jail for the “brutal” beating of his son, taking a “run up” to kick him in the head after knocking him unconscious in the CBD.

Wayne Young outside Bendigo Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday.

A Bendigo thug and father-of-three is facing jail for the “savage” beating of his son during a “brutal” street fight in the CBD, stomping on his “lifeless” body and kicking him in the head in the street after drinking 20 beers.

Wayne Young outside Bendigo Magistrates'’ Court on Tuesday.

Wayne Young, 53, of Spring Gully pleaded guilty at Bendigo Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday to recklessly causing injury and reckless conduct endangering injury.

The supervisor at Derwent Industries Foundry got into a verbal argument with his son, a 29-year-old Kangaroo Flat man, on December 16, 2023 after the two had been drinking at the Rifle Brigade Hotel on View St, the court heard.

About 8pm Young left and his son followed him, continuing the verbal argument in the street in front of Barclay Hotel on View St.

The two shouted abuse at each other before Young’s son started shoving him repeatedly.

Young then removed his shirt and made “gestures of confrontation”, raising his hands before throwing a “powerful punch” to his son’s face that knocked him to the ground unconscious.

Young proceeded to repeatedly kick and stomp on his son’s “defenceless” unconscious body.

He paused briefly during the savage beating, once to put back on his shirt before carrying on the beating, and once to check his phone for about 45 seconds before taking a run up and kicking his son in the head while he was unconscious.

Wayne Young was captured on CCTV bashing his son on View St, Bendigo.

A taxi driver who witnessed the assault said it looked like a “lawnmower action” and a while a woman told police it “seems like he was trying to kill him”, describing the victim’s body as “lifeless”.

Young kicked his son so hard in the face that he left the imprint of his shoe on his forehead, sending him to the hospital.

Police arrived and arrested Young minutes later.

When confronted about the assault Young told police: “He started pushing me, shoved me real hard. I gave him a good flogging.”

“I just clotheslined him and he went on the ground then I kicked him … three or four times in the guts.”

Magistrate Dominic Lennon said the “savage, brutal” beating Young laid on his son was “extreme”.

“He takes a run up to get more force into the kick,” he said.

Mr Lennon said it was “sheer luck” Young’s son’s injuries weren’t worse after his “appalling” and “extremely callous behaviour”.

“He could have died,” Mr Lennon said.

“If you act in that way you endanger everything.”

The court heard his son had since forgiven Young and they had reconciled as a family, with his son contributing financially to his father’s legal defence.

However, Mr Lennon found the attack to be too severe to be dealt with by the Magistrates’ Court.

Mr Lennon said Young was facing a term of imprisonment of up to five years if he was sentenced in the Magistrates’ Court, finding the complexity of the case required the resources of the County Court to determine the appropriate punishment.

The matter was adjourned to May for committal to the County Court.