Bryan Brown, 30, assaults police who woke him after he passed out following big drinking session
Police copped savage hits to the face and groin after they went to assist a drunk man who had passed out outside a Burwood house after a big night on the grog.
East
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A man has narrowly missed a jail sentence after he drunkenly punched two police officers following a boozy night out.
Bryan Brown, 30, fronted the Ringwood Magistrates’ Court yesterday where he pleaded guilty to assaulting an emergency services worker, resisting arrest and being drunk in a public place on the Labour Day long weekend last year.
Police prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Les Hare told the court police found Brown passed out outside a Burwood house on March 11.
When they tried to wake him, Leading Sen-Constable Hare told the court Brown told them to “f — k off” and punched one officer in the groin and the other in the face.
Leading Sen-Constable Hare said the constable who was struck to the face had to take a “time out” because the force of the blow was enough to “stun” him.
He said police were also forced to use capsicum spray to subdue Brown before arresting him.
Brown’s lawyer told the court his client was at a house-warming party earlier in the evening and was staying the night at his brother’s house.
He’d stumbled outside to vomit after drinking too much and had trouble finding his way back to the house, prompting him to pass out on the lawn, he said.
“Up until that point in time he describes himself as a casual beer drinker and that night he was drinking gin and it obviously doesn’t agree with him,” Brown’s lawyer said.
“He’s had no previous history with police and there’s nothing in his criminal record to suggest a tendency towards violence.”
Leading Sen-Constable Hare told the court police had dropped the more serious charges of intentionally and recklessly causing injury to police, which carry a mandatory minimum non-parole jail sentence of three and two years respectively.
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But he said a jail term should still be considered and a message needed to be sent “loud and clear” that assaults against emergency services workers would not be tolerated.
Magistrate Nunzio La Rosa said Brown was drunk at the time of the offence but that “doesn’t relieve you entirely of responsibility”.
He said assaults on emergency services workers carried serious consequences but he accepted Brown’s lawyer’s submission that his client’s actions were out of character.
Mr La Rosa sentenced Brown to a 12-month community corrections order and 150 hours’ community work.