Anthony Beck: Hayes St, Shepparton assault on pensioner

An elderly man brutally attacked and robbed on a residential Shepparton street is now too scared to leave his home.

The 75-year-old told the court in a statement that he was too scared to leave his home.

An elderly man who suffered a concussion and severely dislocated arm following a brazen daytime assault is now too scared to leave his home, a court has heard.

In a victim impact statement heard by the Shepparton Magistrates’ Court, the 75-year-old said he wakes up in the middle of the night screaming since Anthony Beck committed the unprovoked assault on August 29.

The court heard Beck, who was 27 at the time of the assault, followed the “respected member of the community” down Hayes St, Shepparton about 11:30am while holding a can of Smirnoff.

He placed the can on the ground before starting to yell at the victim, who felt “scared for his safety”.

Beck then grabbed the elderly man’s left arm and threw him down onto the ground, kicking and punching his defenceless victim and eventually knocking him unconscious.

Beck removed the man’s jacket which contained a mobile, a wallet with $200, and ID cards and ran away.

The elderly man was taken to Goulburn Valley Health in “excruciating pain” with a dislocated arm and cuts on his forehead.

The court heard he had surgery on his dislocated arm, and as of September 11 when he filed his victim impact statement, was waiting for surgery on an abdominal hernia caused by the assault.

But after the attack, the court heard Beck was “rambling” to someone he knew about the theft, insisting they try on the jacket while saying: “I did it for you, I did this for you”.

When Beck was arrested later that day, police found a small amount of dried cannabis in his possession and the victim’s jacket underneath his bed covers.

The court heard Beck denied having anything to do with the assault when interviewed, saying he had not been down Hayes St and did not drink alcohol.

But lawyer Luke Slater said his client was now pleading guilty at the earliest opportunity for the assault.

However, he was pressed for time and was not able to finish his plea.

Magistrate Fran Medina said Beck’s behaviour following the assault showed he was “somewhat delusional”.

“Mr Beck has a complexity about his psychological diagnosis,” she said.

However, she said she had to put aside his mental health issues and sentence him to a jail term.

“This is a 75-year-old member of the community going about his daily business,” she said.

“I have to punish the behaviour.”

She said Beck was on bail at the time of the assault.

However, Mr Slater said his client was “quite significantly engaged with corrections” while on bail – aside from reoffending.

The rest of the matter will be heard on January 18 following the completion of a Community Corrections Order assessment.

While Beck has spent 101 days in custody, Ms Medina said his further six weeks on remand were “well within” an eventual prison sentence.

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