Shepparton Magistrates’ Court: Daniel John Fletcher guilty of unlawful assault

An unemployed Mooroopna man who had settled in to get some quality TV viewing attacked a gardener for making too much noise.

Daniel John Fletcher pleaded guilty to one charge of unlawful assault on a 'whipper snipper' worker at the Shepparton Magistrates' Court on Tuesday. Picture: Supplied

An unemployed man who was trying to watch TV attacked a gardener because he was making “so much noise” with the whipper snipper.

Daniel John Fletcher pleaded guilty to one charge of unlawful assault at the Shepparton Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday.

The court heard the victim, a hedge trimmer, was whipper snipping and whacked Fletcher’s cabin at a Mooroopna caravan park on August 5 last year.

Annoyed by the noise, Fletcher, 57, went outside and approached the worker, telling him to do his job elsewhere.

“I just tried to watch fricken TV,” Fletcher told the worker at the time.

“I just told him to do it somewhere else, yeah I gave him a shove,” Fletcher told police.

When police asked why Fletcher shoved the worker, he replied saying “f---ed if I know” and “just leave me alone”.

Fletcher told the court he asked himself at the time “why is there so much noise?”.

Fletcher said shortly after he went outside and asked the worker what was going on, the worker responded saying he was just doing his job.

Furthermore, Fletcher told the worker his work shouldn’t be making “so much noise”, which was when Fletcher told him to take his job elsewhere after he kept “whacking” his cabin.

Fletcher then told the court the worker “lunged” at him with the whipper snipper in a way to startle him and he reacted by pushing the worker.

“All I did was shove him in the shoulder and that’s it,” Fletcher said.

Upon hearing Fletcher’s comments, Magistrate Simon Zebrowski believed Fletcher was acting in self defence.

“It’s pretty low level Mr Fletcher,” Mr Zebrowski said.

Mr Zebrowski was aware Fletcher hadn’t been before the court in a while.

However, Fletcher was convicted and fined $300.