Mongol Josh Rider uses relationship to beat jail sentence for St Kilda bikie bashing
A lovestruck Mongol has used his relationship with a Melbourne glamour girl to help him beat a jail sentence for a savage bashing which left a St Kilda man needing facial surgery.
Inner South
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A lovestruck bikie used his relationship with a Melbourne glamour model to beat a jail sentence after he and his mate cowardly bashed a man in St Kilda.
Mongol enforcer Josh Rider, 29, was sentenced in the County Court on October 18 to a two-year community corrections order after pleading guilty to causing injury intentionally.
The court was told he’d turned his life around and was a changed man after starting a relationship two years ago.
Rider was recruited into the bungled extortion attempt by his co-offender mate, Dragan Sovilj.
Sovilj had got into a spat with his neighbour Nizan Bouhamra at the STK Apartments on St Kilda Rd.
In August 2016, the pair had a confrontation where they stared at each other.
“(You) better watch your back,” Sovilj said.
Sovilj and Mr Bouhamra ran into each other another six times without incident.
On October 6, Sovilj and Rider took the lift to the podium level where Mr Bouhamra was at the pool.
Sovilj lured his victim to the stairwell near the pool where Rider was waiting, the court heard.
He told Mr Bouhamra he would “turn a blind eye” to their confrontation if he handed over $1500.
Sovilj, a former bikie, punched Mr Bouhamra when he refused.
Mr Bouhamra ran away but was chased down and bashed by Rider and Sovilj.
The “defenceless” victim suffered severe facial injuries including a fractured eye socket and cheekbone, nerve damage to the left side of his face and blood in the eye.
He required a metal plate be inserted in his face.
Rider and Sovilj weren’t arrested until December, 2016 when both men gave “no comment” police interviews.
A letter tendered at Rider’s plea stated he had gone through “wholesale transformation in personality over the last two years”.
He said his two-year relationship, understood to be with Melbourne glamour girl Chloé Damiani, gave him “direction” in his life.
The court heard Rider’s only mate in Melbourne at the time of the attack was Sovilj and he only became involved due to a “misguided sense of loyalty to his only friend”.
Sovilj tendered that he did not intend to cause fractures to Mr Bouhamra’s face.
He also said his “inexplicable” association with an outlaw motorcycle group was over and he suffered “injuries” because of this.
However, Judge Elizabeth Brimer accepted the prosecution’s submission the “nasty” attack was “unprovoked”.
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“There was a degree of pre-planning it was not a coincidence that you, Mr Rider, happened to be in the stairwell,” she said.
“After the first punch the victim was essentially defenceless and tried to run away.
“It was a cowardly assault in company, gratuitous and must be punished.”
Rider’s defence council submitted that his prospects of rehabilitation were “good” given the stability he has found in his relationship and employment
“On the basis of that material I accept that you have reasonable prospects of rehabilitation,” Judge Brimer said.
Rider, who has a lengthy criminal history, moved to Perth when he was 20.
He spent more than three years in jail in Western Australia before he moved to Melbourne.
Sovilj, 35, also pleaded guilty to causing injury intentionally and was also placed on a two-year CCO.