Dwayne Lindsay: Man inflicts life-threatening injuries, walks away

The perpetrator of a “vicious” Mildura assault continued to beat his victim even after knocking them unconscious. He then walked away.

A court was told GHB was in the system of a Mildura man before a serious assault.

A man who continued to assault his victim even after they fell unconscious inflicted injuries that will have a “lifelong impact”, a court has heard.

Dwayne Lindsay, 30, was on Thursday sentenced at the County Koori Court after pleading guilty to recklessly causing serious injury.

Lindsay, who grew up in South Australia’s Riverland, was living in Mildura at the time of the incident on July 12 last year.

The court was told Linday’s victim, who was known to him, was a passenger in a car that ran out of fuel on Etherington Dr in Mildura.

The victim had gone to fetch a jerry can from a nearby property and returned to the car.

Lindsay was said to have crossed the road and walked towards the victim, who himself walked towards Lindsay.

The court was told the victim turned his head away, at which point Lindsay punched him in the head, prompting the victim to fall unconscious onto the bonnet of the car.

Lindsay was said to have then delivered a punch to the victim’s torso while he was still lying on the car.

The court heard the victim was thrown onto the pavement and Lindsay then searched his victim while he was lying on the ground.

A witnessed called triple-0 and another car stopped to help.

The court was told Lindsay, who failed to remain at the scene, asked the other car’s driver: “What happened to old mate here?”

The driver was said to have responded: “You punched the shit out of him.”

The court heard the victim suffered life-threatening injuries.

He had internal haemorrhaging and was flown to The Alfred hospital, where he needed support to breathe while in intensive care.

For 11 days he experienced post trauma amnesia and his mental state deteriorated.

The victim did not return home until October.

In an earlier hearing, Lindsay told the court the incident was his “rock bottom”, acknowledging the serious harm he had caused to the victim and speaking of wanting to be fully abstinent.

The court heard Lindsay was using GHB in the lead-up to the incident and was coming down.

Judge Irene Lawson said a forceful punch to the head was highly dangerous and had a high probability of causing serious injury.

“This was an unprovoked and vicious assault on a defenceless person that will have a lifelong impact,” Judge Lawson said.

Judge Lawson acknowledged Lindsay’s difficult childhood and the trauma of losing his grandmother while in custody.

Lindsay was sentenced to five years in jail, plus an extra month for committing an indictable offence on bail.

He will have a non-parole period of three years.

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