Karen Blair: Mildura, Eighth Street Mocha Mecca worker spat at by woman

A Mildura woman, who lunged at a cafe worker trying to remove their mask, before spitting in their face, has appeared in court.

A cafe worker was assaulted by a woman in Mildura.

An unhappy customer spat in the face of a cafe worker after lunging to rip of their mask.

Mildura woman Karen Blair, 53, appeared at Mildura Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, and pleaded guilty to unlawful assault.

A police prosecutor told the court Blair attended the Eighth St Mocha Mecca cafe in Mildura multiple times on October 14, last year.

The court heard Blair was banging on the counter, yelling and swearing.

At one point she entered the store and screamed “apologise”, the court was told.

Police said Blair returned about 2.45pm and was yelling and swearing at staff before being told to leave.

The court heard Blair was 1m away from a cafe worker standing in the doorway when she lunged at her victim, trying to remove their mask.

Police said Blair then spat in the face of the victim.

The court heard Blair grabbed the victim, who asked a staff member to call 000.

Blair claimed she had been stuttering, not spitting, before she walked away in the middle of a police interview.

Blair’s lawyer told the court his client had bipolar disorder and the offending “seems to be a random set of circumstances”.

Magistrate Hugh Radford said the court needed to send a very strong message to those who wanted to spit at other people.

“Spitting in people’s faces is utterly unacceptable,” Mr Radford said.

“It must have been very distressing for the victim, (who) doesn’t know whether (Blair) has any medical conditions.”

The court heard Blair was serving a community corrections order for other offending around the same time as the cafe incident.

Mr Radford sentenced Blair to another six-month community corrections order but did not add additional hours of unpaid community work.

The new order included conditions about mental health treatment.

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