Alphington’s Achok Deng attacks woman with stick at Fairfield station
When a racist woman launched into a tirade on a Hurstbridge train, passengers were mortified. But when a commuter stood up to her, she responded by spitting out a biscuit. What she did next ended in her being tasered and capsicum sprayed.
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A woman was attacked with a stick aboard a Hurstbridge train after she told another woman, who had launched into a racist tirade, to calm down.
The 50-year-old victim had to be taken to hospital while her attacker, Achok Deng, was tasered by police when they arrested her over another matter shortly after the assault.
Deng, 30, fronted Heidelberg Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, June 2, having been behind bars for 28 days.
The court heard Deng attacked a woman with a wooden stick on a train at Fairfield railway station shortly after 7pm on Tuesday, May 5.
Deng had boarded the train at Clifton Hill railway station, carrying a long wooden stick and a bottle of wine.
The court heard, while drinking the wine, Deng behaved in a loud, offensive manner in the train carriage, swearing and vilifying people of Asian descent.
Numerous passengers were mortified by Deng’s tirade, according to police.
A 50-year-old woman then told Deng to “calm down”, before Deng spat a biscuit at her and muttered angrily under her breath.
The court heard the woman then moved to another carriage through the train’s internal doors to get away from Deng.
The train then pulled into Fairfield station, where Deng entered the same carriage the woman had just gone to from the platform.
The court heard the woman moved to press the train’s emergency button as Deng approached her with the stick, before Deng struck her in the face with the weapon, saying “You deserve a hit of the stick”.
Deng then got off the train, while the woman was left with her face bleeding.
The court heard the woman felt dizzy and went into shock.
She was helped by witnesses and PSOs before being taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital by ambulance.
Deng left the station, and soon after multiple people phoned 000 about a woman matching her description allegedly using a stick to damage vehicles parked in Fulham St, Alphington.
Police are still investigating these reports.
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Deng was then arrested at her shared accommodation in Alphington, with police using a taser and capsicum spray, after several people phoned 000 about her behaviour.
The court heard at the time she was on bail following an incident at BWS on Smith St, Fitzroy, on April 9, when she stole a bottle of wine and verbally abused a security guard while drunk.
Deng pleaded guilty to intentionally causing injury, committing an indictable offence on bail, and a wilfully damage property charge relating to another incident after Magistrate Stephen Ballek indicated he would give her a combination sentence.
Mr Ballek said the attack was “very serious offending”.
“You hit someone in the face with a stick, surely you’re intending to cause an injury,” he said.
Deng’s lawyer said the act came under the influence of alcohol and drugs.
“That makes it even more scary,” Mr Ballek said.
The court heard Deng was unemployed and struggled with alcohol abuse.
Mr Ballek said the assault was serious enough to justify jail time, but he found the time she had already served sufficient.
She was convicted and released on a 12-month community corrections order.
Mr Ballek said he would have ordered Deng serve six months if she hadn’t pleaded guilty.