Jayden Garvey: 19-year-old jailed for assaults at Healesville’s Fluid Lounge

A judge has branded a teenager “dangerous” under the influence of alcohol after he belted two men at a Healesville bar.

Jayden Garvey, 19, has been sentenced after he assaulted two men in separate incidents after visits to Fluid Bar in Healesville. Picture: Fluid Bar Facebook page.

A teenager who knocked out two men and left them with broken bones in separate incidents at a Healesville bar will be out of jail in less than three weeks.

Jayden Garvey, 19, was sentenced in the Ringwood Magistrates’ Court on Monday following the two assaults at Fluid Lounge in May 2021 and March 2022.

He had previously pleaded guilty to charges including affray, multiple counts of recklessly causing serious injury and unlawful assault.

In the first incident on May 2, 2021, Garvey was involved in a fight at the venue, where he punched the victim in his right eye and the head.

The court heard Garvey was “pretty drunk at the time” and his victim suffered four fractures to his eye socket, while Garvey also fractured bones in his hand during the attack.

Despite being on bail and banned from the venue, Garvey attended Fluid Lounge again on March 22, 2022, before he left and was involved in another fight outside the bar.

In this incident, Garvey punched another male victim multiple times in his head and face, and broke his victim’s jaw.

The male victim was taken to hospital and required surgery to put metal screws in his jaw, and suffered nerve damage to the left side of his lip.

The court heard Garvey’s victim had been unable to work or play football since the incident, and it was having an ongoing impact on his life both socially and physically.

Garvey was arrested and taken into custody following the March 22 attack, and appeared for sentencing on Monday via video link, with about 15 family and friends supporting him in the courtroom.

Judge Susan Armour told Garvey that after reading character references, she had determined “when sober you’re a different person altogether, but there’s a side of you when you are under the influence of alcohol that is seriously different”.

She said a short-term imprisonment, conviction and community corrections order was an appropriate sentence for the “nasty” assaults.

Ms Armour told Garvey she would have sentenced him to four months’ jail if it wasn’t for his guilty plea.

“Both were nasty assaults resulting in lost of consciousness and broken bones for both victims … people are suffering ongoing problems due to your actions,” she told Garvey.

“Do something about addressing those alcohol issues, because you are dangerous under the influence of alcohol,” she said.

Ms Armour sentenced Garvey to two months’ jail including 40 days pre-detention, paving the way for his release in late May.

He will then serve a 12-month community corrections order, which will include attending drug and alcohol treatment and offensive behaviour programs.