Adrian Wagner jailed for bashing disabled Dandenong neighbour
A drunken brute’s horrific attack left his mentally disabled Dandenong neighbour with multiple fractures, internal bleeding and an eye socket that needed reconstruction. And it was all because the man interrupted his beer.
South East
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A drunken Dandenong brute savagely bashed his neighbour because he banged on his door while he was drinking his beer.
Adrian Wagner, 38, had drunk “eight or nine” beers when he beat Charles Lovett, 38, to the ground and told another neighbour “I stomped on him, he’s dead”.
Wagner was finishing his beer when police arrived.
The County Court heard the brutal attack happened after 7.30pm on April 23, 2017.
Mr Lovett cannot remember how Wagner got him to the ground at their Princes Highway apartments but he can remember him slamming his head into a security door several times.
Witnesses also saw Wagner kick and stomp Mr Lovett’s head multiple times.
“Get off my balcony or I’ll f*****g kill you,” Wagner was heard to have said.
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A witness saw Wagner momentarily return to his unit before coming back out, jumping in the air and stomping on Mr Lovett’s head again.
Wagner finally stopped his attack, walked down to the driveway and yelled out to another neighbour.
“Call an ambulance,” Wagner said.
“I’ve killed Charlie, I stomped on him, he’s dead.”
Mr Lovett, who has a mental disability, picked himself up and walked to the driveway.
“Get the piece of s*** off my balcony, don’t worry about an ambulance,” Wagner said after he realised Mr Lovett wasn’t dead.
It’s unclear how the violence started but Mr Lovett said he returned home to find Wagner abusing him from his balcony.
Mr Lovett said he approached Wagner but he “let go like an animal”.
Wagner claimed Mr Lovett had banged on his door and wouldn’t leave his balcony.
Police arrived about 9.30pm to find Wagner pacing outside his unit with a beer.
Wagner told police they were “probably there” for him because Mr Lovett had crushed him emotionally so he “crushed him physically”.
He told police Mr Lovett was “mouthing off” about his family so he gave him a “hiding”.
Wagner also told police Mr Lovett “won’t need an ambulance, he’ll need a hearse” if he came at him again.
He said he “smashed his head in, f****d him up, smashed him and pummeled him, and he shouldn’t say s*** and mention (my) mother”.
Wagner denied he had an anger management problem but attacked Mr Lovett because he was a “drunken idiot”.
Mr Lovett, who was taken by ambulance to Dandenong Hospital, suffered horrific injuries including eye, nose and cheek fractures, internal bleeding and broken teeth.
His eye socket had to be reconstructed.
In his victim impact statement, Mr Lovett said the incident left him feeling isolated and “pretty messed up”.
He also has flashbacks of the attack, is self-conscious about the scarring on his face and the loss of his teeth, and does not like the way he looks.
Wagner was sentenced in the County Court in February but court documents detailing the horrific attack have only just been released.
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Judge Martine Marich said the “protracted nature of the violence” and the extent of Mr Lovett’s injury was “serious and very troubling”.
“Your response to his provocative words was deeply and violently excessive and caused his very substantial injuries from which he has yet to fully heal,” she said.
Wagner was sentenced to five years and nine months’ in prison with a non-parole period of three years and three months.