Fountain Gate Kmart security guard knife attacker was on bail for supermarket spitting assault
The thief who slashed and flicked blood at a Fountain Gate guard after he stopped her stealing Kmart goods has been sentenced. And the court heard it wasn’t her first shopping related assault.
South East
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A woman who slashed a Fountain Gate security guard’s arm and flicked blood in his face was on bail at the time for spitting on and slapping a Sandringham shopper.
Kelly Clark viciously attacked the guard with a knife while yelling she hoped he got hepatitis after he and a colleague had stopped her stealing a trolley full of Kmart goods.
The Narre Warren South 34-year-old pleaded guilty to more than 20 assault, driving, drugs, theft and court order breach charges at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.
Her boyfriend and co-accused, Gavin Keys, had already pleaded guilty to his role in the Fountain Gate assaults and will be sentenced next month.
The court heard Clark and Keys were seen by Kmart staff filling a trolley at around 5.30pm on June 24 this year.
Clark was wearing a jacket with Kmart tags still on it when she and Keys tried to wheel the trolley out of the store without paying.
Two shopping centre guards were called and they tried to stop the pair.
Clark got out a knife and flicked blood in the face of one guard and shouted “Hope you get hep C” before repeatedly lunging at him and slashing his arm, causing a 7cm laceration.
Witnesses came to the guards’ aid and subdued the pair until police arrived.
Clark injured herself in the assault, requiring her partly-severed finger to be sewed back on, and she had to spend two days in hospital before police arrested and remanded her.
One of the guards submitted a victim impact statement to the court, saying the attack had changed him forever.
He said he couldn’t return to work, had suffered sleep loss and stress since the incident and “it will live with me for the rest of my life”.
At the time Clark was on bail for attacking a shopper who had had seen her stealing groceries from Coles in Sandringham in January last year.
When she saw him taking a photo of her car she spat in his face, slapped him and repeatedly tried to strike him before police arrived and she was arrested.
She is lucky to be alive after she crashed her car while high on ice in February last year, landing her in intensive care with fears her life support system may have had to be turned off.
Clark’s defence lawyer told the court she still had brain injuries from the extremely serious accident.
She said she also had long-term drug abuse issues, dating back to taking ice from the age of 12, and had had a very traumatic upbringing.
She said Clark was remorseful for the Fountain Gate incident and she’s “not aggressive, except when she’s on ice when things get out of hand”.
Magistrate Jack Vandersteen said the offending was very serious, especially considering the Fountain Gate assault was very similar in nature to the earlier Sandringham attack.
“When stopped by two security guards just doing their job you and your co-accused turned on them in a very vicious manner,” Mr Vandersteen said.
“It is a really serious assault, in public, with a weapon.”
Clark was jailed for eight months, minus 34 days she had already served on remand.
She was also convicted, fined a total of $1000 and disqualified from driving for two years.
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