Liam Knott: Young brute bashed Uber Eats driver, Maccas boss, cop
A boozed-up young thug who launched attacks on innocent people in a fight over food needs to get used to prison tucker.
South East
Don't miss out on the headlines from South East . Followed categories will be added to My News.
A hangry drunk brute who laid into a delivery driver, a fast food manager and a police officer in a violent rage has been slotted for six months.
Liam Knott was 19 when he punched the Uber Eats worker, tried to hit a McDonald’s boss and kicked a cop in a boozed-up onslaught last year.
In a separate incident he was involved in an attempted robbery of a teenage boy, using his dog to threaten him and try to steal his phone.
Knott, now aged 20, was sentenced at the Frankston Magistrates’ Court on Monday after pleading guilty last week to charges including assault, attempted robbery and property damage.
The court heard he yanked at an Uber Eats driver’s headset before punching the man in the face at Carrum Downs McDonald’s in November last year.
He then threw a punch at the store manager who tried to intervene before tossing a COVID-19 display and the delivery driver’s food across the floor.
Police were called and found him and his pit bull dog a short distance away, with the thug kicking and spitting at an officer before he was overpowered by another police member.
A month later, on New Year’s Day this year, Knott and a pal targeted an innocent 14-year-old boy at the Carrum Downs Shopping Centre.
He was walking his dog when he told the young boy to hand over his phone or the pit bull would bite him, but the plucky youngster managed to run away to a nearby pizza shop.
Police were called and found Knott at his family home.
His defence lawyer said his client suffers from anxiety and depression as well as alcohol and cannabis addictions.
Magistrate Gerard Lethbridge said Knott’s victims were either young, vulnerable or people just doing their jobs.
“You were drunk, aggressive and abusive and spat at, punched and kicked them,” Mr Lethbridge said.
“You can’t go around bashing people for entertainment.”
He told him it was only his youth that saved him from a lengthier jail term.
“But for that you would be spending much, much longer in prison,” he said.
“You do have the potential to be redeemed and positively change your behaviour.
“Being young you have the capacity to learn, it is up to you to change your ways.”
Knott was jailed for six months, minus 102 days he has already served.
Upon release he must do an 18-month community corrections order with 120 hours of unpaid work and drug and alcohol counselling.
