Matthew Gigliotti: Builder attacks Frankston neighbour on Burns St

A minor dispute between Frankston neighbours escalated into a wild attack involving a stabbing, a taser and an attempted break-in.

Gigliotti went to his neighbour’s house with a kitchen knife over a fight about lighting.

A dispute over a light led to a furious Frankston business owner stabbing his neighbour and damaging the victim’s house as he tried to break in and further attack him.

Matthew Gigliotti, 29, was sentenced to 22 days’ jail and a two-year corrections order with 120 hours’ community work before the County Court, having pleaded guilty to charges including intentionally causing injury and attempted aggravated burglary.

The court heard conflict over “a giant floodlight” the victim was leaving on at night led to Gigliotti savagely attacking his 41-year-old neighbour about 2pm on August 23, 2019.

The victim found Gigliotti standing in his garage of his Burns St home with a large kitchen knife when he went to investigate a noise he’d heard.

Gigliotti then slashed the man’s forearm with the knife, causing a 10cm wound.

The man grabbed fly repellent and sprayed it at Gigliotti to try to ward him off, and grabbed a taser he had lying around and fired it, but missed his attacker.

He then managed to get into his house and lock the doors behind him.

He pushed a couch against the back door and held it in place as Gigliotti tried to force his way in through the back door.

Gigliotti then proceeded to smash in six windows, slash a shade cloth in the backyard and kick in the back door, while the man managed to escape to another neighbour’s home and call police.

Police arrived about 2.15pm and arrested a very drunk Gigliotti, finding cuts all over him and blood on his shoes.

They found a large bloodstained kitchen knife discarded by his front fence and also discovered an imitation gel blaster handgun in his house.

Gigliotti later told police he had been heavily intoxicated, having started drinking vodka at 10.30am, and didn’t remember any of the incident.

He said he had been drinking due to past trauma and had been known to make bad decisions when drunk.

Gigliotti explained to police he was aggrieved with the victim because he had repeatedly asked the victim to stop putting “a giant floodlight” on at night, and said the victim had left threatening messages on his car.

Days before the attack Gigliotti had banged on the man’s door and complained about the light.

Judge Gabriele Cannon said the “terrifying ordeal” Gigliotti put his neighbour through was “most serious”.

“You attacked your neighbour in a most savage fashion,” the Judge said.

Judge Cannon said the fact that Gigliotti was very drunk was not an excuse, and that him being so drunk he didn’t remember what he was doing made his behaviour more dangerous.

“Whilst there may have been ongoing grievances between you and your neighbour, this was no way to handle it,” Judge Cannon said.

Judge Cannon further noted the victim hadn’t even been engaging in the behaviour that had caused the tension with Gigliotti when the attack began.

The court heard Gigliotti had been running his own successful tiling and waterproofing business for about six years, was engaged, and was about to become a father for the second time.

It was heard the builder, who suffered PTSD from a car accident and was dyslexic, was working six to seven days a week and had stopped drinking while on bail.

Judge Cannon said it was in Gigliotti’s and the community’s best interests to not disrupt the positive path he was on by sending him to jail.

She sentenced him to the 22 days’ jail he served before being granted bail and also fined him $300.