Rebecca Winterton: Noble Park woman stabbed man in head with garden stake
A Noble Park woman has savagely stabbed a man in the face with a garden stake after a comic book sale deal turned nasty.
South East
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A Noble Park woman savagely stabbed a man in the face with a garden stake after a comic book sales deal turned sour, a court has heard.
Rebecca Winterton, 28, viciously slashed the victim as he was trying to flee, leaving him with bloodied cuts to his nose and ear.
She pleaded guilty in the Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on March 15 to the serious assault, as well as assaulting a police officer.
The court heard Winterton and her co-accused had arranged to meet the victim at their home May last year to buy comic books from him but when they couldn’t agree on a price, the exchange turned violent.
Winterton’s co-accused became aggressive and started kicking the victim but as the man tried to escape, Winterton joined in the attack, grabbing a pointy garden stake from the front lawn and stabbing the victim in his face and stomach.
The victim eventually managed to escape and call police, who attended Winterton’s Noble Park address later that day.
While police were arresting her co-accused, Winterton became aggressive and spat at an officer who had to force her into handcuffs to subdue her.
During the interview she told police she had been aiming at her co-accused.
She also told police she had “stayed in my room” during the altercation.
When asked about her use of the garden stake she said “I can’t tell you nothing”.
Magistrate Andrew Halse said he had strongly considered slapping Winterton with jail time over her “unacceptable and outrageous behaviour”.
“You stabbed a man in the face who was trying to sell comic books,” he said.
“He could have been maimed for life — fortunately, he was not.
“It is astonishing behaviour … it is behaviour that in ordinary circumstances should have a magistrate have no hesitation in putting you in jail for a significant period of time (and) that was my immediate thought when I heard that you had stabbed a man in the face with a garden stake.”
Mr Halse said he was disgusted Winterton had also spat at a police officer.
He convicted Winterton and sentenced her to a 12-month community corrections order, including 120 hours of unpaid work and drug, alcohol and mental health treatment.
But he warned her jail was almost certainly on the cards if she reoffended.
“You have prior matters for assault and it’s right about that time where the therapeutic options might give way to terms of imprisonment,” he said.
