Teenager who glassed Backyard Bar Mornington boss with broken bottle faces court
Two teenagers barred from Mornington’s Backyard Bar went back for a drink and were told to leave by the manager. The ensuing violence left the bar worker with a permanent scar.
South East
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A teenager who glassed a Mornington bar manager with a broken bottle, leaving him scarred for life, has walked free from court.
The then 18-year-old – who can’t be named for legal reasons – was with a mate when he attacked the Backyard Bar boss because he had asked them to leave.
The pair had been barred from the Main St premises and were evicted when they were caught again.
The manager chucked them out but the pair turned on him, assaulting him in the street outside.
Frankston Magistrates’ Court yesterday heard the bar manager saw the man and his mate drinking in the courtyard about midnight on October 28, 2017.
He asked them to leave but once in the street the co-offender punched him to the back of his head.
The 18-year-old picked up a broken glass bottle and threw it at the victim’s face, causing a cut to his cheek, and he was taken to hospital. The victim has a permanent scar, the court heard.
The teenager was interviewed in November having been identified through CCTV footage of the incident, which had been recorded in its entirety.
The co-offender has since died.
The man, now aged 21, also admitted driving while suspended in April last year in Cranbourne, having lost his licence for six months in February due to accruing too many demerit points.
His defence lawyer said his father had been viciously attacked in June 2017, and is still recovering from his injuries.
She said “things went downhill from there” and this started a spiral of drug and alcohol abuse in the 18-year-old, culminating in the assault.
But since then her client had been clean of drugs, didn’t drink, found a full-time job and was having medical treatment for his mental health issues, she said.
Magistrate Fiona Stewart agreed to a defence request asking for the man’s name and suburb to be suppressed, saying he had suffered enough tragedy and didn’t need to be publicly identified.
She allowed the location of the assault, the charges and the summary of the offending to be published in the interest of open courts, but refused access to the CCTV footage and the victim impact statement.
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Ms Stewart said she had regard to his youth at the time, the family tragedies and death of his friend, and the changes he had made.
But she also warned him not to make any more mistakes, saying he was “in the big league now, if anything else goes wrong, he will be in there (custody)”.
The man was placed on a 12-month community corrections order, with conditions he undergo drug and alcohol counselling and attend a mental health program.
No conviction was recorded, and no licence loss was imposed for the suspended driving offence.