Lauchlan McColl, 32, pleads guilty to reckless causing injury in BBQ bashing

A dad-to-be who bashed a colleague to “put him in his place” at a work barbecue has learned his fate.

Lauchlan McColl leaving Geelong Magistrates Court on Friday.

An expectant father who bashed a colleague to “put him in his place” at a work barbecue has escaped a jail sentence.

Lauchlan McColl, 32, appeared in Geelong Magistrates Court on Friday, supported by his mother, and pleaded guilty to recklessly causing injury.

Without a guilty plea he was told by magistrate John Lesser he could have been staring down the barrel of a prison sentence.

“If this matter had gone to contest and you’d lost, you would have got jail time,” Mr Lesser said.

“That’s how serious these assaults are.”

The court heard McColl was working as a line manager at Carbon Revolution in Waurn Ponds on July 3, 2021 when he hosted colleagues at his home for a barbecue.

One of McColl’s colleagues came into the kitchen to prepare food.

The court was told McColl laughed at the man before the two started fighting and “slapped each other”.

McColl asked his colleague to leave the property, and the victim left the kitchen and walked back outside, where he stumbled into a fence.

The court was told McColl followed the man outside and punched him three times in the body before others in attendance intervened.

McColl’s victim began walking up the driveway to the front of the property while McColl went inside.

However, while his colleague was out the front, the court heard McColl re-emerged out the front door of his house, grabbed the man by the shirt and pushed him in front of a neighbouring property while yelling verbal abuse.

Attendees at the barbecue separated the two men a second time.

Police went to Geelong University Hospital to speak to the victim, where CT scans revealed the man’s cheek had been fractured.

McColl told police when interviewed that he didn’t “really have a reason” for fracturing his colleague’s cheek but that he was “agitated and it brought out (his) angry side”.

The court heard McColl hit his colleague because “he was drunk and being annoying” and wanted “to put him in his place”.

“If I wanted to put him in the hospital, I could have, but I wanted to hit him,” the court heard McColl told police.

McColl’s lawyer, Megan Campbell, told the court that McColl had sought help and counselling to change his behaviour, particularly his anger management.

Ms Campbell said McColl had returned from Queensland where he had been working to appear in court, and that his partner was pregnant.

“He’s conceded this is a very serious incident … it goes far beyond acceptable behaviour,” Ms Campbell said.

Ms Campbell told the court McColl had a “history of alcohol dependence and ice abuse” that escalated after the death of his father in 2016, but he had been sober since December 2021.

McColl also had lingering symptoms from being the victim of shooting in 2013 that affected his mental health, Ms Campbell said.

Mr Lesser convicted McColl and sentenced him to a 12-month community corrections order along with a $2500 fine.

Originally published as Lauchlan McColl, 32, pleads guilty to reckless causing injury in BBQ bashing