Halekulani: Former paramedic David Guest guilty of attacking neighbour with small sledge hammer
An ex-paramedic has pleaded guilty to cracking his neighbour’s skull with a small sledgehammer after nearly four years of delays, an aborted trial and a failed mental health defence. Full details.
Disgraced former paramedic David Michael Guest has finally pleaded guilty to breaching a restraining order and cowardly attacking his elderly neighbour with a small sledge hammer.
It comes nearly four years after the gutless attack on February 10, 2022, when David Michael Guest ignored an apprehended violence order (AVO) and bludgeoned his 62-year-old neighbour with a mallet-type hammer and left him with two depressed skull fractures, a broken rib and extensive bruising.
Appearing via video link, 48-year-old Guest faced Gosford District Court, where he confirmed pleas of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and breaching the AVO.
The court heard police had taken out an AVO against Guest for his neighbour in the “context of an ongoing neighbourhood dispute” in November 2021.
Guest breached the AVO on January 26, 2022, and was arrested on February 4 before being granted bail when he violently attacked his neighbour six days later.
Guest pleaded not guilty on the grounds he had PTSD and significant other mental health issues which meant he was acting on “automation” and lacked the “intent” to cause injury.
He was deemed fit to stand trial on February 5 last year but it was aborted when he withdrew his instructions to his original defence lawyers on the first day of proceedings.
He was due to face a new trial on December 8 this year but the court heard, in the face of overwhelming evidence against him, he changed his plea to guilty at his readiness hearing.
Upon entering his pleas his new barrister Elias Tabchouri made a bail application on the grounds Guest had spent two years, seven months and 23 days in custody since the attack and for the rest of the time he was subjected to strict bail conditions, including 14 months fitted with an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet.
He said Guest was getting close to reaching “time served” — being the length of custody he will get when he is sentenced and he now needed to be on bail to resume his mental health treatment.
However the court heard Guest was found to have breached his bail conditions 23 times between July 2 and August 9 of this year, when he was detected going to the shops, cafes and even pubs and hotels where he was captured on CCTV drinking beers.
The Crown lodged a cross application for Guest’s ongoing detention.
Judge David Wilson said he originally granted Guest bail on strict conditions that amounted to home detention and it was only for the electronic monitoring that detected Guest breached those conditions.
“In my mind that shows a blatant disregard for the bail and the bail conditions,” he said.
Judge Wilson rejected the bail application, upheld the detention application and adjourned Guest to face a sentence hearing in March next year.
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Originally published as Halekulani: Former paramedic David Guest guilty of attacking neighbour with small sledge hammer
