Brodie Aaron Randall handed down an 18-month suspended sentence for role in violent neighbourhood dispute

He previously punched a supermarket worker in the face and hit his father in the back with a chair. Now, a man is in trouble again for his latest alcohol-fuelled assault.

Burnie Supreme and Magisterial Courts

A man who beat up his dad’s neighbour with a wooden chair leg during a dispute in a suburban Burnie street has avoided jail.

Brodie Aaron Randall pleaded guilty to one count of criminal code assault for the incident on Gray Street at Upper Burnie on November 21, 2021.

Supreme Court Justice Tamara Jago gave the 23-year-old man from Burnie a four-month suspended sentence for his crimes on the proviso that he does not commit another offence punishable by imprisonment for the following year and a half.

This is not the first time Randall has been convicted of assault, having been sentenced for two separate crimes in May 2021.

The first assault involved him punching a supermarket worker in the face, while the second one saw him hit his dad in the back with a chair.

Justice Jago said these assaults, along with the November 2021 offence, were the result of Randall’s excessive alcohol and methylamphetamine use.

“You have not offended in any way since April 2022,” she said.

“You have formed a new relationship, which appears to be stable, and you have obtained employment.”

In November 2021, Randall destroyed his dad’s neighbour’s letterbox.

Justice Jago told the court that “a strong animosity” had developed between the two families.

Randall and the neighbour then argued, and he grabbed a wooden chair leg nearby.

Supreme Court Justice Tamara Jago. Picture: Supplied.

The neighbour successfully wrestled the chair leg from Randall and started walking to a nearby house to call the police.

Randall followed the neighbour, and the pair started arguing again, this time in someone else’s backyard.

By this point, Randall’s father had come over, and the neighbour swung the wooden chair leg at him but missed.

Randall then started wrestling with the neighbour on the ground.

The neighbour then hit him with the wooden chair leg multiple times before he managed to take it off him.

Randall then hit the neighbour multiple times with the leg on the forehead, which resulted in him having a two-centimetre wound to his eyebrow.

During sentencing, Justice Jago told Randall that “it goes without saying that striking another person to the head area with a weapon is an inherently dangerous act”.

“You were obviously in a high state of agitation. The complainant was vulnerable and laying on the ground,” she said.

“You struck him several times to the forehead area, and your violence only came to an end when your father intervened.

“People endeavouring to settle grievances through the use of violence is a matter of significant community concern.”

However, before handing down the suspended sentence, Justice Jago said Randall had “a number of factors” in his favour, including his young age, employment at a tree services company at Latrobe, and positive changes he had made since his spate of assaults.

Originally published as Brodie Aaron Randall handed down an 18-month suspended sentence for role in violent neighbourhood dispute