Gutless thug Ryan Wells admits to Frankston coward’s punch
A gutless thug who unleashed a sickening, unprovoked attack on a stranger on a Frankston street has finally admitted to the coward’s punch.
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A gutless thug who unleashed a sickening, unprovoked attack on a stranger on a Frankston street has finally admitted to the coward’s punch.
But a court order banning Ryan Wells, 33, from being publicly named as the attacker has remained in place until today, when a magistrate allowed the heartless brute to be identified.
CCTV cameras captured the moment Wells lunged at his unsuspecting victim and felled him with an elbow to the head on a Frankston street in July last year.
His victim had his head down with both hands in his pockets and didn’t see the blow coming.
A magistrate last year made an order protecting Wells from public exposure after the attacker received threats to his safety.
The Herald Sun can finally reveal Wells’ guilty plea after fighting to lift the suppression order, which remained in place until today — two weeks after his plea of guilty.
It can also be revealed Wells was convicted on three violent armed robberies when he was 18.
Facing Frankston Magistrates Court earlier this month, he pleaded guilty to recklessly cause injury and affray over the coward punch. Charges of intentionally cause injury and assault were dropped.
Wells is pushing to receive a Community Corrections Order, which could see him punished with rehabilitation programs and community work, while prosecutors want the cowardly thug jailed.
After he elbowed the man in the head, Wells’s brother, Joel Wells, can be seen laughing and looking proud as Wells stepped over the man’s body on the footpath with no care for his welfare, a police summary detailed.
Wells continues walking along the street without even looking back.
The court heard the concreter had downed 10 schooners of beer and five bourbons in 3 1/2 hours at The Grand Hotel, before leaving with his brother and another unidentified man about 7.30pm and coming across his unsuspecting victim.
Barrister Pardeep Tiwana said Wells, at the time, was binge drinking and had not received any psychological treatment to deal with the trauma he had suffered in a car crash.
Dramatic scenes were described to the court of how, on a weekend road trip with his brother, their car ended up down an embankment when his brother swerved to avoid hitting a wombat.
Wells escaped the wreckage, had to drag his brother from the driver’s seat, before rescuing two of his three dogs from cages in the utility before it exploded.
He wandered around in the bush shoeless and without food or water for hours, Mr Tiwana said.
While magistrate Tim Gattuso earlier said the crash would no doubt have been a traumatic experience, it didn’t explain why someone would then commit such a violent act.
Mr Tiwana said his client also claimed he was left shaken when threatened with his life by a man outside The Grand Hotel weeks earlier.
But Mr Gattuso was surprised to find the incident was never reported to police.
When CCTV of the one-punch attack was released it sparked public outrage, which was heightened further when Wells was later granted bail.
The court heard Wells eventually handed himself in to police, but not before dodging officers, who were hindered entering his property because of his dogs, and Wells turning off the lights to his house as police tried ringing him from the front gate.
Wells initially claimed the attack was self defence, and that his victim had looked at him with “crazy eyes”. He feared the man was going to pull a knife from his pockets, he told police.
But Mr Tiwana said Wells was now remorseful for his actions and has also paid a dental bill for his victim, who declined to provide a victim impact statement as he didn’t want his young children to feel unsafe knowing their father had been bashed in the street for no reason.
Mr Tiwana said Wells’s priors are limited to convictions for armed robbery more than a decade ago.
County Court sentencing remarks reveal, in a similar scenario, he was drinking “to an unacceptable degree” at a party in Somerville when he left and terrorised four teens, aged 13-15, with a mate at a park in February 2004.
RYAN WELLS HIDES FACE FROM MEDIA
Wells grabbed one of the victims by the shoulders “squeezing him tightly” before putting him in a chokehold to force him to hand over his mobile phone.
His co-offender produced a knife and threatened to cut their throats if they didn’t give up their phones.
Wells pocketed two phones, one which he went on to use himself until he was arrested over the crime.
He dodged a jail term with Judge John Smallwood instead putting him on a two-year Community Corrections Order, telling him he had “no doubt that you have learned a very salutary lesson”.
“I am satisfied that the conduct, disgraceful as it was that you indulged in on that night, was totally out of character for you and that you are very, very unlikely to reoffend,” Judge Smallwood said at the time.
Wells is also facing another set of charges relating to an alleged attack at a Somerville party on July 20, less than a week before the coward punch.
Mr Tiwana said they would be contesting those charges at a two-day hearing starting Wednesday.
Wells will be sentenced over the Frankston attack next month.
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