Jaykob Charles Solien-Senge’s sentence slashed for attack in Darwin CBD

A man with a “serious history of violent offending” who knocked a stranger out cold on a night out, has had more than half of his prison term suspended. Read the impact it had on his victim.

A man with a “serious history of violent offending” who knocked a stranger unconscious in the Darwin CBD will have his jail term slashed.

Jaykob Charles Solien-Senge, 31, was sentenced in the Supreme Court on Wednesday after pleading guilty to unlawfully causing serious harm when he punched Nathan Paul Clark and left him unconscious and seizing on the ground last year.

Mr Solien-Senge will be able to walk from jail in just more than six months.

The court heard about 3am on September 18, 2021, Solien-Senge was outside the ANZ bank on the corner of Smith St and Peel St with family when two of Mr Clark’s female friends, who had left popular CBD nightspot Mayberry, were harassed by Solien-Senge’s group.

The ANZ in Smith Street, Darwin.

Mr Clark then jogged towards his friends because he was concerned for their safety.

The court heard Solien-Senge believed Mr Clark was approaching his family “with aggressive intent”.

“You thought he had aggressive intent … but you were wrong. He did not.

“As he passed you, you suddenly punched him in the head,” Justice Judith Kelly said in her sentencing.

“You delivered that blow with maximum force. You hit him so hard your feet lifted off the ground.”

The court heard Mr Clark was knocked unconscious immediately and fell to the ground, hitting his head on the pavement.

Solien-Senge then stepped over Mr Clark and started challenging people to fight.

While Mr Clark lay unconscious on the ground he had a seizure, with similar episodes continuing weeks after the assault, the court heard.

Solien-Senge then drove around the scene several times watching Mr Clark be treated before telling police he had no knowledge of the assault.

Northern Territory Supreme Court Justice Judith Kelly said Jaykob Charles Solien-Senge had a history of violence.

Following the assault, Mr Clark, who remained in hospital for two weeks afterwards, suffered amnesia for about an hour and a half and sustained a “traumatic brain injury” which included bleeding between his skull and the membrane around his brain.

“It was likely that if he had not been treated, he would have had a cognitive impairment which would have been longstanding and significant,” Justice Kelly said.

Justice Kelly said Mr Clark had been unable to work and had suffered “significant financial losses” and “drastic emotional consequences” because of the assault.

“He feels unable to go out and this has affected his relationships,” she said.

In a victim impact statement tendered to the court, Mr Clark said the assault had “greatly affected” his life.

“Sometimes I don’t feel safe when I’m out on my own especially at night,” he wrote.

“All I would like to do is get back to the level I was at before the crime had happened, but I know it’s going to take a long time.

“What happened to me is serious and I could’ve been paralysed or even died.”

The court heard Solien-Senge had previously breached suspended sentences three times and parole six times and his prior convictions include aggravated assault and sexual intercourse without consent.

“You have a serious history of violent offending,” Justice Kelly said.

In her sentencing, Justice Kelly said she had taken into account Solien-Senge’s “traumatic” childhood, which resulted in several mental health conditions including post traumatic disorder and hypervigilance, an elevated state where affected individuals are constantly assessing potential threats.

“Unfortunately you grew up in a household where you were exposed to domestic violence and excessive alcohol consumption by your parents,” she said.

“Given the circumstances of the offending and the reduced moral culpability that you have as a result of your post traumatic stress disorder and your hypervigilant behaviour and also the efforts that you have made while you’ve been in prison on remand, I do think you should be given further chance.”

Solien-Senge was sentenced to five years in prison, with three and a half years suspended.

His sentence was backdated to November 30.