Loretta Chumbley smashes bar stool over stranger’s head after Berry Springs Tavern rape threat

A drunk man who tried to crack on to a Territory woman by threatening to bash her boyfriend and rape her has called for leniency after she responded by attacking him with a bar stool.

Loretta Audrey-Faye Chumbley pleaded guilty in the Darwin Local Court to assaulting a drunken stranger with a bar stool at the Berry Springs Tavern. Picture: Jason Walls

A Top End woman has narrowly avoided a three-month stint in jail for smashing a bar stool over a stranger’s head after he threatened to rape her.

Loretta Audrey-Faye Chumbley pleaded guilty in the Darwin Local Court on Thursday to an aggravated assault at the Berry Springs Tavern earlier this year.

Chumbley’s lawyer Brooke Houen said the 27-year-old fly-in-fly-out diesel fitter was at the pub on a Saturday night in March when she was approached by a drunk stranger.

Ms Houen said the man tried to pick a fight with Chumbley’s boyfriend, before attempting to put his arm around her and take a drag of her cigarette.

Chumbley tried to de-escalate the situation by going into the bar to get drinks but when she returned the man told her: “I’ll bash your boyfriend and take you home and rape you”.

Ms Houen said the 27-year-old then “snapped”.

The court heard she went to the table, picked up a bar stool and smashed its legs over his skull — leaving him with a round hole in his scalp and a concussion.

Chumbley then “dragged him around the ground” until her friends pulled her off.

Despite being left with a permanent scar from the assault, the man said he did not believe locking Chumbley up would help her rehabilitation and urged the court to impose a non-custodial sentence.

Ms Houen said Chumbley was now attending anger management courses but due to a prior “hot chip” assault on a worker, the young woman faced the prospect of a three-month mandatory minimum jail term.

Chumbley was placed on a good behaviour bond without conviction following the previous incident after she hit some meals off a bench at the Adelaide River Tavern, causing chips and gravy to spill on a worker.

“I’m not sure what you’re drinking — Bundy or something — but you really ought to think about avoiding (these venues),” Judge Ben O’Loughlin told her.

Mr O’Loughlin said he was “looking for ways to not lock her up” and concluded there were exceptional circumstances to avoid the mandatory jail term.

Chumbley was sentenced to four months in prison, fully suspended for 24 months.