Men found guilty of ‘merciless’ bashing after night out at Monsoons

TWO men who bashed another man in an ‘unrelenting and merciless’ attack after a night on the tiles, leaving him with a punctured lung, have been found guilty of causing serious harm.

Abel Pinto and Pedro Casimiro were found guilty of bashing a man on Peel St shortly after leaving the Monsoons nightclub in December 2018. Picture: Che Chorley

TWO men who bashed another man in an “unrelenting and merciless” attack after a night on the tiles, leaving him with a punctured lung, have been found guilty of causing serious harm.

Abel Pinto, 30, and Pedro Casimiro, 45, were convicted by a jury after pleading not guilty to attacking the man on Peel Street, shortly after leaving Monsoons nightclub in December 2018. Yesterday, the Supreme Court heard despite denying having stabbed the man at his trial, Casimiro now admitted to being “the stabber” in the early hours of December 22.

In making submissions on sentencing, Crown prosecutor Collette Dixon said the “defenceless” victim would have died from the stab wound if he hadn’t received urgent medical attention.

“He was outnumbered two to one, he was punched repeatedly and kicked at least once – your honour will recall one of the witnesses who gave evidence recalled the sound of dents as his body was hitting the car door,” she said.

“The offenders had opportunity to walk away when he was on the ground and defenceless, but they continued with their attack on him in what can only be described as really, a frightening experience.”

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Ms Dixon said Pinto was in breach of a suspended sentence for an earlier aggravated assault at the time of the attack, and had just completed a domestic violence program the day before the beating.

“What he had just learnt about managing anger must have been very fresh in his mind when he went out that night to celebrate and yet not even before the break of dawn he goes out and commits this act of violence,” she said.

In arguing for Pinto to be handed a suspended sentence, his lawyer Mark Thomas said his role in the attack was far less than Casimiro’s, and there was no evidence he was involved in the actual stabbing.

“(The victim) said at the time that he was stabbed, the other person, the taller person, was standing nearby waiting at that time — he actually used the word ‘waiting’,” he said.

Casimiro’s lawyer John Adams said his client had a longstanding drug problem that provided “some explanation for why the attack occurred”.

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Mr Adams said while it was no excuse, “it shows again what ice can do”, and Casimiro was now “done with drugs” after reaching a “turning point in his life”.

“He wants to turn his life around and he wants to be rehabilitated,” he said.

Justice Judith Kelly will sentence the men next week.

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