NEIGHBOUR FROM HELL: Prison time after neighbourly dispute

A man has been sent to jail after he fractured his neighbours arm in a late night feud.

Clinton Hafemeister is behind bars following a late night neighbourly dispute. (Picture: File)

A WATTLE Camp man is behind bars after giving his neighbour ‘a light tap’ with a metal pole, fracturing his arm in a late night dispute.

Clinton Hafemeister pleaded guilty to one charge of assault occasioning bodily harm while armed and in company at Kingaroy Magistrates Court yesterday.

On September 8 2019 at 10pm, Hafemeister and his brother drove to their neighbours house to sort out an argument.

The victim met them out the front of his home, where Hafemeister was swearing and holding a metal pole.

Hafemeister hit the victims right arm with the pole before the victim retreated back to the house and was followed by the brothers.

The victim went to hospital for an X-Ray, which showed he had fractured a bone in his arm.

Police prosecutor Senior Sergeant Pepe Gangemi said Hafemeister told police he and his brother had been drinking rum when they got a phone call from the victim who angered Hafemeister as the phone call woke up his elderly father.

“The victim verbally abused Hafemeister telling him to come and fight him,” Sen Sgt Gangemi said.

“The defendant and his brother drove to the victims house, removed the metal pole before arguing and then giving the victim what Hafemeister claimed to be a light tap.

“My submissions would be a term of imprisonment of 4-6 months for going to someone’s house while armed and causing a fractured arm.”

Hafemeister’s defence lawyer Bonnie Djordjevic told the court the defendant did not intend to use the metal bar for violence.

“The metal pole was already in the car and my friend took it out for his own safety,” Mrs Djordjevic said.

“He agrees it got out of hand and he thought the victim was moving towards him so he gave him a light tap to keep him away, however accepts it was harder given injuries.

“He immediately felt bad so he followed him inside to apologise and see if the victim was all right.”

Hafemeister previously worked at Swickers and the Murgon meat works and now is the full time carer for his father.

Mrs Djordjevic said he does accept the violence on his record, however he hasn’t offended for the past 14 years.

“He was exposed to violence growing up, his father used his fists to solve problems,” Mrs Djordjevic said.

“He is currently on a full time carers pension looking after his father and is grieving from the loss of his younger brother in April.

“Since dealing with grief his perspectives has changed and family is very important to him. He understands how serious his offence was now that he is facing custody.”

Magistrate Andrew Sinclair said people just shouldn’t go to a fight armed and this would never happen.

“Challenged to a fight, he goes with a weapon and hits someone. Seems pretty premeditated to me,” Magistrate Sinclair said.

“The most serious thing is two men driving to another man’s house, asked for a fight the only expectation is there will be a fight and you decided to arm yourself resulting in a fractured arm.

“The victim was silly enough to invite you to their home, however you have four pages of history including assault causing bodily harm in 2004 and common assault in 2006 and 2007.

“People in the community need to know acts of aggression, violence and arming yourself will land you in prison.”

Magistrate Sinclair said he took into account Hafemeister’s family circumstances and guilty plea.

Hafemeister was sentenced to six months imprisonment, entitled to a parole release date on November 7 2020.

Convictions were recorded.

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