Glass thrower sentenced after bar fight ends in eye wound

Throwing a glass during a bar fight at a popular Hobart nightspot has resulted in jail sentence for a local council worker.

A BAR fight that left a man wounded after a schooner glass was thrown has seen a Hobart man given a six month suspended sentence.

Matthew David Free was sentenced by Justice Tamara Jago on Tuesday after pleading guilty to wounding in relation to the incident at the popular Hobart nightspot Cargo Bar in August this year.

Free, and the man who ended up wounded, were former mates who had experienced a falling out.

The court heard they had a verbal exchange in the bar which quickly escalated to a fist fight.

Free threw a schooner glass which hit the other man in the head and cut the area above his eye.

A melee then ensued and police arrived.

Restaurant and pub strip in Salamanca.

The victim went to the Royal Hobart Hospital but after a two-hour wait in emergency left and got his wound glued days later by a GP.

Free took himself to the police station and was interviewed.

The Burnie Supreme Court heard that while Free told police he did not believe he was intoxicated at the time of the fight, he could not remember throwing the glass.

Justice Jago said the wound was recklessly, but not intentionally, caused.

Free is 26 years old and a Hobart City Council civil construction employee.

Justice Jago said he had a good industrial record and had begun counselling for anger management.

“I accept this was an impetuous reaction. But violence in nightspots and bars is a community concern,” she said.

“Throwing the glass was foolish and dangerous.”

She sentenced him to six months in jail suspended on the condition he commit no offence punishable by a prison term in the next two years.