Glassing attack by Adrian Michael Johnson left victim’s face ‘split open’

A man who showed no remorse over a glassing attack that left another man bleeding profusely from his face has been sentenced.

A GEORGE Town man found guilty of splitting open another man’s face with a glass on a night out will spend at least seven months in jail.

Justice Robert Pearce on Tuesday sentenced Adrian Michael Johnson, 35, to 15 months imprisonment for the “serious” attack on Shane Baker on May 27.

The court heard the two men had been drinking at the same George Town hotel and left in separate groups when it closed around 10.30pm.

Crown prosecutor Emily Judd previously told the court Mr Baker and his friend Luke Edwards heard a man and a woman yelling in a carpark and crossed the road to investigate.

She said when the two men tried to intervene, Johnson approached Mr Baker and struck him with a round motion while holding a beer glass.

“According to Mr Baker, his face was split open and blood started streaming from the cut,” Justice Pearce said.

“Mr Baker suffered a deep laceration to his left upper eyelid and eyebrow which extended almost to the bone of the upper eyelid, and required sutures in two layers to close.”

Justice Pearce said it was fortunate for Johnson that Mr Baker did not suffer any disabling injury.

“Although he is left with a mild scar and a lump he is self-conscious about,” Justice Pearce said. “There are also some mild psychological effects which continue and are to be expected from assaults of this nature.”

Justice Pearce said Johnson had demonstrated no remorse and was not entitled to the mitigation a guilty plea would have attracted.

“He admitted that he struck Mr Baker but said that he did so in self-defence, and did not agree that he was holding a glass. I regard his account, as the jury must have, as quite unsatisfactory,” Justice Pearce said.

“The community has a legitimate concern about violence of this type, and in particular the infliction of injury by blows to the face with glass objects.

“I am not satisfied that the defendant intended to wound Mr Baker, but in cases like this the risk of wounding is so obvious that there is little difference in culpability between intent and recklessness.

“Had Mr Baker been more seriously injured, a much longer sentence would have been required.”

Justice Pearce said Johnson had a history of alcohol-fuelled violence and sentenced Mr Johnson to 15 months imprisonment and activated a five-month sentence from a previous assault.

He suspended six months of the total 20-month sentence for two years and said Johnson would be eligible for parole after serving seven months in prison.