A JUDGE has jailed a man for more than six years after he attacked his vulnerable Tamworth neighbour in a vicious and unprovoked bashing using a hockey stick.
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Matthew Leslie Tune claimed he was “on a cocktail of drugs” and much of his memory was “a blur” when he stormed his neighbour’s Baird Cr unit in South Tamworth on March 3, 2012, and struck the victim several times with a hockey stick.
Tune, who skipped bail while awaiting trial, was listed as one of Australia’s 20 most wanted offenders last year before he was discovered hiding in Victoria. The 30-year-old was extradited back to Tamworth in September 2014, to answer the charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, before pleading guilty in May.
In a sentencing hearing in Tamworth District Court on Tuesday, the court heard the victim suffered extensive facial injuries, fractured nasal bones, bruising to his face, arms, chest and lungs and had to be tubed by doctors.
Medical evidence showed the victim had suffered “severe” injuries from the assault and if it wasn’t for extra precautions taken by doctors at the time, the man would have been “at grave risk of death”.
The victim, who spent 25 days in intensive care following the assault, appeared in a remote witness room for the sentencing hearing on
Tuesday, while his family faced his attacker in court. In a victim impact statement from the family, the court was told the victim had lost his independent life since the bashing and now requires constant assistance in his day-to-day life.
Judge Michael King said, while the victim might have irritated Tune, “this could never have justified in any way the course of action taken by the accused”.
“The offence is aggravated by the fact it involved the use of a weapon, was committed in company, it was committed in the home of the victim,” he said.
“It involved a risk of death, and that the victim was a vulnerable person.”
Judge King said it was “a vicious assault on an individual already suffering” and consequently, serious injuries “were inflicted for no apparent reason.”
The court was told Tune had left school in Year 10 and had started dabbling in cannabis, speed and cocaine in his teens, before turning to ice three years ago.
He told probation authorities that at the time of the attack he “had been taking a cocktail of Oxycontin, alcohol and ice” and had used heroin while he was in a NSW jail.
The court heard Tune had a lengthy criminal record but “no history of ongoing violence” and was on conditional liberty at the time for offences committed in Queensland.
Tune was sentenced to six years and eight months in jail, with a non-parole period of four years and eight months.
After time served, he will be eligible for release on parole in September 2018.
A 14-year-old co-accused was sentenced in Newcastle last year.