A WARRNAMBOOL man jailed for five months was likened by a magistrate to former notorious Framlingham criminal, the late David “Charlie” Clark.
During sentencing, magistrate Jonathan Klestadt asked William Agnew, 23, if he knew of Clark and warned the defendant that he was following in his footsteps.
He said that over a long time Clark had destroyed his health, rendered himself harmless and was — in the last years of his life — a tragic figure.
“You must see parallels. That’s what you are setting yourself up for,” Mr Klestadt told Agnew in relation to his use of drugs and alcohol.
Agnew, of Fotheringham Street, pleaded guilty in Warrnambool Magistrates Court to recklessly causing injury and breaching a community corrections order.
He was jailed for 13 months, with five months to be served before being eligible for parole. Agnew bashed a neighbour during April last year in Hamilton after a day of socialising when he thought the neighbour had called police.
The victim suffered cuts above and below his right eye and a broken jaw.
The eye injury required stitches and plastic surgery, while the jaw fracture needed surgery involving plates and screws.
Agnew’s offending also breached a community corrections order (CCO) on charges of recklessly causing injury, causing criminal damage and failing to appear on bail.
Defence counsel Xavier Farrelly submitted that a jail sentence was appropriate but requested the term be suspended.
He said his client had served time in custody on remand and had previously received a number of CCOs.
Mr Klestadt said Agnew had smoked cannabis since he was nine years old and it was likely the defendant had a form of brain damage.
Mr Klestadt said that Agnew and his brother had threatened another man and then Agnew had caused the man to be seriously injured following a day of drinking and suspected illicit substance abuse.
“Such behaviour has to be condemned in the most serious possible way,” he said.
“You have a history of offences involving violence which has escalated in the last seven or eight years.”
The magistrate said Agnew had completed less than a quarter of his hours on an existing CCO, continued to use illicit substances and was not compliant in taking his medication.
He said Agnew had harmed his own health through his abuse of alcohol and cannabis.
“At some stage the community has to cry ‘enough is enough’,” Mr Klestadt said.
