A man who tipped a pram carrying a seven-month-old baby upside down during a random attack on strangers in the Hobart CBD has been sentenced to nine months in prison.
The Supreme Court heard Paul Alfred Salkeld lifted the pram off the ground, swung it around and dropped it, leaving the baby with a visible bump on her head.
The 54-year-old was sentenced last week after pleading guilty to one count of Criminal Code assault and eight other charges, including seven counts of common assault.
The attacks happened along Liverpool Street around 11am on June 17 last year.
At the time, Salkeld was subject to a police bail condition banning him from the CBD between 7am and 7pm.
The court heard Salkeld first pushed the baby’s mother as she walked with the pram, before lifting it and dropping it upside down. The mother injured her wrist trying to hold on.
Justice Kate Cuthbertson said Salkeld had no regard for the baby’s safety.
“If she had not been secured safely, she could have been seriously injured,” she said.
Salkeld then punched two women who came to help, punched a man in the street and swung a metal chair at another woman, breaking her arm. She later needed surgery and a metal plate.
He chased a woman into a drycleaner and punched her repeatedly, then pushed and punched another woman who told him to stop.
At the time, Salkeld was homeless for the first time in his life after being evicted about two weeks earlier.
He had stopped taking antipsychotic medication about two months before the attacks and had been using methylamphetamine in the days beforehand.
He told police he wanted to hurt people because he believed they were out to get him, but felt terrible and wanted to apologise.
A forensic psychologist found a direct causal link between his psychotic symptoms of schizophrenia and the attacks.
Justice Cuthbertson said Salkeld was “not an appropriate vehicle for general deterrence” given his mental illness.
The prison term was backdated to his arrest and he was placed on a two-year community correction order requiring him to undergo mental health and drug treatment.
