A Coles employee who repeatedly stomped on the head of a 13-year-old boy who had shot him with a Nerf gun has avoided jail time.
Leo Gregory, 38, was handed a nine-month home detention order in the Supreme Court of Tasmania this month after pleading guilty to assault over the Burnie Plaza incident.
Justice Tamara Jago said Gregory’s response was “extreme to say the least”.
The court heard Gregory was collecting trolleys at the shopping centre on September 5, 2025, when the boy and a friend shot him in the back with Nerf darts.
Justice Jago said Gregory told them to stop and walked away. He returned a short time later to carry out another task, the court heard.
By then, the boy was sitting on the roof of a stairwell and made aggressive comments towards him.
Justice Jago said Gregory dragged the boy off the roof, pinned him with one foot and stomped on his head about four times.
When the boy’s friend tried to intervene, Gregory stomped on the victim’s head a further four times.
The court heard the boy was left with a deep laceration and a partially detached ear that required stitches.
Justice Jago said stomping on someone’s head on a hard surface was “obviously dangerous” and the boy could easily have been more seriously injured.
“You were a 37-year-old adult. They were children. Your reaction was entirely unjustified,” she said.
“You inflicted drastic and gratuitous violence on the child.”
The court heard Gregory had been “stressed and frustrated” by repeated youth disturbances at the centre and was battling untreated depression linked to a difficult childhood.
He has since started counselling and launched his own business.
Justice Jago noted he had a prior conviction for common assault in 2021.
She said he was remorseful and unlikely to reoffend, but added a prison term would have been warranted if home detention had not been available.
