A man who left another with permanent brain injuries after a single drunken punch outside a southern Tasmanian pub has been sentenced to home detention.
Jack Richard Willing, 25, was sentenced in the Supreme Court of Tasmania on May 8 after pleading guilty to causing grievous bodily harm and assault.
Willing was 21 and had drunk about 12 cans of Jack Daniels when he threw the punch outside The Moorings @ Lady Franklin in the Huon Valley, south of Hobart, on July 1, 2023.
The victim fell and hit his head on the concrete, knocking him unconscious.
Willing then struck a 15-year-old boy, who fell but got up uninjured.
The man spent days in the Royal Hobart Hospital with a brain bleed, skull fractures, a cerebrospinal fluid leak and permanent hearing loss in his right ear.
He had to relearn how to walk and talk.
In a victim impact statement, he said he lost his job, suffered a mental breakdown and no longer felt safe in public.
Justice Kate Cuthbertson said the case showed the “grave danger” of any blow to the head.
“The possibility that serious injury may result is notorious,” Cuthbertson said.
The judge accepted Willing did not intend the serious injury and noted his guilty plea, young age at the time and lack of prior convictions for serious violence.
Cuthbertson said Willing had “strong prospects of rehabilitation”, pointing to his recent counselling and his abstinence from alcohol and drugs.
Willing was given 15 months home detention for the grievous bodily harm charge and a two-year community correction order with 100 hours of community service for the assault.
He must complete the EQUIPS addiction and aggression programs and is banned from drinking alcohol during home detention.
