A shearer who repeatedly punched a man while taking back his partner’s handbag, leaving him needing three rounds of facial surgery, has avoided jail.
Daniel Dale Double, 35, was sentenced in the Supreme Court on Thursday to seven months in prison, wholly suspended for 18 months, after pleading guilty to assault.
Justice Robert Pearce said Double and his partner had been drinking at the Commercial Hotel in Launceston from 11pm before leaving around 4:30am on March 12, 2022.
The court heard Double’s partner left her handbag on a brick wall in York Street “to find a concealed place to urinate”.
John Sapei, a 36-year-old seasonal worker from Vanuatu, then picked it up and walked away.
“It cannot be really known whether he thought the handbag had been abandoned or whether he had some dishonest intent,” Justice Pearce said, describing the circumstances as “suspicious”.
Double chased Sapei to Charles Street near Princes Square, pushed him against a wall and forced him to the ground before punching him three times in the face.
Sapei suffered extensive facial fractures and underwent surgery three times, on March 16, 22 and 25, 2022.
The prosecution accepted that taking Sapei to the ground and the first punch were justified as Double tried to recover the handbag, but Double admitted the remaining punches went too far.
“The nature and extent of Mr Sapei’s injuries give some indication of the degree of the excessive force you inflicted,” Justice Pearce said.
“The punches must have been extremely hard and were inflicted when Mr Sapei was doing nothing to resist.”
Justice Pearce said the case was different from one involving “random and completely unjustified alcohol-fuelled public violence”.
He noted Double voluntarily went to police, had no relevant prior convictions and had shown some remorse.
Double will only have to serve the seven-month sentence if he commits an offence punishable by imprisonment within the next 18 months, unless a court decides it would be unjust to activate it.
