A teenager who told police a stranger he attacked outside a Devonport diner “deserved it” left the man with a fractured bone in his throat and in intensive care, a Tasmanian court has heard.
Dylan Allan Bester pleaded guilty to assault and was sentenced in the Supreme Court of Tasmania last week.
The attack happened in the early hours of August 6, 2021, after Bester and friends had been drinking at Devonport’s Pub Rock Diner while celebrating a birthday.
Bester was 18 at the time. The man he assaulted, a stranger, was 31.
The court heard the man left the diner and confronted one of Bester’s friends in the Rooke Street Mall. Bester ran over, believing his friend was in trouble.
The confrontation turned physical and Bester and three friends attacked the man for about two minutes.
Justice Tamara Jago said Bester punched the man eight times in 10 seconds while he was being held in a headlock, then kicked him in the head as he lay on the ground. Security was standing nearby.
The man suffered a fractured hyoid bone and spent time in intensive care. He still feels anxious around groups of people he does not know.
In a police interview, Bester said he kicked the man because he had ‘pissed him off’.
He told police the man “deserved it, half of it … probably not all of it but he did deserve half of it, some of it”.
“The comments you made to police could hardly be said to be reflective of genuine remorse or demonstrative of any insight into the level of danger associated with your conduct,” Justice Jago said.
“But I also accept they are perhaps reflective of the misplaced bravado of an 18-year-old.”
The court heard Bester, now 23, had no prior convictions and has not drunk alcohol since the incident.
Justice Jago said general deterrence remained important in alcohol-fuelled violence.
Bester was convicted and given a 15-month community correction order with 105 hours of community service.
