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A WOMAN had to have a plate put in her skull after being attacked with a garden gnome in an argument with her neighbours, a court has heard.
Martin Dean Shepherd, 39, of Risdon Vale, yesterday received a suspended jail sentence for assaulting his former next-door neighbour Susan Bryce.
The Supreme Court in Hobart heard a long-running dispute between the neighbours "erupted into violence" on September 28 last year with Ms Bryce's boyfriend and Shepherd hurling objects over the fence at each other.
Shepherd's girlfriend tried to throw a concrete garden gnome over but Ms Bryce's boyfriend smashed it with a golf club.
Shepherd got a big piece of the broken gnome and threw it over.
It hit Ms Bryce on the forehead and knocked her to the ground.
Justice Shan Tennent said Ms Bryce sustained a skull fracture and needed surgery to remove bone fragments and insert a plate in her skull.
She said Ms Bryce and her partner had since moved.
Justice Tennent dismissed suggestions from Shepherd's lawyer that the injury was unforeseen.
"If you throw a piece of concrete and it hits someone in the head, the injury as suffered by Ms Bryce would hardly be an unforseen consequence," she said.
The judge said Ms Bryce's partner was behaving "as stupidly" as Shepherd and it was "sheer luck" no one else was hurt.
"However that does not operate as any sort of mitigating factor for you," Justice Tennent said.
She gave Shepherd a six-month suspended jail term
source: http://www.news.com.au/mercury/story/0,22884,24434643-3462,00.html
Martin Dean Shepherd, 39, of Risdon Vale, yesterday received a suspended jail sentence for assaulting his former next-door neighbour Susan Bryce.
The Supreme Court in Hobart heard a long-running dispute between the neighbours "erupted into violence" on September 28 last year with Ms Bryce's boyfriend and Shepherd hurling objects over the fence at each other.
Shepherd's girlfriend tried to throw a concrete garden gnome over but Ms Bryce's boyfriend smashed it with a golf club.
Shepherd got a big piece of the broken gnome and threw it over.
It hit Ms Bryce on the forehead and knocked her to the ground.
Justice Shan Tennent said Ms Bryce sustained a skull fracture and needed surgery to remove bone fragments and insert a plate in her skull.
She said Ms Bryce and her partner had since moved.
Justice Tennent dismissed suggestions from Shepherd's lawyer that the injury was unforeseen.
"If you throw a piece of concrete and it hits someone in the head, the injury as suffered by Ms Bryce would hardly be an unforseen consequence," she said.
The judge said Ms Bryce's partner was behaving "as stupidly" as Shepherd and it was "sheer luck" no one else was hurt.
"However that does not operate as any sort of mitigating factor for you," Justice Tennent said.
She gave Shepherd a six-month suspended jail term
source: http://www.news.com.au/mercury/story/0,22884,24434643-3462,00.html
