A man has faced court over the bashing of a pub employee with a billiard ball, just months after being released from jail on other violent crimes.
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Garry Collins pleaded guilty in the Bendigo Magistrates' Court on Friday to intentionally causing injury over the November incident.
The court heard the 42-year-old entered the United Kingdom Hotel in Golden Square shortly after 8.30pm on November 1 and told a staff member he would be owed drinks for a previous incident.
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When the employee said he was not aware of a previous incident and could not give out free drinks, Collins began to argue.
He then punched the victim in the face and continued to throw punches, before calling the man a "dog" and leaving.
But he came back almost immediately, continued yelling and punched the employee again.
Collins grabbed the man by the shirt, wrestled him to the ground and continued to punch him.
He then grabbed a billiard ball and hit the victim in the face.
A witness, fearing the victim would be seriously injured, called police.
Collins also spat on the man's face and again called him a dog, before the victim managed to push him off.
The victim suffered swelling and later went to hospital, where it was discovered he had a fractured nose.
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When Collins was arrested he refused to make any admissions to the assault.
"Pretty sure I was at home in bed," he told officers when asked of his whereabouts, although he said, "Looks like me" when shown CCTV images.
The offending meant Collins breached an earlier community corrections order he was placed on this year for other crimes that included violence, property and driving offences.
Defence lawyer Deniz Yilidrim said Collins had been homeless since January, after losing his job.
Mr Yilidrim said his client had been consistently employed since the age of 19 until that time, and he then "spiralled into depression and anger".
He told the court Collins believed his drink had been spiked when he attended the pub a few days before the assault, and he regretted his actions.
Collins had said he was too old to continue this way, Mr Yilidrim said, and accepted he had possible anger management issues.
He submitted Collins ought to be sentenced to time already spent in custody, which was 44 days, and have his community corrections order restarted.
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Police prosecutor, Leading Senior Constable Michael Petrov, said a term of imprisonment or a lengthy community corrections order.
"It's not a basic assault, the accused has used a weapon as well as spitting," Leading Senior Constable Petrov said.
He said the COVID-19 situation needed to be taken into account with regards to the spitting.
Magistrate Julie Grainger said Collins was back in prison within a "very short time" of his release after spending five months behind bars.
Collins told the court he had seemed to be doing better when he was on medication for his mental health, and he planned to go back on it.
He said he also planned to stay away from alcohol for a while, admitting he had had a couple of drinks on the night of the incident.
Collins said the assault was something he could not explain and regretted.
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Ms Grainger took Collins' guilty plea into account in his favour, but noted he had a criminal history.
"It's not a particularly long criminal history, but... it has some very significant physical violence-related offences, and I think you really need to reflect on that and reflect on what's driving this anger that's leading to your offending," she told Collins.
Ms Grainger agreed the 44 days Collins had already spent in custody was sufficient but said he would have faced two months' imprisonment but for his guilty plea.
She also sentenced him to a community corrections order, varying his existing order to restart from Friday.
Collins will be on the order for 18 months and must undergo drug, alcohol and mental health treatment as directed, as well as offender behaviour programs, particularly around anger management.
He must also return to court for monitoring before a magistrate.
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