Bendigo Court will sentence violent Bridgewater attacker

The 30-year-old man has been charged with intentionally causing injury, criminal damage and committing an indictable offence on bail after punching a man twice to the head, throwing a brick into a property which then hit his sister and striking a back door with his elbow.

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The Bendigo Magistrates' Court heard the male victim had allegedly made a "disparaging" comment that offended his attacker. The two punches then caused multiple facial fractures and hematomas that required surgery.

The court heard the male victim had also sent a text to his mother from a bathroom saying the accused was "flogging him".

The accused, appearing virtually while in custody at Marngoneet Correctional Centre, was emotional while giving evidence.

He said the comment related to his mother and he "overreacted".

At the time of this most recent offending, the attacker was on a deferred sentence for a similar crime of recklessly causing injury. In that case he attacked an older man at a dinner party who had tried to kiss his mother on the forehead.

Magistrate Trieu Huynh said the older victim's actions were "innocuous".

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He said the court could "only tolerate so much" from the accused.

The court heard the offender has extensive violent priors dating back to an unlawful assault charge in 2013 and charges of unlawful assault and recklessly causing injury in 2018.

Magistrate Huynh said the man had "a clear issue with self-regulation" which the court heard was exacerbated by his methylamphetamine and alcohol use.

The man also has diagnoses including ADHD traits, borderline personality disorder, PTSD, major depressive disorder, generalised anxiety disorder and stimulant use disorder.

The man's lawyer characterised his childhood as "very troubled" and described being raised by two parents who were alcoholics and living "in fear" of his mother's mood.

The court heard he was "not raised in a way where he got to learn appropriate coping skills" and he "lashes out".

"He wishes it was not him, and he didn't work like this," his lawyer told the court.

Magistrate Huynh said "he may not be trying to hurt anyone, but he does".

The man had spent 66 days in custody for this matter as of September 13, and 226 days for other matters.

He will be sentenced in October.

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