A MAN will spend the next two years behind bars after he bashed a woman while waiting for his methadone dose at a hospital.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Robert Knight, 33, of View Street, Kelso was sentenced in Bathurst Local Court on June 14, 2023 after he pleaded guilty at an earlier occasion to two counts of common assault, contravening an Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) and resisting police.
Knight and the victim were at the Drug Rehabilitation Methadone Clinic at Bathurst Base Hospital just after 8am on April 15, 2023 waiting for their treatments when he began to shout, court documents state.
The court heard Knight approached the woman from behind and grabbed hold of her before he turned her to face him as he continued to yell.
Knight then began to hit her on either side of the head, which caused the woman to stumble backwards and fall into the lap of another patient, where he kept assaulting her.
The victim stood and tried to walk away but Knight grabbed hold of her jumper and struck her in the head.
She crouched over to protect herself as Knight picked up his thongs and beanie, which came off during the fight, and left the room.
The victim made two separate calls to triple-zero asking for help from police, but she hung up and failed to answer several calls back from the emergency service.
Shortly after, Knight and the victim were being driven back to Bathurst Base Hospital by an unknown man.
![Bathurst Courthouse, where Robert Knight was jailed. Picture by James Arrow Bathurst Courthouse, where Robert Knight was jailed. Picture by James Arrow](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/5QSV2wJYJi8ZgVyWibkV7A/4415561f-826a-4a03-8692-3ae837528ad0.jpg/r0_258_7728_4620_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
During the car ride there, Knight punched the victim several times.
Police said they went to the hospital about 8.30am and spoke with two witnesses who saw the fight in the waiting room and identified the pair.
Officers then got CCTV footage before they did patrols of the area, hoping to find Knight and the victim but were unsuccessful.
Police went to a home on View Street in Kelso about 10.40am on April 19 to arrest Knight but were told he wasn't there.
The court heard officers, once allowed inside, searched the ground level of the home before going upstairs where they saw Knight jump from a bedroom window onto a veranda in the near yard where another set of police were waiting.
Knight picked up a brick and went to throw it at police, so officers used capsicum spray.
He was taken to the ground and handcuffed - despite resisting his arrest - before he was taken to Bathurst Police Station and charged.
Sentence
During sentencing, Aboriginal Legal Service solicitor Ms Chui described Knight's offending as a "mid to low range" unplanned attack that stemmed from a troubled childhood.
In response, Magistrate D Pearce said Knight had a "lengthy" record plagued with violence and drugs, before he found the matter crossed the section five threshold.
"He was on a high and was coming down ... He is a high risk offender," Mr Pearce said.
Knight was given a two-year head sentence, with a non-parole period of 18 months.
He will be eligible for release on October 18, 2024.
Reading this on mobile web? Download our news app. It's faster, easier to read and we'll send you alerts for breaking news as it happens.
Download in the Apple Store or Google Play.