A man who armed himself with a metal pole to help carry out the ''cowardly and brutal'' bashing of three others has been jailed for more than two years.
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Russell Lee Tilley, 32, was sentenced in the ACT Supreme Court after a judge dismissed claims that he was only trying to mediate between the victims and his group.
Justice John Burns found that Tilley was not on a ''peace-keeping mission'' but rather a planned revenge attack when he helped three mates armed with a machete, an axe handle and baseball bat bash a group of men celebrating the birth of a baby in the early hours of March 13 last year.
The victims were left covered in blood and one of them - the new father - was disfigured with facial scars.
Tilley had pleaded guilty to three charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm but told the court that he was actually asked to make peace between the two groups and only became involved when one of the victims tried to punch his brother.
The victims were a group of friends who had been drinking to mark the birth of a baby girl.
They became involved in a confrontation with Scullin man David John Welch, 27, when he turned up uninvited to the new father's home in Giralang and performed a burnout on the front lawn, leading to fisticuffs.
Welch then organised an attack on the group with help from three other men; Tilley, his brother Benjamin Thomas Sherd, 25, and 22-year-old Steven Paul Beattie.
They armed themselves with a machete, an axe handle, a baseball bat and metal pole and tracked down the victims to a nearby Giralang home, where they set upon them, viciously bashing the men in the street and in the backyard.
Sherd, Beattie and Welch have all been sentenced to jail terms.
In sentencing proceedings earlier this year, Tilley told the court he had had a ''change of heart'' about his guilty plea and contested the facts of the matter.
He gave evidence that he was asked to mediate between Welch's group and the victims and said Welch was worried the other men were looking for his address so they could go to his house and start a fight.
Tilley also told the court the victims, who had moved the party to a third house nearby, were the aggressors and he only became involved in the bashing when he saw one of them throw a punch at Sherd.
Justice Burns said Tilley was an unreliable witness and described parts of his evidence as bizarre and unlikely, including a claim that the weapons used in the bashing, including a metal pole, a machete and a baseball bat, were just ''crap they found'' in an alleyway beside the new father's house.
He also noted there was no application to formally withdraw the guilty plea. Justice Burns said Tilley owned a small business and had shown remorse for his actions.
The judge found Tilley had not acted as a mediator and had taken part in a ''planned revenge attack'' on the victims. ''This was no peace-keeping mission,'' he said.
Justice Burns sentenced Tilley to two years and nine months' jail with a non-parole period of one year and nine months.