A food delivery driver has been left needing multiple stitches after being violently assaulted by a "frustrated and irate" customer, a court has heard.
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The offender became angry when the driver, who ended up in hospital, left a food delivery at his home's letter box rather than its door.
James Leigh Lynch, 29, was previously found guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and common assault at a contested hearing.
On Monday, the man was convicted in the ACT Magistrates Court to a wholly suspended three-month jail term and a 12-month good behaviour order.
Magistrate Jane Campbell stated, for the record, the facts she had found to be true from the victim's account.
On January 3, 2022, the Uber driver delivered food to Lynch's home and messaged the offender to let him know it was at his mail box.
As Lynch left his unit to pick up the food, he saw the victim and approached him with what Ms Campbell said was an intention to "berate" the driver.
The "heavily intoxicated" offender is said to have been frustrated with delivery drivers not bringing food directly to his door.
Lynch pushed the man with two hands and was pushed back.
In "retaliation", the offender pulled the victim's shirt and jacket over his head and punched him in the head up to nine times and kneed him in the face.
The victim managed to flee and call police before requiring multiple stitches above his eye.
Graphic images of the victim's injury were tendered to the court.
The court heard the driver had been attempting to avoid contact with customers prior to an overseas trip to see his family, whom he had been unable to visit during the COVID pandemic.
Prosecutor Rhiannon McGlinn said the victim was "not the original aggressor" and had "a right to feel safe" while working.
Ms McGlinn said the "unprovoked" attack would have been "clearly frightening" for the driver.
The court also heard Lynch had showed limited insight into his offending and still believed the victim was at fault.
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"That flies in the face of your honour's findings," the prosecutor said.
Legal Aid lawyer Jeremy Banwell said the magistrate's findings had not been that his client intended to assault the victim when he left his home.
"This was a spontaneous course of conduct," the solicitor said.
Mr Banwell said his client had taken a number of steps to address his criminogenic factors, including stopping drinking alcohol altogether.
While Lynch "maintains his versions of events", the lawyer said, "he wished he could have done things different that night".
The magistrate said the court and Lynch would have to "agree to disagree" as she found the victim was not in any way responsible for the violence.
"I hope [Lynch] will come to realise and take account of his offending behaviour rather than try to share the blame in this matter," Ms Campbell said.
"If he addresses his alcohol use, that will also address the risk of the likelihood of him committing further offences."
Lynch had previously spent two days in custody related to the offending in question and was on bail when he committed his most recent crimes.
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Tim Piccione
Tim is a journalist with the Canberra Times covering the ACT courts. He came to the nation's capital via the Daily Advertiser in Wagga. Contact: tim.piccione@canberratimes.com.au.
Tim is a journalist with the Canberra Times covering the ACT courts. He came to the nation's capital via the Daily Advertiser in Wagga. Contact: tim.piccione@canberratimes.com.au.
