Magistrate David David compared a "cowardly, unprovoked" assault in Mudgee to those in Sydney that garner significant coverage, when sentencing an 18-year-old woman for the incident.
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Kylie Campbell of Thomas Clarke Place, Mudgee, was placed on a 12-month Community Correction Order, in Mudgee Local Court on Wednesday.
Having left a pub shortly after 2.30am on Sunday, July 7, 2019, she was walking south along Church Street, with the victim and her friends further along. Near the intersection with Mortimer Street, the victim fell as she attempted to climb out of a shopping trolley that she was being pushed in.
Campbell has then rushed up behind her and punched her several times in the back of the head. Others intervened and she left the scene in a vehicle being driven by a family member.
Police - who were patrolling the area - stopped and noted that the victim was unresponsive when they rendered assistance, before she was taken to Mudgee District Hospital.
Upon reading the police facts, submitted to the court for sentence, Magistrate Day pointed to the ominous wording in the description of the victim's condition in order to highlight the seriousness of the incident. "The term 'unresponsive' is commonly used by police in coroner's reports, in other words, for people who are dead," he said.
His Honour also deplored Campbell's actions as "cowardly" and said that she "took advantage of the victim's situation" in attacking her when the opportunity arose. And drew comparisons with the kind of violence infamous in areas of central Sydney.
"If you substitute 'Church Street' for 'Macleay Street, Potts Point' I can see screaming headlines of 'cowardly, unprovoked attack, victim unresponsive'," he said.