By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
A MAN involved in a series of drunken, violent assaults including a wild brawl outside a Dandenong pub has been jailed for 20 months.
Masi Ayiik, 23, was also charged over punching a bystander who admonished him for urinating in public in Noble Park and for attacking a train passenger who told off the accused’s girlfriend for littering.
During the brawl at the Nu Hotel in the early hours of 9 August 2014, the hotel’s security guard was attacked by Ayiik when the accused and a group of associates were denied entry because they were intoxicated.
An “angry” and “unsteady” Ayiik accused the guard of being racist, and was pushed by the guard in self-defence, the court was told.
In the ensuing fight, belts were swung as well as a glass and some bricks were hurled inaccurately at the guard by other patrons.
When interviewed by police that day, Ayiik said no-one landed a punch but the guard was “lucky none of us got our hands on him”.
“As soon as he came out charging at us, we came charging at him.”
In the early hours of 6 July 2014, a “rowdy” Ayiik and his girlfriend were swearing loudly and drinking alcohol on a train that was departing from Southern Cross station, police told the court.
Ayiik’s girlfriend threw a bottle on a seat. It fell off and rolled through the carriage, leading to a passenger to admonish her for littering.
Ayiik slapped the passenger with the back of his hand, causing the victim’s spectacles to break. In an ensuing struggle, Ayiik ripped the victim’s jacket.
A Good Samaritan, who pulled Ayiik off the victim, was attacked by Ayiik’s girlfriend who put him a headlock and scratched at one of his eyes.
Ayiik later told police he felt bad about the assaults.
On a February afternoon this year, Ayiik punched a bystander in the head after the victim admonished the accused for urinating in public.
The accused also stole the victim’s $200 Ray-Ban sunglasses, which had been knocked from the victim’s head.
At the time, Ayiik was serving a rehabilitative community corrections order which he had substantially failed to comply with.
Ayiik’s defence lawyer said the accused was a Sudanese-born refugee whose family had investigated moving out of Melbourne with the accused to separate him from negative peers.
“Really his offending is motivated by his alcohol abuse, which makes his failure to comply with the corrections order all the more disappointing,” the lawyer said.
“Mr Ayiik is not a man that lacks insight,” the lawyer said.
“He’s aware that alcohol is his issue.”
Magistrate Julie O’Donnell said she took into account Ayiik’s primarily violent criminal history which had attracted prison and community-based orders in the past.
She said the two train victims had suffered “serious emotional impact”.
“They are afraid to use public transport and rightly so (given the assaults).”
She sentenced him to 20-months’ jail – including a 12-month and two three-month concurrent sentences.
His sentence included the 168 days he had spent remanded in custody.
