By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
A MAN faces eight months’ jail after pleading guilty to “bottling” a person in the head as well as to several liquor store robberies.
Deng Abraham Amol, 24, had been drinking beer at Pop-Up Park in Dandenong when he argued with another male just before midnight on 6 April, a court was told.
After the argument broke up, Amol smashed the end of a beer bottle, hid it in his jacket and confronted the victim again.
After further words, Amol stabbed the victim’s forehead with the broken bottle.
The victim lost a large amount of blood and had his wound glued at Dandenong Hospital, police prosecutor Senior Constable Tanique McFarlane told Dandenong Magistrates’ Court.
Amol, who was on bail at the time, told police he had retaliated after the victim “kept on coming up and bothering me” and “calling me names”.
He claimed the victim had punched him twice just before the stabbing.
Amol also faced charges for smashing a public-transport bus’s glass door in April 2013 after being refused entry on the departing vehicle.
Police, who arrested Amol and a co-accused, observed he was drunk at the time.
Amol told police at the time he was sorry and didn’t mean to break the glass.
Sen Const McFarlane applied to the court for Amol to pay the bus company $512 compensation for the broken door.
In January 2014, Amol and a co-accused stole bottles of Scotch and rum worth $192 and abused a Chelsea liquor store staff member after being unable to produce proof-of-age identification.
“Serve me alcohol or I’ll take it by force,” he allegedly told the staff member.
He soon returned with a group of friends telling the staff member that “if you keep being a c… I’ll beat the f… out of you”.
The group took five Johnny Walker Red Scotch whisky bottles as well as Black Douglas Scotch whisky, and tequila, totalling $369.
“I wouldn’t call it a robbery,” Amol allegedly told police.
“We stole some liquor, that’s all.”
Later that month, he allegedly stole two bottles of whisky from a Noble Park liquor outlet. Five days later, he returned to the store to pay for the items.
He told police he wouldn’t have stolen unless he was drunk.
When he appeared at court on Monday, Amol had been in custody for the past 14 days due to breaching CREDIT bail.
During that time, he was further charged for punching and wrestling with a detainee in Dandenong Police Station cells.
His defence lawyer said Amol had a long-standing issue with alcohol, drinking two litres of cask wine a day as well as “any strong spirits he could find”.
Amol, a Sudanese refugee with learning difficulties, recently completed a seven-day detox program and was prescribed with naltrexone and Valium.
Magistrate Pauline Spencer indicated Amol was facing eight months’ jail followed by a community corrections order given the intentional, pre-meditated nature of the glassing.
On the other hand, she took into account Amol’s youth and lack of prior offending.
“If you choose to be drinking that much and you use a weapon like a glass bottle, it’s only a matter of how long.”
Amol will be formally sentenced at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on 30 September.
