Conditional bail has been set at just $10,000 each for two Tweed Heads men accused of assaulting another man in a grisly two-hour attack on Sunday that included his being tied to a chair and hit in the face with a hammer.
Magistrate Michael Dakin of Tweed Heads Local Court allowed the bail on the grounds that 56-year-old Simon Robert Payne and 38-year-old Ricky Jason Bridger had no previous convictions for violence. It must be posted by ‘an acceptable person’ and the two must report to police every day, continue to reside at their current addresses and not speak to the victim or each other.
The court heard that Jason Seabrook, 26, went to Payne’s Altair Street unit at about 6pm on Sunday to pick up his girlfriend’s keys and phone.
An argument broke out between Seabrook and Payne, with Payne supported by his neighbour Bridger.
When a third man arrived at the unit, the three allegedly tied Seabrook to a chair and began assaulting him. The identity of the third man has yet to be discovered.
The court heard Payne then attacked Seabrook with a hammer, hitting him over the head and face and causing so much bleeding that he had to be taken to the bathroom several times.
Seabrook escaped during one of the bathroom trips and ran to the nearby bowling club, where Bridger attempted to follow him.
Payne and Bridger will face court again in June.
Magistrate Michael Dakin is a moron, and exactly the problem with the joke we call a ‘Justice System’ in this country. Gave them bail just because they hadnt been done for a violent crime before?? What, just because they have evaded capture until now? So are we to believe that this 56 year old and his thug neighbor just decided to pick up a hammer and assault an innocent person for two hours for the first time in their life? Grow a brain judge, whether or not he’d done it before is irrelevant….HE BASHED SOMEONE WITH A HAMMER.
Do your job, make the police efforts justified, and do what the public is paying you for. Your desision for bail is an insult not only to the victim, but to the Police that work so hard to get them before you, and the general public, who incidentally are sick of limp wristed judges like yourself.
DITTO!!!