A teenager who filmed a brutal brawl at a Lake Macquarie boat ramp before stepping in and beating the defenceless man as he crouched down and screamed “I’m sorry” and “leave me alone” has narrowly avoided a jail sentence in Newcastle District Court.
Jake Kevin Potter, now 19, did not know the victim or almost all of the other people involved in the argument, but accompanied him and a friend to the Eleebana boat ramp on the evening of April 19 last year, where the victim was hosting a barbecue.
The Instagram video shared online begins with a gruff voice screaming, “Why the hell are you talking shit?” before the victim runs off and repeatedly screams, “Leave me alone.”
“You’re dead,” screams Potter’s friend and co-attacker, a 20-year-old man.
The two attackers catch up with the victim and the 20-year-old repeatedly hits him in the face and head before ramming his knee into his face.
Meanwhile, the victim crouches, tries to cover himself and screams: “I’m sorry.”
At this point, the 20-year-old stops hitting the victim and takes the cell phone from Potter.
“At this point, now free from his work as a cameraman, Mr. Potter began striking the victim on the back of the head,” Judge Troy Anderson said Friday.
Potter lands about five or six punches before the victim passes out and Potter then throws him to the ground.
“When I threw him bloody on the floor he cried like a little beast,” Potter later boasted to a friend. “There was bloody everywhere.”
The victim managed to get to a friend’s car, but then Potter approached, opened the door and said, “Empty your pockets.”
The victim refused, but Potter punched him in the face and took off his shoes before searching his pockets and stealing his wallet.
The bloodied victim was taken to Belmont Hospital where he was treated for facial fractures.
Meanwhile, Potter and his mate high-fived at the picnic spot at Lake Macquarie and said: “He got what he deserved, I’m so happy right now.”
The court heard that the brutal beating was due to Potter’s partner being unhappy with the victim being in a relationship with a 16-year-old girl, the ex-partner of one of his friends.
Potter pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and assault in March and spent 66 days behind bars.
But on Friday, Judge Anderson found there was a causal link between the decision to take part in the attack and Potter’s severe childhood deprivation. He ordered that he could be appropriately punished by remanding him in custody for 20 months with 180 hours’ community service.
Potter’s pal, the 20-year-old man, pleaded not guilty to the brawl and robbery and will stand trial at Newcastle District Court later this year.
