A man has avoided jail after he broke into a North Wagga home and assaulted a 72-year-old cancer patient.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Colby James Flack, 25, pleaded guilty to breaking into the elderly couple’s Hurst Street home and another count of assault after the November 24, 2017 incident.
At his sentencing hearing in October, the court heard Flack had been drinking at the Black Swan and the Palm and Pawn when he walked to their Hurst Street home with a beer in hand.
The victims were inside watching television when Flack opened the door, entered, and said “Where is your son? I want to kill him”.
He then pushed the woman and grabbed the man, causing him to fall to the floor and injure his knee.
The elderly man said “How dare you have a go at a 72-year-old man with cancer”, got up, and whacked him with his walking stick over the head, neck, and legs until he left.
Judge Gordon Lerve adjourned the proceedings so a sentencing assessment report could be made on Flack, noting if he did escape full-time custody, it would be by the “barest of margins”.
“Citizens have every right to feel safe in their homes, and citizens have every right to go about their lawful business without fear of people like this offender illegally intruding,” he added.
Flack apologised to the elderly couple in court and said he was now drug and alcohol-free and had managed to stay sober since the incident.
“I’m just really sorry, I had no right to be inside the house and scare them like that, it shouldn’t have happened at all,” he said.
“[I’ve learned] that you don’t have the right to go into anyone else’s house without permission.”
On Tuesday, Flack returned to court and was sentenced to two years’ jail to be served in the community by way of an intensive correction order.
He was also ordered to complete 500 hours’ community service work, to remain abstinent from any and all alcohol, and to obey the terms of an apprehended violence order taken out against him by the elderly couple and their son.
MORE NEWS FROM THE COURTS: