No record for daylight assault

A 19-year-old Mt Barker man has been spared a criminal record for an assault outside Albany’s KFC outlet.

Representing himself, Blair David Langmead told Albany Magistrate’s Court last Thursday that tensions with his male victim had been building for “years and years” and that he had warned the male he would “find him”.

“I told him I’d find him, and I found him,” Langmead said.

Police prosecutor Sgt Alan Dean told the court Langmead had approached his victim’s parked vehicle just after 3pm on October 6.

Langmead opened the driver’s side door of the vehicle, where his victim was sitting, then punched him in the face.

The punch left him with a swollen top lip and evidence of bleeding inside his nose, according to Sgt Dean.

Langmead admitted he had approached his victim’s vehicle before asking him to step out of the car to “sort out” their long-running feud.

While speaking to each other at the driver’s side door, Langmead alleged his victim spat in his face.

“Once he spat in my face it was different,” Langmead told the court.

Sgt Dean said the assault did not appear to be a “random act” but did not indicate whether Langmead had been provoked.

When asked by Magistrate Raelene Johnston why he had committed the assault, Langmead told the court: “He had been a smart a... to me”.

“There was no reason for you to go up to him,” Ms Johnston said.

“There’s no justifying you assaulting him in the way you did.”

Ms Johnston told the court it was concerning Langmead had committed the assault in public.

“Violence is unsettling for the public to see,” she said.

The 19-year-old was granted a spent conviction and issued a six-month community based order.