Jail For 'vicious' Bashing

Illawarra Mercury

Wednesday September 26, 2007

By VERONICA APAP

A CRIMINAL lawyer was left so scarred by a vicious and unprovoked attack outside a Wollongong pub he has been forced to knock back assault cases.

Mark Eagleston suffered a broken jaw, broken nose, two black eyes, cuts and nerve damage and said he found it difficult to work with defendants accused of perpetrating similar attacks.

"It does make it hard to go and represent someone who has attacked someone without provocation," he said.

"I've had a couple of matters where people have come through the door and I've had to flick it to someone else."

Malcolm Junior Rutera, 21, was sentenced to two years' imprisonment yesterday after pleading guilty to punching Mr Eagleston in November last year.

Mr Eagleston said he thought the punishment was fair.

"Realistically I would've been happy if the non-parole period was longer," he said.

Mr Eagleston was walking along Crown St ahead of his work colleagues after a Christmas party when the attack occurred.

He had been talking on his mobile phone and was looking down when he saw the legs of someone coming towards him.

"I thought they were going to drop a shoulder into me or do something stupid," he said. "I got smacked straight in the nose. I thought: 'God, what's happened?'

"There was all this swearing and carrying on.

"The girls from work were screaming and shouting my name, there was blood (coming) out everywhere."

Mr Eagleston needed surgery at Westmead Hospital to have titanium plates installed in his jaw.

The 24-year-old criminal lawyer said it took four months before he could go out socially again after the attack.

"When I'm out with my mates (now) I put myself in a position where I'm surrounded by my mates," he said.

In sentencing Rutera, Judge Paul Conlon described the attack as vicious and unprovoked on an unsuspecting citizen.

He noted Rutera, of Edyth St, Bellambi, was on a two-year good behaviour bond when he hit Mr Eagleston.

Rutera had been intoxicated at the time of the attack. The court heard he began drinking alcohol at the age of eight and was smoking cannabis when he was 10.

Judge Conlon said Rutera's initiative earlier this year in seeking rehabilitation while on bail for his substance abuse was impressive.

He was sentenced to four years' imprisonment, with a two-year non-parole period. He will be eligible for release in September 2009.

© 2007 Illawarra Mercury

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