FIRST he urinated on a security guard's leg outside a Merewether pub and then he went over the road to a park and launched an unprovoked and brutal attack on a group of men waiting for a lift home, leaving one man battered and bruised with a badly broken jaw.
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Corey Nathan Flint, now 25, was last week jailed for a maximum of 10 months, with a non-parole period of six months in Newcastle Local Court after he pleaded guilty to reckless grievous bodily harm, affray and common assault.
But a short time after he was taken down to the courthouse cells, his barrister, Stephen Ryan, lodged an appeal against the severity of the sentence and Flint was granted bail pending an appeal in Newcastle District Court in December.
The attack was cowardly and unprovoked and Flint and his mate, Logan Edwards, were spoiling for a fight, taking off their shirts and "setting upon" a group of men whose only crime was telling them to "settle down".
And now the man who copped the worst of the attack, Chris Jones, has spoken about the physical and emotional scars that come with being the victim of a brutal assault.
Mr Jones suffered serious facial injuries, including a badly broken jaw and temporary difficulties with his sight, and had to undergo emergency surgery and have a steel plate inserted into his face.
He spent four days in hospital and still suffers pain and clicking in his jaw despite the corrective surgery.
"My son had to see me in hospital with blackened eyes and tubes hanging out of me," Mr Jones said. "I didn't want my family to see me like that."
Mr Jones and his colleagues had been at a work function on February 2 last year and were waiting for a ride home outside The Beach Hotel at Merewether around midnight when they came into the path of Flint and Edwards.
Flint had punched another man in the head when Mr Jones tried to intervene and was repeatedly punched to the ground. Flint and Edwards initially pleaded not guilty and were expected to face a hearing in Newcastle Local Court in August but pleaded guilty.
Edwards admitted to common assault and affray after a more serious charge of reckless grievous bodily harm in company was withdrawn and was sentenced to a three-year community corrections order and 250 hours of community service.
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