A MAN pleaded guilty to assault after he hit his brother with a baseball bat for stealing his partner and preventing access to his children, it was heard in Mandurah Magistrates Court on Tuesday.
The police prosecutors told the court the man, whose name will not be revealed to protect the victim, was driving in Madora Bay on November 8 last year.
The accused saw his ex-partner in his brother’s car with his two sons and began following them.
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READ NOWWhen the couple parked at the nearby Coles, the accused took a metal baseball bat out of his car and went and spoke to his ex.
The victim was leaving the Coles when the accused approached him with the baseball bat and hit him to the back of the knee with it.
The victim attended Peel Health Campus where no significant injury was detected.
Counsel for the accused told the court the man was recovering in hospital from an accident, which nearly killed him, when his partner left him for his brother.
The accused claims they were preventing him from seeing his sons.
Magistrate Anne Longden described the situation as “unusual, unbearable and difficult”.
But she reminded the man that there are other ways to manage frustration.
She sentenced him to a nine month community based order with program requirements.
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