A MOTORIST who badly bashed another driver after being confronted for flicking cigarette ash out his car window has been fined $5000 but has escaped a jail term.
Pitar Rumlaklak, 25, of Melton West, will spend the next 15 months on a community corrections order after pleading guilty to attacking television producer Wayne Dyer in Ravenhall in March.
Rumlaklak pleaded guilty to recklessly causing seriously injury for punching Mr Dyer to the head about 15 times, causing facial fractures and bruising. Mr Dyer spent a night in hospital.
Melbourne Magistrates’ Court previously heard Mr Dyer, a former Channel Nine reporter, saw Rumlaklak flick ash out his window on a day of total fire ban and approached him when both cars were stopped at a red light on the Western Highway.
Prosecutor Ted Combes told the court on Wednesday that Rumlaklak’s response in repeatedly punching the victim was “violent in the extreme”.
Magistrate Charlie Rozencwajg said Mr Dyer’s victim impact statement made it clear of the physical and psychological suffering he had endured, and that he did not deserve to live in fear for behaving like a law-abiding citizen.
Mr Rozencwajg accepted Rumlaklak did not set out to inflict violence, but his actions had gone well past the point of fearing for his own safety.
“We are all confronted with various situations … but we don’t go out and behave in the way you did,” he said.
Mr Rozencwajg accepted Rumlaklak was remorseful but urged him to undergo counselling for his own sake and for the safety of the public.
