$10,000 payment for restaurant ‘sucker punch’
A Christchurch man has paid $10,000 for the “sucker punch” that felled a restaurant patron who had slapped him in an argument over a pre-booked table.
George Francis Diver, 21, had pleaded guilty to the charge of Crimes Act assault in the Christchurch District Court after it was reduced from a charge of intentionally injuring the victim, just before his scheduled trial.
Judge David Saunders today refused the application by defence counsel Jonathan Eaton QC for Diver to be discharged without conviction.
The judge said he hoped that Diver accepted the message that this type of behaviour should not happen around city restaurants where disputes needed to be peacefully resolved, rather than through the use of force.
Crown prosecutor Karyn South described the blow as a “sucker punch” delivered after Diver had looked away.
The court was told that the incident took place on March 7, 2014, when the victim, Joshua Brown had booked a table at Mexicanos in Victoria Street to celebrate his 40th birthday with family and friends.
When Diver arrived with others to have a meal after a funeral there was a dispute about the seating.
Bar staff intervened. Mr Brown told the court he did not accept that his friends and family could be made to feel “intimidated and uncomfortable” by Diver and his friends.
The video shows Mr Brown slapping Diver in his face. There is then a pause while Diver puts down the glass he was holding before the single punch that fells Mr Brown and puts him in hospital with facial injuries.
Mr Brown said in court he was “disgusted at the utterly cowardly” blow he was not expecting.
However, Mr Eaton asked in court: “What did he expect would happen in the context of a busy bar where people are drinking, when he slaps a man without any warning, in the face? I would have thought that most people would say that is likely to spark a violent response. That is not to say the response was right.”
Diver told police after the incident that he had acted in self-defence, but he later accepted that his response was disproportionate.
The victim was treated for a broken eye socket that needed titanium plates put in, nerve damage, permanent loss of feeling in his three front teeth, permanent misalignment of his nose which was broken, and restriction of his airways.
The punch brought an early end to his birthday celebrations while family and friends saw him covered in blood and taken to hospital.
Mr Eaton said the $10,000 payment for emotional harm had been suggested by the Crown and accepted by the defence.
Judge Saunders noted that Diver had no other convictions. He convicted him and ordered him to pay the $10,000 for emotional harm, but imposed no other penalty.
Category: News
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