A MAN who flagrantly ignored health orders by refusing to wear a mask, and then attacked pharmacy staff and customers at a Newcastle COVID clinic will spend another five and a half months behind bars.
Craig Thompson Stewart, 54, has been in custody for six weeks, since August 25 when he was arrested - five days after he attacked staff at a chemist in Jesmond where he went for a COVID jab.
He appeared via AVL in Newcastle Local Court on Thursday where Magistrate Ron Maiden said the matters were serious and he had to consider the need to protect the community.
Taking into account the fact Thompson was in breach of an intensive corrections order at the time, Mr Maiden sentenced him to an aggregate sentence of 15 months in jail, with a non-parole period of 8 months.
Specifically, he was sentenced to 18 months in relation to the affray charge which covered the pharmacy assault, reduced to 13 months due to his plea of guilty and mitigating factors, and one month in relation to his failure, in those circumstances, to wear a mask.
"I don't think I could even attempt to deal with what happened that day any better than what was seen on the video and of all the circumstances," Mr Maiden said.
CCTV footage of the incident played in court shows him swearing at staff and customers in the store after being asked for his contact details in relation to a scheduled COVID-19 vaccination.
When he was asked to leave, he got up in the faces of people near him before he started to swing a bag full of empty bottles, then pushed a worker in the chest and kicked out at people.
He repeatedly kicked staff and other customers. When he cut himself on one of the bottles he blamed staff, yelling "you cut me, you cut me".
Droplets of his blood also landed on one of the workers who was also cut during the struggle. That young worker was now having to wait up to six months for hepatitis and HIV test results, the court heard.
Thompson continued to kick and swing at staff until they were able to close and lock the door on him.
His solicitor, Nicole Orr said Thompson was embarrassed by the incident.
"It's an ugly scene and would have been highly confronting for the people confronted," she said. "He is extremely remorseful and very embarrassed."
He was intoxicated at the time, and had been abusing alcohol since deciding to stop taking medication for bipolar disorder in 2017, she said.
"He can't explain why he behaved in that way at that time ... in such an impulsive and aggressive and violent matter," she said.
Before he stopped taking medication for his mental health diagnosis he had his own gardening business for 20 years and could now seen a decline in his behaviour since he stopped his medication.
Since that time he had assaulted a woman in a road rage incident, in which her three children were in the car, the court heard. Before 2017 he had not committed any offences, Ms Orr said.
"He has seen the CCTV footage a couple of times now ... it was just a horrible incident, and he has insight into how that would have affected people at the pharmacy," she said.
Police prosecutor Ashley Cooper said Thompson was on a community service order at the time relating to other offences.
"Your Honour has seen the video - horrific is a probably an apt description," he said.
"These are people just going about their daily business trying to protect the community from this insidious disease that is going around at the moment."
Thompson pleaded guilty in Newcastle Local Court on August 25 to affray and failing to comply with a directive to wear a face mask over the abusive encounter.
