Under the influence of drugs and in a drug-induced psychotic and delusional state, Cameron Reginald Welsh beat another man so savagely he left him with a permanent, severe traumatic brain injury.
The two men had met before. Welsh was homeless at the time and his victim, 26, had fed Welsh and taken him back to his place when the night turned ugly.
The next day, Welsh struck again. This time he was with someone he grew up with, but he ended up taking to that man with a baseball bat leaving him with broken bones.
Later the same night, June 4, 2021, Welsh attacked a third victim, leaving him beaten senseless by the side of the road after belting him with a baseball bat. He spent five days in hospital.
Welsh, who was 22 years old at the time, has spent the past two years behind bars. He has pleaded guilty to three counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent in relation to the three separate assaults which took place at Woodberry, Beresfield and Lambton.
At a sentence hearing in the District Court today, Judge Kate Traill was told that Welsh started smoking cannabis at the age of 12, and had been using ice since he was 15 at which time he spent some time in juvenile detention where he was seriously assaulted.
He had lived an "unstable life" life since then and struggled with his use of drugs. In two of the incidents Welsh had mistakenly believed that the men he was with had assaulted his sister.
In the other incident he was saying over and over again "you f--ked my ex, you f--ked my ex" when in fact they had been talking about the victim's ex-girlfriend.
In each instance Welsh's behaviour was extremely erratic, and the offences were very serious, Judge Traill said.
The first assault happened about half an hour after the two men arrived at the victim's place for "a cone or two". Welsh announced "I'm going to bash the f--k out of you now" which at first the victim thought was a joke.
Welsh started crying saying "you raped my sister" to the victim, who said he'd never met her. Eventually the victim escaped the shed they were sitting in and made his way to a service station where he banged on the door asking for help .
"It's alright, he's just my little brother" Welsh said to the staff member on duty. CCTV footage from about 4.20am on June 3 shows Welsh chasing after his mate, pinning him down, and stomping on his head.
During the second incident, which took place outside the victim's Woodberry home, Welsh was rambling, laughing at times and then becoming serious, while he bashed his childhood friend with a baseball bat and burned him under the eye with a cigarette.
The victim of the third assault was found leaning on a rail near the footbridge over Beresfield Railway Station, stumbling and incoherent until he collapsed.
Welsh was arrested at his mother's house the following day where police found a blood stained T-shirt, and the baseball bat was found in a paddock east of the railway station a few days later.
In court it was determined that residential rehabilitation would allow Welsh to properly address his drug issues. He was given a three-week adjournment during which time he was to be assessed for suitability at a rehabilitation facility.
Judge Traill said that if he served the full year at rehab he would be brought back before the court to determine his overall sentence.
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