A STALLION handler from a prestigious Upper Hunter horse stud was glassed in the face, headbutted and punched by a stablehand from another stud after the stablehand accused him of "hitting" on his girlfriend and jokingly saying "My horse is better".
French National Corentin Emile Franck Huens, 28, now living in Bondi, was working for Scone horse stud Arrowfield in 2020, while the victim, 29, was working at Newgate stud at Aberdeen.
The victim was drinking and socialising with friends and colleagues from the stud at the Willow Tree Hotel at Scone on the night of September 5, 2020, when he was confronted in the men's toilet by Huens, punched in the head and struck with a schooner glass.
Dazed and with blood running down his face, the victim was unable to see who attacked him. But before leaving, the man told him: "You will remember me. I am from Arrowfield".
The victim was taken to Scone Hospital and suffered cuts and lacerations to his head that required stitches, broken teeth and a fractured nose. There was no CCTV footage of the attack and the victim told police he did not know who assaulted him.
It wasn't until January this year when police went to Arrowfield horse stud at Scone that they were told it was Huens who had glassed the victim.
Police spoke to a staff member who was at the hotel on the night of the attack and spoke to Huens in the weeks after.
"You know that night at the Willow, it was me that glassed that man from Newgate," the staff member recalled Huens saying. When the staff member asked why, Huens replied: "Well he was hitting on [my girlfriend] and was being lippy and mouthy and I asked him to stop but he wouldn't and I lost my temper. "What was I supposed to do I was drunk and I got angry."
Police went to the hotel and used the COVID sign-in details and QR code records to confirm the two men were at the hotel at the same time.
They then travelled to Sydney and spoke to Huens, who admitted there had been an altercation between the pair in the hotel's toilet.
He claimed the victim had said something to him jokingly along the lines of "Yeah, my horse is better".
Huens appeared in Newcastle Local Court on Wednesday where he pleaded guilty to a charge of reckless wounding after a more serious charge of wound person with intent to cause grievous bodily harm was withdrawn. He will be sentenced in January.
