Remote-control car ‘provoked assault’: Neighbour bashed

By Michelle Herbison
A REMOTE control car’s sound “like a jet engine” drove a sleeping shift worker to punch his neighbour in the head, a Geelong court heard this week.
John Weber, 44, of Tallinn St, Bell Park, pleaded guilty in Geelong Magistrates Court to recklessly causing injury.
Police Prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Kerrie Moroney told the court Weber confronted his neighbour after the noise disrupted his sleep about 11am on May 6.
The victim swore at Weber, saying it was “after 10”, the court heard.
Weber responded by punching the victim in the side of the head with a closed fist, causing him to fall to the ground and apparently become unconscious.
“He felt a hard impact on the right side of his face and said ‘I don’t remember even being knocked to the ground’,” Snr Const Moroney said.
Weber “made full admissions for the assault” to police.
“I’d had enough. I shouldn’t have hit him”, he told police.
Weber’s defence said the remote-control car was “two-thirds of a metre” long and petrol-driven.
“(Weber) had said to the neighbour ‘There are other places you can use this’ but he persisted in driving it up and down the road in front of my clients and other neighbours’ houses.”
The defence provided Magistrate Stephen Myall with a complementary letter from Weber’s Brooklyn employer and two from other neighbours for “an understanding of what these people put up with”.
This was a “one-off…extraordinary situation” and Weber’s first time in court, his defence said.
Mr Myall convicted and fined Weber $1000.