Michael Jordan Addams, 22, pleaded guilty in Shepparton Magistrates’ Court to two counts of reckless conduct endangering life, four counts of reckless conduct endangering serious injury and three counts of intentionally causing injury.
He also pleaded guilty to stalking, criminal damage and contravening a condition of bail.
The court heard Addams and six co-accused dragged a Numurkah man out of his house and onto the road before taking it in turns punching and kicking him while he was on the ground at 10.20pm on May 12.
As a result of the assault, the man had to have stitches to a cut on his leg that was about 15cm to 20cm long.
A week later three men, including Addams, again dragged the same man out of his house and onto his driveway where they repeatedly kicked him while he cowered on the ground with both hands over his head to try and protect himself in an attack that lasted about five minutes.
While police were with him after the attack, the man received a phone call where a male voice said “how’d you like your beating”.
Five further phone calls were made to the victim on May 26 and 27, including one by Addams that was not answered.
The others were by the co-accused.
The court also heard about a separate incident, at a Shepparton nightclub at 1.25am on June 25, where Addams threw a glass at another man, before punching him in the face at least five times.
The victim, who had been sitting on a couch waiting for his parents to pick him up, believes he lost consciousness during the attack.
In another separate set of events, Addams and three friends threw rocks at six cars in the Cobram, Koonoomoo, Cobram East and Burramine.
Addams was driving the car on each of the occasions, and on some, the rocks were thrown at cars while they were driving past them.
Another rock was thrown at a house near Lake Mulwala.
Before he was sentenced, a victim impact statement from the man injured at the nightclub was read to the court.
In it, the victim spoke of having autism and this was the first time he had been to a nightclub with his friends.
He also told how he was now scared to go to venues where people were drinking alcohol because he was “scared of attacks by strangers”.
He spoke of how his “social skills became worse because he was in constant fear of strangers”.
Addams’ solicitor Emma King said her client said his use of synthetic cannabis was a contributing factor to his offending.
“He said it made him have an entirely blank mind,” Ms King said.
“At the time he could not comprehend the consequences.”
Ms King also told the court her client had no prior convictions and had been assaulted in prison while on remand.
Magistrate Victoria Campbell sentenced Addams to nine months in prison – with the 142 days he has served in pre-sentence detention reckoned as having already been served.
She also order he complete a two-year community corrections order, including 100 hours of community work.
Up to 80 hours of this can be spent doing programs to reduce reoffending, as well as programs for alcohol and drug abuse.
Ms Campbell described the attacks on the Numurkah man at his home as “unprovoked and vigilante attacks”.
She also said the rock-throwing incidents were “terrorising innocent road users” and “putting them in danger”.
Ms Campbell said the attack in the nightclub had also had a “devastating effect” on the victim.
