Bashing mars Easter break

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Bashing mars Easter break

COUNSELLING for McDonald’s staff is expected to be offered in the wake of a vicious assault inside the Leongatha family restaurant early on Easter Sunday morning.

The violent assault of a young Inverloch man at 2.10am on the Sunday in the toilets of McDonald’s has shocked the town.

A teenager from Outtrim was arrested and questioned over the assault. The 19 year old male handed himself in to police on Monday morning, April 17 and he is co-operating with police. He has been released and is expected to be charged on summons with assault related matters.

A second person was interviewed in relation to the assault but it is expected he won’t be charged.

Police said the victim and the alleged offender were known to each other.

The victim, 18, remains in hospital after being assaulted and left unconscious. He has since regained consciousness and is able to speak. Parents are by the man’s side as he undergoes treatment for facial injuries.

“An 18-year-old man went to the toilet at the South Gippsland Highway restaurant about 2.10am,” Victoria Police spokeswoman Kendra Jackson said.

“The man’s friend found him unconscious in the toilets”.

The injured man was flown to the Royal Melbourne Hospital in a critical condition with facial and head injuries.

People registered their outrage at the incident on Facebook; many blaming alcohol and drugs or both as heavily contributing to violence of this nature.

Acting Senior Sergeant Jason Hullick said all involved had been drinking alcohol at a Leongatha hotel but stopped short of saying alcohol contributed to the violence.

“We have incidents of violence where alcohol is a factor and other times when it isn’t so we can’t always conclude alcohol caused the violence,” Sen/Sergeant Hullick said.

“Fortunately police were able to view the CCT footage provided and this helped in identifying people.

“Police have spoken to several staff members at McDonald’s and as part of any critical incident suggested counselling and this will be taken up by management at the restaurant.

Senior Sergeant Hullick said divisional vans regularly patrol the town and this includes the McDonald’s restaurant which is a 24 hour facility.

He said incidents of this kind relating to the area outside McDonald’s, Leongatha was not a regular occurrence.

“As part of any operational response we will look at whether extra patrolling of this area is necessary but divisional vans do visit these areas on a regular basis.

“We will place any additional resources where and when it is needed, Senior Sergeant Hullick said.

He said both the victim and the offender are very lucky.

“The victim could have suffered a lot worse injuries than he has and the offender could have been facing much more serious charges.”

He urged everyone in these situations to step back and think of the consequences before entering into violent behaviour.

“It is a very serious matter when someone uses violence on another; it is totally inappropriate and unacceptable.”

Bass Coast Crime Investigation Unit detectives are continuing investigations and ask any more witnesses to the incident to come forward. Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

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Posted by on Apr 19 2017. Filed under Featured, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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