A man who was attacked with a meat cleaver in an inner-city hotel last Tuesday knew his assailant.
Barrister Paul Castley, 43, was attacked with the implement while having a drink at the Old Fitzroy Hotel in Woolloomooloo before retaliating by striking his attacker with a schooner glass.
Mr Castley confirmed to City News he knew his assailant well and had tried to reach out to him.
“I spent two days in court with him pro-bono, I was supposed to be doing his next charges free in December,” he said.
“He’s a junkie … and he’s ripped three people off. Every time someone is down and out he says ‘come and stay at my place’, and then their stuff goes missing … it’s happened twice, this was the third time and I said make it right … and that prompted him to go home and get a meat cleaver.”
Mr Castley said he couldn’t remember the incident which left him with a fractured skull but said he was lucky to be alive.
His attacker was charged with committing grievous bodily harm with intent and reckless wounding and will appear at the Downing Centre Local Court on 7 January 2010.
Old Fitzroy owner Garry Pasfield said he was dismayed that the incident had taken place in his hotel.
“The two gentlemen brought their problem on to the premises and tried to resolve a problem that had nothing to do with the hotel,” he said.
“I’m extremely disappointed that they chose our venue to resolve their issue … it wasn’t appropriate, and it will never be appropriate to bring personal problems onto a licensed premises.”
Mr Pasfield added that the hotel had an extremely good record.
“We haven’t had a fight in the pub for seven years … I’ve been in the pub industry for a long time, I left a pub to come here that used to have five fights a week,” he said.
“People come here for specific things … it’s the friendliness and the atmosphere that people come here for … I would be very, very surprised if you could find a person that drinks here, that doesn’t come for the service and the friendly nature of the hotel.”
by Gareth Narunsky
