A TEENAGER who consumed 36 standard drinks during a night out and then became involved in a wild brawl, during which he twice stabbed a man who was trying to intervene, has been jailed for a maximum of three years and six months in Newcastle District Court.
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Coora-Jye Wieczorek, 19, had pleaded guilty to wounding person with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and common assault over the brawl that spilled from Hunter Street into Bellevue Street about 3.10am on May 22 last year.
Before the stabbing, Wieczorek had been the instigator of an ugly street brawl and traded punches with a shirtless young man as bystanders urged them on.
But then, as the crowd started to turn against his mate, Kye Martin, 20, approached Wieczorek and subtly handed him something.
Martin, who has pleaded guilty to his role in the stabbing, then promptly turned and swiftly walked towards Hunter Street.
As Martin was walking away, Wieczorek swung twice more at a 29-year-old man, this time stabbing him in the chest.
The second blow left the blade lodged in the 29-year-old's side, breaking his rib, and Wieczorek fled down Bellevue Street as a mob gave chase.
The group caught Wieczorek in Hunter Street and a number of people punched, stomped and kicked him in the head when he was on the ground.
Meanwhile, the victim was discovering something was wrong.
"I've just been stabbed," the victim said, pulling the knife out of his side and dropping it on the ground.
The entire brawl and stabbing was captured not only on a number of CCTV cameras attached to businesses in Bellevue Street but by bystanders on unit balconies who had been woken at 3am by a crowd of aggressive and intoxicated young men.
Judge Peter McGrath, SC, said on Monday it was clear from the footage that Wieczorek was "coming off second best" in the fight with the larger, shirtless man but he was not satisfied that Wieczorek knew Martin had the knife before it was handed to him.
"What the footage does satisfy me with is that having been handed the knife by Mr Martin, the accused smoothly and without surprise took it and proceeded to hold it so that it was hidden in his right palm," Judge McGrath said. "He held his hand behind his back and turned in the direction of the man he had been fighting with. "What happened then was [the victim] intervened."
The victim had said in a victim impact statement that he got involved to try to defuse the situation, but he was promptly stabbed twice, the second blow leaving the blade stuck in his side.
The victim said he initially thought he had been punched and when he realised what had happened, he panicked and thought he was going to die.
"I was told several times by the doctors that I was extremely lucky that the knife pierced my lung without puncturing it," the victim said in the statement.
Judge McGrath said Wieczorek had been abstaining from drugs and undertaking programs in jail and sentenced him to a maximum of three years and six months, with a non-parole period of one year and eight months.
With time served since his arrest after the stabbing, Wieczorek will be eligible for parole in January, 2024.
He will be sentenced in June.
