Law clerk avoids jail over 'coward's punch'

A law clerk who floored his victim with one punch at a Sunshine Coast restaurant bar has avoided jail time and even a conviction after the magistrate ruled his actions were not "gratuitous violence".

Virgil Macquarie Power, 29, will instead face 240 hours of community service after pleading guilty to the attack, which took his 23-year-old victim by surprise and caused $24,000 in damage to the man's face and teeth.

Security footage shows Mr Power land a single swift punch to Michael Halbauer's head at a steak house in Noosa Heads, Queensland, last September.

Mr Halbauer had been celebrating his birthday and was walking inside from the outside balcony to buy a drink when he was unexpectedly splashed with a drink, the footage shows.

As he turns around, with his wallet in both hands, Mr Power steps forward and lands his punch, causing Mr Halbauer to collapse to the floor face first.

Mr Halbauer had rhinoplasty surgery as a result of his injuries.

Police said the attack was "out of the blue".

But the Maroochydore Magistrates Court accepted the defence's submission that Mr Power had been intimidated by Mr Halbauer earlier in the night.

Magistrate Bernadette Callaghan said he accepted Mr Power had punched the victim because he was "in fear of the complainant" and because his own experiences as an assault victim made him nervous.

"Because of this, I do find that this assault could not be defined as gratuitous violence," she said in her March 10 ruling, reported today in the Courier-Mail.

In sentencing, Ms Callaghan took into consideration the career ambitions of Mr Power, a law graduate with a long family history in the legal profession, as well as 20 character references, including from lawyers whom Ms Callaghan acknowledged had appeared before her in court.

The magistrate also lashed out at public campaigns against so-called coward punches, saying they were being run by editors of newspapers.

Source: Courier-Mail

Author: Erin Tennant, Approving editor: Natasha Lee