A PENSIONER, 70, who produced a 30-centimetre knife at a Corowa caravan park on New Year’s Eve when angered by noise from nearby residents was given a suspended 18-month jail sentence yesterday.
Theodorus Perdon used the knife to slash at another man, narrowly missing his face and neck.
The potentially lethal attack ceased only after Perdon ran out of energy and the victim had grabbed the knife blade in a desperate bid to stop him.
Perdon, of Lilydale, was granted bail on January 2 after appearing in an out-of-sessions court on charges of using an offensive weapon to commit an indictable offence and reckless wounding.
The more serious charge was withdrawn by police yesterday in Albury Local Court and Perdon pleaded guilty to reckless wounding.
Magistrate Megan Greenwood was told the reaction by Perdon was “over the top”, but tendered medical reports say he suffers from depression and anxiety.
“This is a most serious crime indeed. It was unprovoked in my view,” Ms Greenwood said.
“This is an incident where you took the law into your own hands.”
Ms Greenwood said Perdon previously appeared in a Victorian court in 2002 for a matter of violence, but no conviction was recorded.
She said his age and lack of previous offences were taken into account when imposing the suspended sentence.
Perdon was accompanied by his wife of 50 years when they went to complain to several people about noise.
As he walked up to the victim, he pulled up his shirt and produced a knife which was in sheath.
He held the knife in his right hand, took a cap off the victim’s head and slapped both sides of his face.
Perdon lunged in a stabbing motion with the unsheathed knife towards the victim’s throat, missing when the victim leant back.
When the victim retreated and fell over a chair, Perdon continued thrusting at him and during a lunge narrowly missed his face.
The victim had tried to scramble backwards on the ground, kicked a chair towards Perdon as an obstruction and finally had managed to grab hold of Perdon’s wrist.
During this struggle, the victim suffered cut wounds to his hand when holding the knife blade and told Perdon: “Please stop, calm down”.
Perdon backed away when he appeared to have run out of energy and returned to his caravan.
The victim suffered four cuts, two of which needed stitches.