A DISPUTE over a failed business venture led to a confrontation between a youth wielding a screwdriver and another man with an iron bar, a court heard yesterday.
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They shaped up with their weapons while their partners and young children were nearby.
The man lowered the bar and the youth threw the screwdriver at him, missing the man but making a dent in the passenger side of his car.
Magistrate Tony Murray said in Albury Children Court yesterday: “It takes two to tango, so to speak”.
He sentenced the youth on an affray charge after he pleaded guilty.
The youth, who turned 18 yesterday, was convicted, put on 12 months probation and fined $400.
Solicitor Allison Bruce said the youth was a roof tiler, lived with his de facto partner and they had an eight-month old child.
The antagonists had known each other for two years with the man in a relationship with the youth’s sister.
The man was driven by his partner to the youth’s residence in East Albury on January 7 to talk about a business which had failed.
It was a point of contention between them; they began arguing and then started to fight with each throwing a number of punches.
The youth fell to the ground, got to his feet and went inside his home before coming back with a screwdriver about 30 centimetres long.
The man went back to his car parked in the driveway and got a steel bar with a socket head which was also about 30 centimetres long.
He raised it above his head, but dropped the bar after a short conversation.
The youth threw the screwdriver with considerable force at the man, causing a dent in his passenger side car door.
The youth then retreated inside, closed the door and refused to come out despite demands from the man.
The man’s infant child was in a baby seat in the car and his partner was beside the vehicle when the screwdriver was thrown.
They drove away, but the youth continued to act violently, punching walls and yelling.
Worried neighbours rang police, who attended and saw the youth’s knuckles were bleeding.
