A District Court judge has given North Albury footballer Jarrah Maksymow a stern rebuke for his violent offending.
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Gordon Lerve told Maksymow he needed to change his alcohol-fuelled ways or face the total loss of a normal life ahead.
“If he doesn’t wake up to himself fairly quickly he’s going to spend a long time in jail,” Judge Lerve said.
“He’s got to stop being a thug.”
Judge Lerve made the remarks while considering a series of appeals made by Maksymow, 23, against the severity of several sentences in Albury Local Court.
These related to a series of incidents between August and October last year.
Judge Lerve dismissed some of the appeals, while reducing the minimum period for one from six to four months.
Regardless, Maksymow still faces several months behind bars, with one of his non-parole periods not finishing until November 13.
He is in jail for convictions of affray, stalk or intimidate with intent to create fear of harm, using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend and two counts of assault. He appeared in Albury via a video link to Junee jail.
Magistrate Tony Murray handed Maksymow a fixed three-month jail term for intimidating a man in a phone call last August and assaulting him three weeks later at the Newmarket Hotel.
He was given a 16-month jail term, with the six-month minimum, on the other charges.
Maksymow had sent a text to the victim on August 27 in which he said: “You lied after I gave you the option of telling me the truth.”
The victim was at the hotel on September 4 about 7.40pm, playing on poker machines with some friends, when Maksymow’s girlfriend entered the room.
She told the victim “you better hide” and tried to stop Maksymow when he entered the room.
But instead, Makysymow used the palm heel of his left hand to strike the victim to the side of the face, knocking him off his stool.
“There’s obviously been bad blood between the complainant and the offender. (But) it’s well known head injuries can happen in such a situation,” Judge Lerve said.
The sentences under appeal related also to incidents where Maksymow assaulted a man after a touch football game on October 6 and a violent confrontation at a Thurgoona house two days later
Judge Lerve said the last incident was especially concerning as Maksymow was with three other men.
Defence solicitor Mark Cronin said he did wish to negate his client’s violent offending, but the sentences were still too severe.
He said alcohol was the root cause of it all.
But Judge Lerve said something had to be done to stop young men going out with the intention of committing violence.
To illustrate this he pointed to the case of Thomas Kelly, killed by a coward punch in Sydney three years ago.
