A DISPUTE between two long-term friends that ended with a punch-on, leaving one with blood streaming from his head and facial injuries, continues to drag on.
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James Thomas Kettyle, 75, had been friends with the victim for about 30 years before the violent altercation.
He considered the man, Peter Sutherland, to be a close friend for about half that time.
Mr Sutherland was left with blood streaming down his face, a swollen forehead, bruised eye, broken nose, an injury to the back of his head, and a cut to his lip big enough to put a finger through after being hit by Kettyle.
Kettyle claims he acted in self defence and only hit the 75-year-old once.
He was charged with recklessly causing serious injury, intentionally causing injury and recklessly causing injury after the January 28, 2015 altercation in his Thologolong home.
“I had to punch him to stop him from trying to get me,” he told the fourth day of a hearing in the Wodonga Magistrates Court this week.
Several photographs of Mr Sutherland’s injuries were tendered to the court, showing extensive bleeding and damage around his face.
Kettyle was evasive when asked if he had caused the damage.
He called Mr Sutherland’s wife after the incident and said he would be “going home worse for wear”.
Magistrate John Murphy asked if Mr Sutherland looked “like he’d been 15 rounds with Muhammad Ali” after being hit.
Kettyle replied that he didn’t, and said he didn’t see any cuts on the man’s head and that there was no blood in his house.
The court heard Mr Sutherland had been sitting around Kettyle’s table when the pair began to argue – possibly about the then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
The court heard Mr Sutherland threw a chair at his friend, which Kettyle grabbed.
The pair wrestled, with Kettyle stating he was hit twice in the head and once in the throat.
He said his slightly-built friend had his “eyes out”, yelling and screaming, “out of his tree”, with a look he had never seen before.
Kettyle argues he was acting in self defence and said “I thought me days could have been numbered".
There was no-one else inside the home at the time.
The pair had gone to a field day event earlier in the day, and Kettyle told the court he had kneed someone in the groin during a barbecue after the show.
The matter will return to court on July 25.
