A COURT has been shown dramatic footage of a violent attack on a truck driver involving a metal spirit level, with enough force used to bend the tool out of shape.
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Jack McLean was on Tuesday jailed for six months for the incident in the middle of Melrose Drive in Wodonga on December 15.
Onlookers filmed the incident on their mobile phones, with two videos showing McLean smashing the victim and the truck and fleeing from the scene.
Magistrate Stella Stuthridge described the incident as “deeply concerning”.
The court heard the truck driver hadn’t returned to work since the ordeal, was fearful McLean would follow through with his threats to kill and is afraid of going out in public.
He had suffered “significant emotional trauma", the Wodonga Magistrates Court heard.
“The level of violence that is exhibited is extraordinary and completely unexplainable in my view,” Ms Stuthridge said when sentencing the 25-year-old.
She said the attack had the “flavour of vigilantism” and noted McLean had four priors for violence.
He had only been released from jail about three months before the incident after a string of break-ins and firearm thefts at homes and business on the Border.
Most of the weapons have still not been recovered.
The video footage shows McLean smashing the truck driver with the spirit level, with the man using his leg in a bid to avoid being hit.
The driver was sprayed with glass and was hit in the right arm.
McLean quickly ran between the Holden Commodore, which his brother Tom allegedly drove, and the truck, before fleeing the scene.
Tom allegedly threatened the man with a tyre iron and friends in a silver Ford Mondeo filmed the attack.
Jack has already been in custody for 66 days.