Lavington man admits through his lawyer to offensive weapon with intent charge

Brian Leslie Horace Burgess had already left the scene when one of the victims, a man aged 37, was allegedly stabbed by a Lavington man.

Albury Local Court was told on Tuesday, October 24, how Burgess got involved in the incident following a confrontation between the victims, one of them a woman, also 37, and the man accused of carrying out the stabbing, Nathan James Hinschen.

Hinschen, who was 46 at the time, was charged with wound person with the intention of causing grievous bodily harm, in relation to the man, and assault occasioning actual bodily harm in relation to the woman.

His case, too, was mentioned before magistrate Sally McLaughlin on Tuesday.

The court heard negotiations were continuing with his matter, with a likely committal for sentence within a few weeks following the settlement of an agreed set of facts.

Both men are in custody, bail refused, and were excused from appearing in court if legally represented.

Defence lawyer Mark Cronin entered a guilty plea on behalf of Burgess to a charge of using an offensive weapon with the intention of committing an indictable offence.

Mr Cronin asked court registrar Wendy Howard that the matter be adjourned to November 21 to allow him "to get subjective material together" for sentencing of the Lavington man, now 59.

Director of Public Prosecutions agreed facts outlined how Burgess was living in a unit in Creek Street, Albury, when the offending took place on February 27.

The victims were friends and did not know Burgess.

About 8pm, his victims and a second woman left the man's home in Thurgoona Street to walk to a bottle shop.

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They were heading along Stanley Street when the saw the man's ex-girlfriend, who yelled out and swore at him.

A resident of Creek Street then heard yelling coming from outside and inside a unit, as did another witness who looked outside to see what was going on.

He saw the man, who was thin and shirtless, and the woman in front of Hinschen's home.

"(The man) was observed to pick up a green waste wheelie bin and throw it at the front porch of ... the unit."

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The woman told her friend to stop, but then she began yelling insults towards the unit.

The pair crossed the street and walked towards the entrance to Gertrude Colquhoun Park, where they joined a group of men and two women.

As Hinschen walked towards the group, the man threw two beer bottles in his direction - one smashed on the road, the other on the footpath.

He then got into an argument with them and a fight broke out.

Hinschen ran back to his unit chased by the man, who then returned to the park from where he continued to yell at him.

"At some stage the offender emerged from his unit with a wooden pick handle, 1.5 metres in length," Ms McLaughlin was told, in the facts submitted by DPP representative Laura Tagliapietra.

"The offender was yelling and approaching (the victims), swinging the pick handle around."

Hinschen allegedly then emerged from his unit "holding a large knife in his right hand above his head and screaming at the group across the road at the entrance to the park" as he approached them.

"At this stage, the offender was still present with the pick handle."

Moments later, Burgess left the group and returned to his unit.

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