Suspended jail term for man for violent hammer attack, striking another man over the head multiple times

A man who hit a 58-year-old over the head with a hammer before assaulting the victim’s daughter as she defended him and throwing a pot through the window of a sleeping child has avoided immediate jail. Michael Ross Elsdon, 37, was at the home of his partner’s friend in McKail on July 26 when an argument broke out between him and his partner, resulting in him leaving the home, police prosecutor Sgt Gary Simpson told Albany Magistrates Court on Thursday. Shortly after leaving, Elsdon received a phone call from his partner, asking him to collect her and their children, during which he told his partner’s friend to “shut the f... up”, and called her a “c..t”. Overhearing this conversation, the friend’s father asked Elsdon not to use that language towards his daughter, to which Elsdon replied he would return to fight him. The 37-year-old returned to the property about 10 minutes later armed with a claw hammer and told the friend: “I’m going to bash your dad.” He then struck the 58-year-old man on the head with the metal hammer “with force”, knocking him to the ground, and hit him again over the head when he tried to stand up, causing profuse bleeding. The man required six staples in his temple to repair the wound after being taken to the hospital, and had a swollen and bruised wrist where he had tried to deflect the blows. Following the confrontation between the two men, the man’s daughter tried to wrest the hammer from Elsdon to stop the assault on her father. Elsdon pushed her to the floor, resulting in pain and swelling to her knees, and then pushed her hard in the chest. He then picked up a plant pot and threw it through a bedroom window of the home where the woman’s 11-year-old child was sleeping, showering her in glass shards. He was arrested shortly afterwards and charged with criminal damage or destruction of property, acts or omissions causing bodily harm or danger to any person, and common assault, pleading guilty to all charges on November 20. Appearing in Elsdon’s defence on Thursday, lawyer Elizabeth Hamilton said her client had attended the house with his partner — who had been drinking all day — with their children and family dog before deciding to leave due to becoming uncomfortable with the “highly sexualised” conversation. She said his partner’s friend had then called him as he returned to collect his family and was highly abusive toward him, leading him to make threats. Ms Hamilton conceded that, having seen texts from Elsdon’s phone during the incident, she could not cite self-defence as a mitigating factor or provocation defence. Sgt Simpson alleged the offending included a “degree of premeditation” given the retrieval of the hammer, and said it was only out of “sheer luck” that the sleeping child wasn’t seriously injured by the broken glass or hit by the plant pot. Magistrate Rosemarie Myers said “any strike to the head of a person is a serious offence”, especially one involving weapons. “The potential risk of one blow to the head with a hammer could have seen you in an entirely different situation than you are in today,” she said. “You are very fortunate there was not more harm caused.” She sentenced Elsdon to 10 months jail, suspended for 12 months with program and supervision requirements, and made him subject to an intensive supervision order for 12 months.