'People's worst fear when they're going out': man knocked unconscious in packed pub

A man was knocked unconscious at a packed Braddon pub in what a magistrate has described as "people's worst fear" when going out on the town.

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Lefanoga Brian Jacob Alofipo, 30, has been sentenced to a 15-month good behaviour order after being found guilty of assault occasioning bodily harm at a hearing earlier this year.

Lefanoga Brian Jacob Alofipo leaving court after he was sentenced over the assault. Picture by Mardi Borg

During his sentencing in the ACT Magistrates Court on Wednesday, October 14, magistrate Alexandria Burt also ordered Alofipo to complete 100 hours of community service.

The court heard Alofipo punched the man in quick succession at Hopscotch Bar in Braddon about 11.40pm on a Saturday night in August 2024.

The victim suffered a fractured nose, lost consciousness and fell to the ground. Shortly afterwards, Alofipo picked him up and placed him on a table.

"You knocked him unconscious with two strikes," Magistrate Burt said.

"I think from [the victim's] perspective it would've been from out of nowhere that he is struck in that way.

"It's kind of people's worst fear when they're going out; that they're going to go out, they're having a good time and they end up being rendered unconscious on the ground."

Alofipo did not dispute that he assaulted the man but argued at a hearing earlier this year that he had acted in self-defence because the victim had touched him on the buttocks.

During sentencing, magistrate Burt said she accepted that some form of inappropriate touching may have occurred but said it did not justify the violence.

"The bar was packed full of people," she said.

"In that kind of environment, people are going to touch each other and come into contact with people."

"Even if that happened, it in no way, in my view, justifies any further violent response from you," she said.

She said Alofipo could have gone to police if he was concerned about the alleged touching, and she did not think there was any real prospect of harm coming to him.

Magistrate Burt also said she was concerned that the victim had remained on the floor for some time after the assault.

She accepted Alofipo had expressed remorse over the assault, but noted it came with "some sense of justification" which she didn't agree with.

While the magistrate said she "had wondered" if the sentence should include a term of imprisonment, she placed "significant weight" on his lack of criminal history and positive prospects of rehabilitation.

She also took into account his family commitments, his position as the sole income earner and his previous work assisting the community.

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