A Melbourne dad stormed a school and punched one of his son\u2019s bullies in the face before tracking down the father of the other bully within the hour and bashing him too.<\/p>\n
Bobby Backman, 39, felt he had to take matters into his own hands on March 11 last year after his son told him he had been threatened with a knife and forced to kneel in the toilets at Pakenham Secondary College \u201cat the feet\u201d of his school bullies.<\/p>\n
Details of the brutal attacks against the 16-year-old boy and the other boy\u2019s father, who was at home at the time, were revealed in the County Court this week where Backman owned up to his \u201cangry outburst\u201d.<\/p>\n
During his pre-sentence hearing on Tuesday, prosecutor James Sutherland said Backman\u2019s son called him on the morning of March 11 to complain about the bullying.<\/p>\n
The court heard Backman and his former partner had alerted the school to the bullying, but their son continued to be targeted. <\/p>\n
Mr Sutherland said Backman arrived at the school about 11.15am and approached a group of students who were standing on the basketball courts.<\/p>\n
He walked up to the 16-year-old boy and punched him in the face before demanding to know where the other bully was.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeveral teachers at the school sought to de-escalate the situation by attempting to move Mr Backman to another part of the school,\u201d Mr Sutherland said.<\/p>\n
By 11.27am, Backman had left the school with his son. <\/p>\n
But less than half an hour later, Backman was at the home of the other bully.<\/p>\n
He knocked and started yelling before opening the unlocked door and entering the home. <\/p>\n
He then struck the father to the face, causing him to lose consciousness. <\/p>\n
His defence barrister Lauren Bull said he was suffering mental health issues at the time of the bullying, which had created a \u201cperfect storm\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the day of the offending, Mr Backman experienced severe distress, helplessness and horror when his son advised him that the assailants had attacked him again,\u201d she said, reading from a psychological report.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis appears to have precipitated the onset of an angry outburst.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Bull told the court the self-employed labourer had complied with his bail since he was charged and had no criminal history. <\/p>\n
Backman pleaded guilty to two counts of common law assault, aggravated burglary and entering a public place without authorisation or excuse.<\/p>\n
He was convicted and sentenced on Thursday to an 18-month community corrections order.<\/p>\n
Judge Kevin Doyle told Backman this type of offending typically resulted in a term of imprisonment.<\/p>\n
He said the assaults on the victims were \u201cserious\u201d, especially since he was a \u201cgrown man\u201d heading into a school to assault a student. <\/p>\n
But he said taking into account the context and his circumstances, a CCO was appropriate.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not excuse, but it does provide an explanation for why you acted the way that you did,\u201d Judge Doyle said of the bullying.<\/p>\n
As part of his CCO, Backman will have to complete 220 hours of unpaid community work.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s unlikely that the criminal courts will see you again,\u201d Judge Doyle said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Melbourne dad stormed a school and punched one of his son\u2019s bullies in the face before tracking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[48111,129618,129646,55661,44015,129648,43157,129613,129633,129652,46919,129616,129625,53675,129653,43313,36507,66302,129620,36907,77882,63369,48202,45463,113937,53775,129623,129628,41002,99770,55706,129644,129611,129636,129609,13415,129612,60483,79948,129632,129642,68271,129638,129643,129622,64639,129635,129634,129615,49293,52,102626,129655,38447,129610,129617,38047,260,129658,54520,129647,129654,129614,129645,73729,129639,129656,129640,129631,38074,6579,9757,52116,129649,129627,129630,129624,129659,129637,129629,55727,40468,39856,129660,36756,39951,47374,129619,39912,129657,40467,67302,80565,55697,129650,129651,37881,129621,43761,36556,66686,129626,41783,36698,55703,48976,38964,7444,36985,41632,129641],"class_list":["post-81775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-melbourne","tag-bully","tag-s-bullies","tag-s-bully","tag-s-dad","tag-s-father","tag-s-high-school","tag-s-son","tag-11-15am","tag-11-27am","tag-220-hours","tag-46919","tag-a-grown-man","tag-a-16-year-old","tag-a-boy","tag-a-cco","tag-a-father","tag-a-group","tag-a-knife","tag-a-melbourne-dad","tag-a-perfect-storm","tag-a-psychological-report","tag-a-public-place","tag-a-school","tag-a-student","tag-a-term","tag-account","tag-an-angry-outburst","tag-an-18-month-community-corrections-order-judge-kevin-doyle","tag-an-explanation","tag-another-part","tag-another-student","tag-another-teen","tag-authorisation-or-excuse-he","tag-backman","tag-bobby-backman","tag-burglary","tag-common-law-assault","tag-consciousness","tag-excuse","tag-helplessness-and-horror","tag-his-angry-outburst","tag-his-bail","tag-his-cco","tag-his-circumstances","tag-his-defence-barrister-lauren-bull","tag-his-former-partner","tag-his-own-hands","tag-his-pre-sentence-hearing","tag-his-school-bullies-details","tag-his-son","tag-home","tag-imprisonment-he","tag-judge-doyle","tag-last-year","tag-less-than-half-an-hour","tag-march-11","tag-matters","tag-melbourne","tag-melbourne-dad","tag-mental-health-issues","tag-mr-backman","tag-mr-sutherland","tag-ms-bull","tag-no-criminal-history","tag-offending","tag-pakenham-secondary-college","tag-prosecutor-james-sutherland","tag-several-teachers","tag-severe-distress","tag-son","tag-student","tag-students","tag-the-16-year-old-boy","tag-the-assailants","tag-the-assaults","tag-the-basketball-courts-he","tag-the-brutal-attacks","tag-the-bullying","tag-the-bullying-as-part","tag-the-bullying-the-court","tag-the-context","tag-the-county-court","tag-the-court","tag-the-criminal-courts","tag-the-day","tag-the-face","tag-the-father","tag-the-feet","tag-the-home","tag-the-hour","tag-the-morning","tag-the-offending","tag-the-onset","tag-the-other-boy","tag-the-other-bully","tag-the-other-bully-he","tag-the-school","tag-the-self-employed-labourer","tag-the-situation","tag-the-time","tag-the-toilets","tag-the-unlocked-door","tag-the-victims","tag-the-way","tag-their-son","tag-this-type","tag-this-week","tag-thursday","tag-tuesday","tag-two-counts","tag-unpaid-community-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}