Gruesome moment when a father armed with a golf club takes on a sledgehammer-wielding couple he accused of speeding down his suburban street – leaving one with a fractured skull
Adelaide father denounced driver and female companion for speeding on his street
Driver returned with a sledgehammer which he waved at the father but missed
Dad retaliated by waving golf club at driver, leaving him with skull fracture
He told reporters he had tried to protect his family in a heated roadside brawl
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A father has claimed he protected his family when he swung a golf club into another man’s skull during a heated roadside brawl.
Corey Dawson, 49, was assaulted by a man and a woman, each armed with a hammer, after he admonished the couple for speeding in his neighborhood.
Footage of the violent altercation shows Mr Dawson berating the motorist on his suburban street in Elizabeth South, north Adelaide.
“Drive well, you worthless bastard,” he yells at the driver.
“You’re fucking 90 miles an hour here, and then you’re back at the wheel, you worthless bastard.”
He jumps the hammer at the father but misses, with Mr. Dawson taking revenge by swinging a golf club into his skull – with the impact too graphic to broadcast (pictured)
The furious driver returned to Mr Dawson’s street, this time armed with a sledgehammer, while his female companion held a claw hammer.
He jumps to Mr. Dawson but misses, with the father retaliating by swinging his golf club into the driver’s skull.
The impact is so graphic that Daily Mail Australia has chosen not to publish it.
The driver spent 22 days in intensive care with a skull fracture before discharging himself from the Royal Adelaide Hospital, the advertiser reports.
Dawson handed the graphic footage to police, thinking it would prove he acted in self-defense when he waved at the man in April 2020.
Judge Paul Slattery ultimately disagreed, saying the father of seven could have walked away from the confrontation multiple times.
Confrontational footage from the altercation shows Dawson berating the motorist on his suburban street in north Adelaide’s Elizabeth South (pictured)
Judge Slattery said the father was “justified” to file a complaint with the driver, but his response to the situation was “disproportionate”.
Dawson pleaded guilty to one count of recklessly causing serious harm and was sentenced to three and a half years in prison on Wednesday.
The sentence will be served under house arrest so that he can continue to care for his children, with an unconditional period of 19 months.
Out of court, Dawson told reporters he had simply been trying to “protect my family and myself from an evil man.”
“We thought we were doing the right thing, gave us footage and then the police use it against us. It has been an injustice all along,” he said.