by Cam Lucadou-Wells
A Casey man has been jailed over an “extremely dangerous” glassing that cut a pub-goer’s throat and jugular vein.
Clint William Bellingham, 33, pleaded guilty at the Victorian County Court to recklessly causing serious injury over the incident at The Deck bar in Frankston in February 2023.
Attending his brother’s buck’s night, Bellingham acted out of “drug and alcohol fueled aggression”, sentencing judge Peter Lauritsen said on 19 March.
Earlier, he had got drunk in the afternoon, followed by cocaine cut with meth as well as about 15-20mL of GHB.
The victim, who was at the bar to celebrate his wife’s 30th birthday, got in a verbal dispute with some of Bellingham’s friends.
Soon afterwards, Bellingham approached with a beer glass.
A friend tried to restrain him but Bellingham shouted “you f***ing rat” and thrust the glass into the victim’s throat.
The glass broke, causing “horrific” and profuse bleeding from the victim’s lacerated left facial artery and right jugular vein.
It was an “extremely dangerous area” to strike, Lauritsen said.
A security guard wrapped towels around his neck and an ambulance was called.
The victim began to feel tired and wanted to go to sleep.
The father of now two children thought that he was going to die, Lauritsen noted.
Without surgery and multiple blood transfusions, the victim was likely to have succumbed, an expert told the court.
The victim has been scarred on his neck and jaw, with nerve damage preventing him from fully bringing his lips together.
He stated that he could no longer speak, sleep and eat comfortably and his social life is impaired.
An hour after the attack, Bellingham went to Casey Hospital emergency department to treat the glass injury to his right hand.
He was arrested at his home eight days later – having been using meth for the past nine days.
Bellingham claimed to police at Narre Warren police station that the victim punched him and so he acted in self-defence.
“I definitely regret it, it’s nothing I am proud about,” Bellingham told police.
“I’m sorry for the bloke, I feel sorry for myself.”
Bellingham didn’t pursue the self-defence argument at court.
The father of four had been previously found guilty of 213 charges in 18 court matters including 13 acts of violence – including four times for reckless conduct causing serious injury.
He’d been jailed 11 times previously – the longest stint being 12 months.
Born and raised in Dandenong, Bellingham was a “product of your earlier life which was appalling but you seem incapable of change”, Lauritsen said.
His upbringing was said to be linked to his later drug abuse, his psychological state and his disproportionate response to perceived threats.
He was diagnosed with major depressive, panic and complex post-traumatic-stress disorders.
On the night of the glassing, he’d broken a two-year abstinence on a drug-and-alcohol-treatment court order.
The DTO was successfully completed three months beforehand.
“The order had so little lasting effect that you used methamphetamine consistently over a nine-day period before you were arrested as well as alcohol and drugs on the day of the offence,” the judge said.
Lauritsen rated a “genuinely remorseful” Bellingham’s rehabilitation prospects as “poor” and “not uncertain”.
Six previous community corrections orders including drug treatment were “all apparently to little avail”.
Bellingham was jailed for up to three years and nine months, with a two-and-a-half-year non-parole period. It was his longest ever sentence.
His term includes 400 days of pre-sentence detention.
