A woman who attacked another woman with a plank of wood said she carried the wood with her “for protection”.
Amanda Joy Archer, 36, of Mooroopna, pleaded guilty to recklessly causing injury, careless driving, unlicensed driving and refusing to accompany police for a breath test.
Prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Fiona Kennedy told the court the woman and another person went to a Mooroopna house, whose occupants were known to the person she was with, on November 5, 2018.
Archer hit a woman at the house in the back of the head with a piece of wood she was carrying, with the woman receiving a fractured spine and skull from the attack, Leading Sen Constable Kennedy said.
A man at the house held Archer back and told her he would not let her go until he had the piece of wood.
The court heard when Archer was eventually arrested she said she did not remember the incident and denied it was her on CCTV footage at the house during the attack.
In a victim impact statement read to the court by the prosecutor, the woman who was hit with the wood said she did not feel safe in her own house and front yard.
She said she was having nightmares and would “jump at any noise I hear”.
In a separate incident, Archer almost hit a police car while driving in Parkside Dve, Shepparton, at 12.05am on June 26, 2021.
The court heard the police vehicle had to pull over to let her past or a collision would have occurred.
Leading Sen Constable Kennedy said Archer refused to accompany police to the station from an evidentiary breath test after a preliminary breath test at the scene indicated the presence of alcohol.
She did admit to police at the time she had drunk wine earlier.
Archer was also driving on a suspended NSW driver’s licence.
She told police she was not aware her licence was suspended as she had moved to Mooroopna two years earlier and had not changed her licence.
Archer’s solicitor D’Arcy Borzoula told the court her client had “extraordinary personal circumstances” and was carrying a piece of wood “because she’s a smaller female walking in a violent part of Shepparton (Mooroopna)”.
The solicitor said Archer had been previously assaulted by a man and now carried the wood “for personal protection”.
Magistrate Peter Mithen described the injury to the woman as “inexplicable”.
“I can only assume you weren’t thinking straight and got involved in something you couldn’t have been involved in,” Mr Mithen said.
Archer was sentenced to a 12-month community corrections order, which includes 100 hours of community work.
She was also disqualified from driving for two years.