A 33-year-old man will spend time in prison after a frightening and unjustified incident in which a 20-kilogram weight was dropped on the head of a fellow gym member.
Shane William Ryan claimed the incident on October 22, 2020, at the Next Level Gym in Rosebery, near Darwin, was caused “accidentally.”
CCTV footage of the incident, however, raised a few eyebrows.
“You picked up a 20kg plate and walked towards the victim,” Justice John Burns said in Ryan’s sentencing remarks.
“The CCTV shows you lurching towards the victim and dropping the weight onto the victim’s head and chest area causing the victim to fall to the ground from the bench, bleeding from his head,” he continued. “You feigned an injury to your left ankle before you stood up and walked away before returning to the victim and then calling an ambulance.”
The victim was left with a bone fracture, a cut above his left eye, facial swelling, migraines, and chest pain, and is suffering acute anxiety from the incident.
Reports suggest the two had been “previously friendly toward each other,” and prior to the event, they had communicated in a “warm manner.”
“Fortunately, the bodily injuries received by the victim were modest compared to what could have happened,” Justice Burns noted. Nonetheless, they are not insignificant injuries.”
Ryan was sentenced to 19 months in prison, with a 10-month non-parole period.