[kellyhound]

A champion state athlete will be behind bars for only 12 months, despite attacking two men, including wildly kicking a defenceless “good samaritan” in the head during a violent, drunken rampage, leaving him with brain damage.

Aspiring Olympic sprinter Michael Kerry Norman Brusnahan, 23, viciously assaulted several innocent victims at the Semaphore Palais hotel in 2014, before “bragging” about his crimes.

Despite the savage attacks leaving at least one victim with a life-threatening injuries, he will serve only a minimum 12 months behind bars but failed to have his identity remain a secret.

Graphic footage tendered to a court shows an abusive and aggressive Brusnahan, a former South Australian 100m champion and state athletics captain, launch the brutal, unprovoked and “thuggish” attacks.

The body-camera footage shows the horrifying moment he kicked one innocent victim’s head “like a football”, snapping his head back and sending him flying through the air before he hit his head on the concrete with a “loud, horrifying thud”.

He was unconscious for up to five minutes and was left with three fractures to the base of his skull that caused post trauma amnesia and no memory of the attack.

That man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had gone to help a stranger — Brusnahan’s football club teammate — who had been “coward punched” seconds earlier as he too had attempted to defuse the fight.

The District Court heard how Brusnahan — who narrowly missed selection to last year’s Rio Olympics squad — was “spoiling for a fight” having been ejected from the northwest suburban pub after the unprovoked assault of another man and his son in the hotel toilets earlier in the night.

Claiming to be heavily drunk, he remained “remarkably agile” and “imitated a boxer in the ring” as he ripped off his shirt before attacking bouncers and the good Samaritans as a violent friend watched.

He had been celebrating the end of the football season the day before his 21st birthday party amid family turmoil.

Brusnahan, an apprentice carpenter of Beverly, in Adelaide’s inner-north west, faced up to 15 years in jail after admitting recklessly cause serious harm on the eve of his trial last year.

Prosecutors, who described the attacks as among the worst they had seen, dropped a more serious “intent”-based charge.

He also pleaded guilty to seven different charges including aggravated and basic assault, damage property and affray.

Jailing him for three years and six months — with a “much shorter than usual non-parole period” of 12 months because of his age and prospects of rehabilitation — Judge Wayne Chivell laid bare in harrowing detail the events of September 19, which he said could have ended in death.

On Friday, the judge banned publication of the victim’s identity but rejected the athlete’s bid to remain anonymous.

Brusnahan, who is friends with some of the biggest names in Australian athletics, was further jailed for eight months one week and four days for each of the other charges, to be served concurrently.

The kicking victim, 22, of the western suburbs, suffered a “moderate to severe” brain injury that has left him with serious medical problems, highly traumatised and stressed.

The judge said while Brusnahan was young and remorseful — he issued a public courtroom apology — and had good rehabilitation prospects, jail was the only option as the “community abhors violence to such an extent that it regards deterrence of it as essential”.

He also took into account several references from coaches, colleagues and family who described their shock at the talented athlete’s crimes.

“It is not being overly dramatic to observe that it is pure luck that you are not facing a murder charge here today. It has happened many times before that (and) that was the outcome,” he said.

“Mr Brusnahan, your behaviour that night was appalling. You king-hit two men in the toilet for no apparent reason. You fought with security officers whose job it was to try to keep order. You goaded and abused them and they showed admirable restraint. You assaulted two of them.

“You king-hit a man from your own football club who tried to defuse the situation. He hit his head on the pavement. You had ample time at several stages during the evening to withdraw but you refused.

“Your companion, as badly as he behaved, tried to pull you away several times but you persisted, and then finally you consciously and without provocation kicked in the head a man who had come to the aid of another man, causing him life-threatening injuries. Such behaviour is intolerable.”

He added: “The community condemns the behaviour of young men who commit so-called coward punches in the course of alcohol-fuelled violence … (which) young men have died as a result.

“Others have suffered permanent disabling injuries, as (the kicking victim) appears to have done in this case.

Clearly, my main task is to do what I can to deter or discourage you and other young men from acting in this way.

“Whatever you were upset about that night, you allowed yourself to behave in this way and inflict violence and aggression on people who represented no threat to you and played no part in what was distressing you.

“This was a tragedy for all involved. The terrible consequences of your actions, however, cannot now be overlooked.”

The kicking victim’s family declined to comment as did Brusnahan’s.

The mother of the man kicked in the head during elite runner Michael Brusnahan’s drunken rampage urged the sentencing judge to consider the “desperate need for incidents like this to stop”.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, laid bare her trauma after her son suffered life-threatening injuries when he helped a stranger outside the Semaphore Palais hotel in September 2014.

“As parents, we are constantly worried,” she said in a pre-sentencing victim impact statement to the District Court.

“I am concerned for the safety of all young people and the risk of them being injured or worse, because of reckless behaviour and alcohol-fuelled violence. We thank god that our son was one of the luckier ones.

“We ask the court to consider the desperate need for incidents like this to stop. Our communities should be safe places for our children to grow up and live in. If there are no consequences for committing such acts then there will be no decline in these types of (alcohol-fuelled violent) incidents.”

The mother-of-three told Judge Wayne Chivell how her son, now 22, had undergone a personality transformation after hitting his head on the concrete from Brusnahan’s “football-style” kick.

He was a “very easy going, sociable, friendly, patient, active and adventurous” man, but now battles anger, patience, and communication problems. He has no memory of the incident, which also caused his three-year relationship to collapse. She has given up her dream career and works two jobs to support him through his rehabilitation.

The woman now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression while his father is frustrated and angry.

“The late-night phone call will stay with us forever,” she said. “Everything changed from that moment on — emotionally, physically and mentally. Our son is changed forever due to the brain damage he suffered that night. Everyone feels angry, frustrated and helpless about what happened.

“I do not think Mr Brusnahan is at all aware of how extensively the consequences of his actions have affected and impacted on our entire family. Because of his reckless behaviour my son’s quality of life has changed and it is permanent.”

In his own victim impact statement, the man told how his severe brain injury has left him “confused, stressed, frustrated and on edge”. He has just returned to work

[Blindside]

He needs a good ass beating on top of more jail time for being such a pussy

[spudigitti]

Karma will find him eventually !!

Stand by !!

[Susan]

Piece of shit.

[Bleed]

Security guards seemed to lack some initiative.

[Krob2017ny]

Fucking neanderthal coward. When he has to do his time, I hope they rock his ass before he reach the chow line. Than was an innocent fucking man.

[Sypher209]

He'll get his comeuppins... that victim will for sure have mates waiting for the right place and time, with no cameras around to speak of, just you wait.

[nat906]

poor poor jock.well kiss goodbye your dreams kid.its fuck heads like you that kill good times whilst out for a laugh.

[Sligkid]

Unfortunately south Australians are our version of deep deep south rednecks, all weird retarded cunts!

[Shakey]

Anger issues.