A Papua New Guinean immigrant who allegedly stabbed a stranger in the neck with a fork on a Brisbane street has been released on bail.
Scott Fredrick Kondaugl, 33, was charged with “acts intended to cause grievous bodily harm” and common assault after allegedly attacking a 28-year-old man near the party district of Fortitude Valley at about 10.30pm on Saturday night.
Police allege Kondaugl approached the man while he was sitting on a footpath on Mallon Street and allegedly stabbed him with the dining utensil after a verbal altercation erupted, The Courier Mail reported. He also allegedly assaulted a second victim.
The alleged stabbing victim was taken to Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital in a stable condition, and Kondaugl was arrested and later refused bail to appear in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Monday.
Defence lawyer Steven Erickson argued that his client, who has been in Australia for three years on a working visa and provides for his wife and child in PNG, had no criminal history and should be released to live at his home on the street where the alleged attack took place.
The court heard that the common assault complainant also lived on Mallon Street, in Bowen Hills, but the stabbing complainant did not, and prosecutor Harry Coburn argued granting Kondaugl bail to live at that address posed an “unacceptable risk of interfering with witnesses or further violence”.
Magistrate Rosemary Gilbert noted Kondaugl’s lack of criminal history and granted him bail with conditions including weekly reporting to the police, not attending international airports and not contacting the two complainants.
The case will return to court on November 24.
Header image: Mallon Street (Google Street View).
