One man faces permanent disability as another faces jail over Anzac Day punch at Warners Bay

But just how devastating the long-term prognosis is for victim Peter Small, 46, will determine how long his former “best mate”, Jeffrey Paul Drysdale, will spend in jail, Newcastle District Court has heard. 

It was a bit after 8pm on Anzac Day this year when Drysdale, 36, of Belmont, changed hands with his cigarette, clenched his right fist and hit Mr Small in the jaw outside the Warners Bay Hotel. Mr Small went stiff, fell backwards and hit his head on the concrete with a sickening “crack” sound, witnesses said. The impact caused a fractured skull, a blood clot to the brain and an “extremely traumatic brain injury”, police facts state. 

But the court heard the extent of Mr Small’s recovery will play a significant role in determining Drysdale’s sentence. 

Drysdale, 36, pleaded guilty in Newcastle Local Court last month to recklessly causing grievous bodily harm. Under questioning from his barrister, Peter Harper, Drysdale told a sentence hearing on Wednesday that his biggest regret was not being able to “look [Mr Small] in the eye and apologise face-to-face”, due to the ongoing court process. 

He has written a letter of apology to Mr Small that had been handed to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, but had, so far, not been passed on to Mr Small. 

The matter was adjourned to March next year for sentence so a medical report outlining Mr Small’s long-term prognosis could be obtained.

Nonetheless, Judge Roy Ellis told Drysdale to expect a jail term when he returns to court.

“If it is a poor long-term prognosis then I don’t see anything other than a full-time sentence of imprisonment,” Mr Ellis said.

“I have to say at the moment my inclination is that it won’t be possible, no matter what the report reveals, for the sentence to ever get down to the point where I have options.

“It would be best for Mr Drysdale to work on the basis of full-time custody and hope that it might work back from there.”