Elizabeth South: Adelaide father claims he was protecting his family when he hit man with golf club

A father has claimed he had been protecting his family when he swung a golf club into another man’s skull during a heated roadside brawl. 

Corey Dawson, 49, was attacked by a man and woman, each armed with a hammer, after he admonished the pair for speeding in his neighbourhood. 

Confronting footage of the violent altercation shows Mr Dawson berating the motorist on his suburban street in Elizabeth South, in Adelaide’s north. 

‘Drive properly you useless c***,’ he yells at the driver. 

‘You drive past here doing f***ing 90 kilometres an hour, then you come back spinning the wheel you useless p****.’

He lunges at the father with the hammer but misses, with Mr Dawson retaliating by swinging a golf club into his skull – with the impact too graphic to broadcast (pictured)

The enraged driver returned to Mr Dawson’s street, this time armed with a sledge hammer, while his female companion held a claw hammer. 

He lunges at Mr Dawson but misses, with the father retaliating by swinging his golf club into the driver’s skull.

The impact is so graphic Daily Mail Australia has chosen not to publish it.

The driver spent 22 days in intensive care with a fractured skull before discharging himself from the Royal Adelaide Hospital, The Advertiser reports. 

Mr Dawson handed the graphic footage to police thinking it would prove he had been acting in self-defense when he swung at the man back in April, 2020. 

However, Judge Paul Slattery ultimately disagreed and said the father-of-seven could have walked away from the confrontation multiple times.

Confronting footage of the altercation shows Mr Dawson berating the motorist on his suburban street in Elizabeth South, in Adelaide’s north (pictured)

Judge Slattery said the father was ‘justified’ in making a complaint to the driver but that his response to the situation was ‘disproportionate’. 

Mr Dawson pleaded guilty to one count of recklessly causing serious harm and was handed a three-and-a-half year sentence on Wednesday. 

The sentence will be served on home detention so he can continue to care for his children, with a non-parole period of 19 months.

Outside court, Mr Dawson told reporters he had simply been trying to ‘protect my family and myself from a no good person’. 

‘We thought we were doing the right thing, give our footage, and then the police uses it against us. It’s been injustice all the way,’ he said.