- Mervyn Davidson has been jailed for violently attacking woman with baseball bat
- The 44-year-old pleaded guilty to charges over a ‘ferocious’ supermarket attack
- The man was jailed for 11 years for knocking woman unconscious with the bat
A New South Wales man was in the grip of a drug-induced psychosis when he bashed an Aldi cashier with a baseball bat before customers helped wrestle him to the ground, a court has been told.
Mervyn Davidson, 44, previously pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the ‘ferocious’ supermarket attack in the Illawarra region in January 2017.
He also admitted later punching a police officer and choking – but not killing – a cellmate with his T-shirt.
Mervyn Davidson (pictured) was in the grip of a drug-induced psychosis when he bashed an Aldi cashier with a baseball bat
The 44-year-old man previously pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the ‘ferocious’ supermarket attack in the Illawarra region in January 2017
Judge Andrew Haesler at Wollongong District Court on Friday sentenced him to 11 years in prison with a non-parole period of seven years and eight months over the string of assaults.
The Judge said the Aldi worker wouldn’t have had time to react and may not have seen Davidson coming before he knocked her unconscious with a swing to the head.
Davidson, who was in the grip of a drug-fuelled psychosis, kicked her as she lay on the ground and said: ‘Open the register. Give me money. Open the till.’
He struck another Aldi staffer – who had rushed to his co-worker’s aid – before customers helped wrestle him to the ground.
The female cashier was in hospital for five days with head injuries and it was months before she could drive or return to work. She is yet to resume full shifts.
The court was told Davidson punched a police officer in the face after he was arrested and later used a T-shirt to choke his new cellmate unconscious in an attack that continued for some time.
The NSW man (pictured being wrestled to the ground by staff workers) was jailed for 11 years with a non-parole period of seven years
He had been released on parole months earlier after an aggravated break-and-enter, and Judge Haesler said since 2003 he’d only spent a few months out of custody.
‘He was not well equipped for normal community life,’ he said.
The judge took into account Davidson’s breach of parole, the need for community protection, and his troubled background including early exposure to alcohol, drugs and violence.
He said the severity of his sentence should not operate to destroy his prospects of rehabilitation.
Davidson will be eligible for parole in 2024 with his sentence expiring in 2028.