Jay Harvey sentenced to jail after being convicted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm

Jay Harvey, 31, of Packham Drive, Manildra, is appealing the jail sentence he was given for assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

According to police, Harvey followed the male victim and a woman east along Summer Street at 7pm on July 1, 2021.

Although he did not know either of them and they were walking on the other side of the road to him Harvey began to yell at them.

"What are you looking at c***?" he yelled.

However, the man and woman continued walking on the northern side of the street and when he got no response Harvey continued yelling and crossed the road.

When they reached the outside of the Oscar Wylee optometrist he came up behind the victim and woman yelling.

He was gesturing to fight and stepped towards the victim until he was 10 centimetres from the victim's face. The victim reached out and placed his hands around Harvey's throat to walk him back and create distance between them.

However, Harvey closed the distance again and they got into a fight with Harvey ending up on top of the victim on the ground. He had both hands on the victim's face and attempted to scratch out the victim's eye balls.

The woman tried to intervene and pull Harvey off the victim, who was able to slip out of Harvey's grip.

The woman then identified herself as a NSW Police officer and Harvey turned his attention to her yelling "f*** you, you dog".

Harvey left when another witness approached and walked across to the Lone Star Restaurant where he kicked over a sign, then he kicked over another sign outside Subway while the victim and the woman waited for the police to arrive.

However, before police arrived Harvey ran back towards them and during a scuffle he scratched the victim's hand.

Harvey was arrested and while in custody was found in possession of 0.5 grams of cannabis for which he was convicted but received no further penalty.

Magistrate David Day sentenced him to nine months' jail with a five-month non-parole period. However, he released Harvey on bail after he applied for a severity appeal, which will be held in the district court.

Solicitor Clive Hill said at the time of the offence Harvey was unemployed after losing his job as a result of the COVID situation.

Mr Hill said he had been to a party and was not sure if his drink was spiked or if it was the alcohol that affected his behaviour and he had no memory of the offence.

Mr Hill said Harvey also had mental health conditions that he had previously been medicated for.

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