A MAN accused of throwing a knife at another man at Morpeth, leaving a seven centimetre blade embedded in his eye socket has applied to be released on bail, his solicitor labelling it a "very serious accident", Newcastle Local Court has heard.
Ben Renyard, 37, appeared in court on Friday via audio visual link from jail charged with wounding a person with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and reckless wounding after allegedly throwing a knife at the 26-year-old man at a business on George Street about 8.45pm on July 3.
Mr Renyard has not entered any pleas, but his lawyer, Steven Mercael, argued he should be released on conditional bail because the most serious charge was "doomed to fail" due to their being no CCTV footage of the alleged attack.
He also said police had since taken a statement from the injured man, who said there was no argument beforehand and the knife had not been thrown in his direction.
"It wasn't even [thrown] in my direction," the alleged victim said in a statement to police, Mr Mercael told the court. "So I don't know how it ended up coming towards me."
Mr Mercael said the defence case was that Mr Renyard was "doing something unrelated with the knife... in relation to a bottle of alcohol when unfortunately a very serious accident occurred".
He argued prosecutors had "no prospects of success" in relation to the more serious charge that alleges Mr Renyard wounded the man with intent.
Mr Mercael said there was a possibility of Mr Renyard receiving a jail term if convicted of reckless wounding given the seriousness of the injury, which the court heard included surgery to have a seven centimetre piece of the knife blade removed from his eye socket and the insertion of a glass eye.
"The complainant has given a statement clearly saying nothing was thrown in his direction," Mr Mercael said. "We have a man in custody who has been there for three months. The matter is going to take some time to resolve and if he is to remain in custody then that period would be longer than he could receive if convicted."
Mr Mercael offered a number of conditions, including house arrest, to have Mr Renyard released on bail.
Prosecutors opposed bail, arguing the fresh evidence relating to the lack of CCTV and police statement would not have changed the bail determination last time Mr Renyard applied and the conditions proposed did not mitigate the risks of the 37-year-old interfering with witnesses, failing to appear or committing a further offence.
Magistrate Ian Cheetham deferred his decision until next Friday, noting Mr Renyard is not due to finish an unrelated period of imprisonment until October 8.
