was found guilty of assaulting a woman with a cricket bat and wilfully damaging property.

Upon hearing his sentence, Ricardo Dean Stephens, 20, of Cedar Hill, Warwick, embraced his victim, Elveena Moniz, and apologised to her.

He had pleaded not guilty to assaulting Mrs. Moniz with a cricket bat in her backyard on August 28.

Mrs. Moniz told Magistrates' Court that she heard shouting and arguing in her kitchen yard and went to investigate what was going on.

There she found her oldest son, Matice, and Stephens arguing. She said it seemed to her that there was some "bad blood'' between the two.

She told her son to go inside and keep her younger two children in the house while she "talked some sense'' into Stephens, whom she knew as a friend of the family.

However Stephens would not calm down and did not leave the property although she asked him to repeatedly.

Instead he attempted to go up the kitchen steps with the cricket bat in his hand while she stood to block him.

Stephens swore and threatened to smash the house, Mrs. Moniz said.

During the argument Stephens called her a "bitch'' and she responded by slapping him across the face.

He then took the cricket bat and shoved it in her face causing her glasses to fall to the ground, she continued.

Stephens then began to walk away, but as he went past one of the house windows he hit the bat against the blind.

Mrs. Moniz then went inside and called the Police who took her statement and the cricket bat that Stephens had dropped.

Stephens told the court he did not hit Mrs. Moniz with the bat but agreed the other details were correct.

He called Mrs. Moniz's other son Marcal as his only witness.

The son said: "If he hit my momma with the bat, then she would have had a lot of damage.'' He also referred to a previous incident whereby he and Stephens had broken a man's jaw.

"We guys are doing time now for breaking a jaw with our bare hands, so it ain't possible that the defendant could have hit my momma with a bat and nothing is wrong with her,'' he said.

When cross-examined by Police Prosecutor Insp. Kenrick James, Mr. Moniz also denied seeing his mother's glasses fall to the ground.

Mr. King explained to Stephens that although Mrs. Moniz said he did not hit her with the bat, he had pushed the bat in her face so his action was still considered an assault.

Mr. King also referred to "the good old days where you were flogged'' which encouraged individuals not to repeat their "behaviour''.

In his mitigation, Stephens told Mr. King that he has completely changed his life since the incident.

He said he had gotten involved in the Church and had enrolled himself in anger management classes.

"It was a stupid thing I done. It was stupid the way I acted,'' he said.

Mr. King bound Stephens over to keep the peace for two years.