A person who helped gangland widow Roberta Williams assault the producer of her actuality tv collection was solely "making up the numbers", his lawyer says.
Jake Sexton, 27, joined Williams and three others to confront Ryan Naumenko in July 2019 after the tv challenge fell by.
Naumenko promised Williams, the previous spouse of murdered underworld killer Carl Williams, that he would make her numerous cash however she claimed he didn't pay up.
Williams enlisted Sexton and the others to blackmail the producer, luring him to a Collingwood studio on the night of July 9 that yr.
Sexton and one of many different males repeatedly punched the sufferer to the pinnacle whereas Williams yelled out, "kill the c--- – he has no cash".
Over three hours, Naumenko was repeatedly assaulted and threatened.
He was compelled to name his father and sister asking them to every switch $1000 to the offenders, which they did.
Naumenko was additionally made to signal a doc transferring the possession of his mom's automotive to the group.
One of many offenders then drove Naumenko house and ordered him to not inform the police. Williams later despatched the sufferer a message thanking him for his help.
Naumenko sustained quite a few bruises and cuts to his face and scalp throughout the assault.
His jaw remains to be out of alignment to at the present time and he struggles to exit in public, the sufferer mentioned in a press release.
Sexton on Monday pleaded responsible within the County Court docket in Melbourne to at least one cost of deliberately inflicting damage.
The 27-year-old admits assaulting the sufferer however he didn't make any of the unwarranted calls for or threats, his lawyer James McQuillan mentioned.
"He was referred to as in on the final second to make up the numbers with out realizing what it was all about," McQuillan informed the court docket.
"He foolishly and naively agreed to partake."
Though Sexton had related prior convictions, McQuillan mentioned he was nonetheless a younger man with steady employment.
He didn't obtain any monetary reward from collaborating within the assault and as a substitute was solely following orders, the lawyer mentioned.
A neighborhood corrections order with unpaid work circumstances can be an applicable punishment, McQuillan submitted.
Sexton was launched on bail forward of his sentence listening to on Friday.
Williams earlier this yr pleaded responsible to fees of blackmail and recklessly inflicting damage. She can even be sentenced later this week.