A ONE-LEGGED man who stabbed an associate in the stomach outside Broadmeadow railway station earlier this year and then chased him down the road with the blade hidden behind his back has pleaded guilty in Newcastle Local Court.
Zac Rolls-Fitzgerald, now 26, was represented by solicitor Adrian Kiely when he appeared in court on Wednesday via audio visual link from Cessnock Correctional Centre.
He pleaded guilty to reckless wounding and resisting arrest after the DPP agreed to withdraw the more serious charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
Rolls-Fitzgerald, who in 2020 was jailed for his role in a home invasion at Valentine and for robbing a 17-year-old boy with a toy shotgun, will next appear in Newcastle District Court next month to get a sentence date.
Rolls-Fitzgerald and the victim, a 28-year-old man, made contact about 10am on April 14 this year and agreed to meet at Broadmeadow.
CCTV from the Broadmeadow railway station captured the victim waiting at the intersection of Graham Road and Broadmeadow Road about 10 minutes later when Rolls-Fitzgerald appeared.
The pair are shown walking towards each other and speaking briefly before Rolls-Fitzgerald suddenly produces a knife and stabs the victim in the stomach.
The victim immediately fled down the road, with Rolls-Fitzgerald following behind him.
At the same time patrolling police turned into Broadmeadow Road and saw Rolls-Fitzgerald chasing the victim with a knife hidden behind his back.
When police caught up to the pair and called out for Rolls-Fitzgerald to stop, he threw the knife into a hedge outside a home and continued to go after the victim.
The pair began fighting before police broke it up and the victim said: "He stabbed me", pulling up his shirt to reveal a wound bleeding profusely.
Police told Rolls-Fitzgerald he was under arrest and told him to sit down, but he repeatedly refused and kept going after the victim.
He tried to grab a police baton and attempted to walk away and had to be capsicum sprayed and tackled to the ground by officers.
Police found the knife in bushes nearby and DNA swabs later confirmed a match to Rolls-Fitzgerald.
Meanwhile, the victim was taken to the emergency department at John Hunter Hospital for treatment to a wound to his abdomen.
