More details emerge after man allegedly stabbed stranger in the face at pub

The 35-year-old accused Bannockburn appeared in Warrnambool Magistrates Court on May 8, 2024, charged with intentionally causing serious injury, reckless conduct endangering life and associated offences of violence.

Charge sheets obtained by The Standard reveal the man allegedly used a butter knife to stab the alleged victim, a 48-year-old Western Australian man, to the face.

He was flown to a Melbourne hospital in a stable condition with non-life-threatening injuries after an incident at Mac's Hotel on May 7, 2024.

Detective Senior Constable David Hughson, of the Warrnambool police crime investigation unit, told The Standard there was an altercation involving two men just after 6.30pm.

Emergency services were called, ambulance officers attended and assessed and treated a man for a wound to his face.

The victim was transported to the D. C Farran Oval where he was picked up by a HEMS4 helicopter.

Detective Senior Constable Hughson confirmed the men were not believed to know each other and both were both from out of town.

He confirmed the knife was embedded in the victim's face.

The accused man was arrested, charged and subsequently remanded in custody.

He appeared briefly in the Warrnambool court for a filing hearing.

Magistrate Adriano Serratore ordered a hand-up brief, which contains witness statements and an accused's record of interview, be served on the defence by June 18.

The accused man did not apply for bail.

He was remanded in custody to appear in the same court on August 23.

Mortlake publican Jodie Beeck told a social media website in the aftermath of the alleged incident that all staff and everyone else in the hotel was OK.

It comes as a scourge of knives and violence have plagued the region in the past 12 months.

An 18-year-old held a man he met on dating app Grindr at knife point and demanded he transfer $300 into his bank account during July 2023, while an alleged home invader was slashed to the stomach in September.

A photo of the man's intestines allegedly hanging out was shared online after the September incident.

Then in October a man had to be medically revived four times after he was allegedly stabbed twice in the back at the Portland trawler wharf.

Police were then called to a mid-morning knife fight in west Warrnambool where two men allegedly suffered stab wounds during March 2024.

Knife crime has also plagued the city's courts with a Portland woman jailed in 2023 for 147 days after she stabbed a man in the stomach during an assault that was live-streamed on Facebook.

A good Samaritan was left terrified after a stranger she drove to the Camperdown train station threatened her with a knife, and a teenager who twice-stabbed his victim before fleeing police after a $20,000 drug bust was jailed for two years.

Warrnambool magistrate Gerard Lethbridge highlighted concerns in April 2024 about people carrying knives and then being involved in offences of violence.

His comments followed the Bondi stabbings on April 13, 2024, which killed six people and injured a further 23 in the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre in NSW.

Five women and one man died, while the injured included a nine-month-old girl. The offender was fatally shot by a police inspector.

In light of the attack magistrate Lethbridge told an offender found with knives that no one could carry a blade without a lawful purpose.

He said the Bondi Junction attack had heightened concerns in the community.

Detective Sergeant Andrew Raven, of the Warrnambool police crime investigation unit, said at the time knife crime was historically not a major issue in the region but recent incidents served as a stark example of how dangerous edged weapons could be.