A CARAVANNER was punched and choked by a mentally ill intruder as he showered at a Victorian caravan park, a court was told.

The victim was assaulted in the amenities block while holidaying at the 70-site Moe Gardens Caravan Park in the Latrobe Valley, the local county court heard.

Twenty-five-year-old Matthew Graeme Richie – a resident at the park when the attack happened in April – was jailed for 18 months for aggravated burglary and intentionally causing injury.

His victim was said to now suffer emotional trauma and was too frightened to use shower blocks or public toilets. He had received bruising and swelling to his eye socket and a grazed forehead after being punched and choked in a headlock during the Sunday morning attack.

Richie, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and, it was said, could have been having hallucinations at the time of the attack, later admitted to police that he did not know who was in the shower.

He had gone there to fight and hurt the victim, the court heard.

Psychiatrist Ruth Vine said in a report that Richie was unable to weigh up whether his actions were right or wrong and was "acutely psychiatrically unwell''.

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