Bevin Johnson cops extended jail time for abuse of ex partner
Crimes of a Queensland man who poured petrol on his former partner, burnt her with a hot knife and taunted her about her dead baby have been described in court. Warning: Graphic
Cairns
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Crimes of a Cairns man who poured petrol on his former partner, burnt her with a hot knife and taunted her about her dead baby has been described in court as sustained, brutal and degrading.
Bevin Johnson pleaded guilty to 16 offences including, four counts of common assault, one count of torture, two counts of suffocation, four counts of assault bodily harm while armed and one count of attempting to pervert justice.
Crown prosecutor Christian Peters told the Cairns District court, Johnson waged a two-year campaign of violence against his former partner.
“It was brutal, sustained and degrading violence inflicted on the complainant,” he said.
“Outside the torture (charge) the defendant has manually strangled the complainant, which is the precursor to homicide in a domestic setting.”
Mr Peters detailed an incident to the court whereby Johnson held a heated butter knife against the leg of the complainant while demanding money.
“And there were a number of times that he was armed with weapons, it’s serious and protracted violence in my submission over a two-year period,” he said.
Present in the court, details of the offending were too much for Johnson’s 19-year-old daughter, who got up and exited the public gallery.
The court heard the qualified plumber and tiler became addicted to ice after being introduced to the drug by his former partner.
The New Zealand citizen now faces deportation at the completion of his jail term.
Defence barrister James Sheridan told the court his client exhibited symptoms of adjustment disorder, substance disorder as well as PTSD and was himself a childhood victim of serious violence at the hand of his father.
He successfully argued against the making of a serious violent offender order meaning Johnson will not have to serve 80 per cent of his sentence before being released on parole.
In handing down sentence Justice Dean Morzone KC detailed a series of horrifically abusive events between 2020 and 2021.
“You offended your partner of four years, you would constantly taunt her over the death of her baby and threatened to kill her if she reported you,” he said.
While living in Mackay Judge Morzone said a drinking session ended with Johnson hitting his former partner, dragging her by the hair and then throwing petrol and paint over her.
The couple went to a local beach to calm down where Johnson told the complainant she was going to die and hit her around the car park until bystanders called the police.
In September 2020 after the woman withdrew $8000 in superannuation and the pair went to a hotel room where Johnson stuffed her mouth with a tea towel, strangled her on a bed then dragged her into the shower and blocked her nose with his fingers before burning her leg with cigarette lighters and a heated up butter knife.
Judge Morzone sentenced a tearful Johnson, who has already served 695 days in custody, to an additional three years in jail.
He will be eligible for parole after August 16, 2026.
“In whatever place you find yourself in life... please take yourself back to the (trade) skills you have and stay away from (the) drugs,” he said.
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Originally published as Bevin Johnson cops extended jail time for abuse of ex partner
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