Joseph Formosa was sentenced in Townsville Magistrates Court for assaulting woman at Willows Shopping Centre car park

An elderly man’s dentures went flying as he pulled a woman by her hair outside a shopping centre and punched her repeatedly. Here’s what triggered his attack.

Joseph Formosa was sentenced in Townsville Magistrates Court for assaulting woman at Willows Shopping Centre car park. Picture: file

An elderly man has blamed a ‘brain snap’ for the vicious assault he inflicted on a woman who caught him reversing into another car and walking away at a Townsville shopping centre earlier this year.

Joseph Formosa appeared in Townsville Magistrates Court Monday morning, seemingly unaware he would be spending his birthday this week behind bars.

Police prosecutor Lennon Stathoulis told the court that on February 14 a woman saw the 78-year-old reverse into someone’s car at Willows Shopping Centre and walk away, so she took a photograph.

The man noticed the woman with her phone and approached her vehicle before knocking on the car window and asking her to stop, to which the woman replied it was a public space and she was allowed to do so.

“He raised his fist and she said ‘You’re not going to hit me are you?’ before he punched her four times,” Mr Stathoulis said.

The court was told the woman unbuckled her seatbelt in an attempt to kick at the man, and he spat causing his dentures to fall out.

Mr Stathoulis said the elderly man grabbed the woman by her hair and ripped her out of the car before punching her body as she was on the ground.

It was reported the woman suffered bruises and cuts.

The court was told the man only stopped assaulting the woman when members of the public heard her cries for help and intervened, it was said that the man returned to the woman’s car to collect his dentures before fleeing.

Defence lawyer Murray Bower from Townsville Lawyers said his client who had no criminal history felt the woman was invading his privacy when she took photos of him.

“It doesn’t excuse the conduct,” he said.

“My client felt she was participating in something that was none of her business.”

Mr Bower told the court Formosa, who had no children and not been married before, had no capacity to pay compensation as he was a retiree on a pension.

“He comes before court with a matter he calls an inexplicable brain snap,” the lawyer said.

“He says he’s always tried to live a good life and I’d say his last 77 years attest to living that good life until this event, he offers no excuse for his conduct that day.”

The court was told since the Valentine’s Day assault the man had been reporting to Townsville authorities three times a week as they were concerned he was at “risk” of fleeing back to Melbourne where he was residing previously.

Mr Bower originally suggested the man be sentenced with a fine however Magistrate Lee interjected and said the offending was “far more serious” and would require a term of imprisonment, and the question surrounded if he were going to serve actual time in custody.

Her Honour labelled the offending as “extremely serious” and “completely unjustified”.

Formosa pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm and entering a premises to commit an indictable offence.

He was sentenced to nine months’ jail, suspended for an operational period of 18 months after serving two months of actual time.

The elderly man was escorted out of the courtroom by two policemen, and could be heard asking one of the officers where he was going as the handcuffs were placed on him.

Originally published as Joseph Formosa was sentenced in Townsville Magistrates Court for assaulting woman at Willows Shopping Centre car park