20yo dad downs bottle of Wild Turkey, punches cop in face

A man who ‘blacked out’ after drinking almost a litre of Wild Turkey told the Gympie court he didn’t remember punching a police officer

SOCIAL MEDIA IMAGE DISCUSS USE WITH YOUR EDITOR - Branden Powell pleaded guilty to assaulting a police officer

A MAN who "blacked out" after drinking almost an entire litre of Wild Turkey told the Gympie Magistrates Court he did not remember punching a police officer or jumping into an unknown bystander's car.

Branden Radford Powell, 20, was in court this week charged with assaulting a police officer, being a public nuisance offence and contravening a requirement by failing to appear.

Police prosecutor Lisa Manns said police were called to the Noosaville Mcdonald's on March 5, after a fight broke out in the car park and one of the men involved, Powell, had jumped into the passenger seat of a stranger's car thinking it was his friend's.

The car belonged to a woman who was waiting for her son to finish a shift at the Mcdonald's and Powell was "dragged" out of the car by his friends.

When police arrived they found him drunk and incoherent, with his shirt torn, and minor injuries and scratches to his face and legs.

Sgt Manns said Powell walked to the rear of the car with police and was placed inside, but they soon heard him kicking to get out and when one officer opened the door Powell leapt out, punching him in the face.

Another officer tried to restrain Powell as he continued to lash out before eventually being put back in the car.

Powell told Magistrate Chris Callaghan he was with a family friend at North Deep Creek that night when he drank "75 per cent" of a litre bottle of Wild Turkey within in an hour, and then spoke to his father, after not speaking to him for a long time.

SOCIAL MEDIA IMAGE DISCUSS USE WITH YOUR EDITOR - Branden Powell pleaded guilty to assaulting a police officer

"That's the last thing that I remember," he said.

"I'm pretty certain that after I spoke to my dad on the phone I went into psychosis and blacked out because somehow I ended up in Noosa."

He told Mr Callaghan he had "probably only drank five times in his life" because alcohol affected him differently, and that a month ago he was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome.

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On March 13, Powell was further charged with contravening a requirement after failing to appear at Gympie court.

Powell, who has one child and another on the way with his partner, said he would "absolutely" be staying off alcohol and knew he would not do something like this again.

He said if the police officers and woman from the car were in court he would want to apologise to them.

Mr Callaghan placed him on 12 months probation.

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