Blake Jayden Tolley sentenced for threats, assault of a police officer

They were there to help him after he’d drunkenly crashed his car but paramedics and police were treated appallingly by a Mary Valley teen whose grotesque threats turned very personal.  

An argument between an 18-year-old Imbil man and his partner over the paternity of their four-month-old baby was only the beginning of a shameful night.

Blake Jayden Tolley would not only crash his car and drunkenly assaulted emergency service workers who were trying to help him but also make vile threats to a police officer and his family - telling him he knew where he lived and warning he would rape his daughter.

Blake Jayden Tolley leaving Gympie District Court on Wednesday, October 20, 2021.

Tolley, 18, pleaded guilty in Gympie District Court to 11 charges, including two charges of serious assault, threats and drink driving.

He was sentenced in Gympie District Court on Wednesday, supported by his partner and family members in the public gallery.

The court heard on June 20 Tolley’s partner had claimed her baby was not his and she was leaving him.

Tolley had a drink before getting behind the wheel of his grandmother’s car, which he later flipped onto its roof after failing to navigate a bend in the road at Kandanga.

Checks showed the car was unregistered, uninsured, and that Tolley was without a licence and the licence plates belonged to another vehicle.

When emergency services arrived at the scene, Tolley was abusive, kicking a plastic water bottle into the back of a paramedic, and trying to headbutt the police officer twice.

Blake Jayden Tolley failed to properly navigate a turn near the Mary Valley Rd and Kandanga Imbil Rd Intersection (pictured), and flipped the car he was driving onto the roof. Photo: Google maps.

He was placed on a stretcher and loaded into the ambulance, but released his safety harness and climbed into the front seat and pressed the vehicle’s horn while the keys were in the ignition and the engine was running.

When he was removed from the vehicle, he caused the police officer to fall and Tolley ran into a nearby paddock.

He was arrested and handcuffed but continued to make threats, and said his family knew where the police officers family lived.

“I’ll come for your family,” he said.

Tolley was sedated and placed back on the stretcher, but made threats to rape the officer’s family.

He described a sexual assault, too horrific to mention and warned the policeman his daughter would scream ‘daddy, daddy, why did that happen to me?’ and you’re going to say, ‘because I arrested people’.”

He then spat in the officer’s direction, but missed.

Tolley was taken to hospital, where a nurse found a small bag with marijuana in his pocket, and a blood test revealed a BAC of 0.109.

Blake Jayden Tolley was taken to Gympie Hospital after the crash, where a nurse found a small bag of cannabis in his pocket.

His defence lawyer told the court Tolley had a rough upbringing, surrounded by drug and alcohol abuse and with a violent dad, but had potential as a rugby league player in school.

He spent the past four months in custody after he was denied bail in Gympie Magistrates Court on June 21, and was still not sure if he was the father of his partner’s baby, but wanted to take on parental roles regardless.

Judge Vicki Loury gave Tolley a stern warning about his behaviour, and said emergency services had a difficult enough job as it was without other people attacking them.

“If you drink and drive like you did and crash your car, what sort of a father would you then be?” she said.

Tolley was placed on three years’ probation.

No conviction was recorded.