Patrick James Carroll in court for using a phone to make threats

A Gympie region golf coach who “snapped” at a bakery worker and threatened to blow up the building if the workers were not arrested has fronted court. See how it all unfolded.

A Cooloola Cove golf coach threatened to “blow up” a local bakery after an argument over the phone with a worker.

Patrick James Carroll, 37, pleaded guilty in Gympie Magistrates Court on Monday to two charges of using a carriage service to menace, harass or be offensive.

The court heard Carroll visited a bakery in a Cooloola Cove shopping centre at around 1pm on January 29, 2022, and asked for a plain pie, but none were left.

Carroll left the store only to return a short time later to buy a frozen plain pie.

Police prosecutor Michael Phillips said Carroll then called the store 15 minutes later, where he asked a staff member “how come when the main lady is not there, everything goes wrong?”.

Patrick James Carroll pleaded guilty to two charges of using a phone service to harass, threaten or be menacing.

He then asked why the young workers were in the shop alone and threatened to call the Queensland Government.

Sgt Phillips said Carroll continued to rant, but the worker hung up on him only for Carroll to call back almost immediately.

“The defendant sounded angrier and ranted at the victim, who recalled him saying: ‘I’m so angry. You’d better listen to me or I’ll come down and kick your a**es,” Sgt Phillips said.

The worker threatened to call police, hung up the phone and blocked Carroll’s number before he could try calling again.

But Carroll got to the police first, and told them he was “about to lose himself mentally and physically”.

“As he spoke to the call taker, he became more aggressive and demanding,” Sgt Phillips said.

“The defendant demanded that police arrest the (bakery worker) or he would go down and blow the place up.”

He then ended the call by saying he was “going to commit”, but did not specify what he meant.

Gympie Magistrates Court heard Patrick Carroll threatened to “blow up” a Cooloola Coast bakery if a worker he argued with on the phone was not arrested.

At 3.20pm, Tin Can Bay police and paramedics were called.

Magistrate Chris Callaghan said Carroll’s behaviour was “strange”.

Defence lawyer Laura Nightingale agreed, and said her client was being treated by a neurologist.

“There’s been some attempts to try and recognise whether there is some sort of injury, or damage or something wrong with his brain, but they cannot pinpoint anything,” she said.

She said Carroll had found out his friend’s seven-year-old daughter had died the day he made the threats, and the death reminded him of his 20-month-old niece’s death five weeks earlier.

“He just snapped. He didn’t have any intention of acting upon what he was saying,” she said.

Despite the nature of the threats, Mr Callaghan ordered Carroll be placed on probation for 12 months.

No conviction was recorded.