Shocking cases of last 12 months through Gympie District Court
From a Bells Bridge man’s attack on a woman, to a tragic case of industrial manslaughter, and a horrific attack on a woman in the Toolara Forest, these are 11 cases that appalled the community and court this past year. WARNING: Distressing, graphic content.
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The Gympie District Court has heard some sad and shocking cases in the past 12 months but these are some of the most serious.
From a man who left a woman tied up in the Toolara Forest to rodeo clown home invader who assaulted a man and then asked if they were still mates, these trials and sentencings that took place in the District Court
Riley Colin Carkeet
A 20-year-old convicted sex offender, who was brutally assaulted by his 12-year-old victim’s father after hearing what he did, was sentenced for the crime that left the girl traumatised.
Riley Colin Carkeet pleaded guilty to having unlawful carnal knowledge of a girl under 16 when he faced the Gympie District Court on July 12, 2021.
The court heard Carkeet, who was 19 at the time, picked up the then 12-year-old girl to watch a movie with him at his house.
“You watched a movie in the bedroom, after which you turned off the TV and the lights,” Judge Vicki Loury said.
She said the young victim felt scared and Carkeet comforted her by putting his arm around her and watching Tik Tok videos with her for about an hour.
“You then kissed her, removed her clothing and your own; she was paralysed with fear and couldn’t speak,” she said.
The court heard Carkeet attempted to have sex with the underage girl, but was unsuccessful.
He tried to calm the girl down by telling her “it’s fine, it’s okay”, and tried again, only stopping when she shouted for him to do so.
Ms Loury said the same day Carkeet was arrested, he was bashed by the victim’s father after he found out what had happened.
Carkeet narrowly avoided jail due to the circumstances of his offending, and was instead given a 12-month intensive correction order.
Billy-Jack Crowley
The Gympie District Court heard gruesome details of the night a man “betrayed” a woman when he showed up to her house drunk and sexually and physically assaulted her.
Bell’s Bridge man Billy-Jack Crowley, 40, pleaded guilty to sexual assault and common assault when he faced the court on October 22, 2021.
It heard the night of terror began late on March 21, 2019, when Crowley, who was 37 at the time, drunkenly arrived on the doorstep of the house of a woman he knew.
Crown Prosecutor Katrina Overell said the victim was concerned Crowley was drunk and let him inside, but he began stripping his clothes off and demanding oral sex.
She said no.
“He then went to the bedroom and said if she didn’t give him sex, he would rape her,” Ms Overell said.
The assault continued with details too graphic to describe, with Crowley attempting to dominate her and pressure her into sex.
The horrific event only stopped when the victim pushed Crowley off her, the court heard.
Crowley then got dressed but was aggressive towards the victim and she called the police out of fear.
Before police arrived, Crowley left the house and walked towards the victim’s elderly neighbours’ house, cursing at her as he left.
As the victim tried to stop him, Crowley punched her twice on either side of her head.
Crowley was sentenced to 12 months jail, suspended for two years and placed on two years probation.
Glenn Edward Cruickshank
A Dunmora man who violently assaulted a Bells Bridge man while he lay in bed, was sentenced to jail.
Glenn Edward Cruickshank, 46, broke into a 77-year-old Bells Bridge man’s home after he was sent an insulting text meant for someone else.
Cruickshank approached the man at a bar at a Maryborough rodeo in November 2021, only to be told to leave him alone.
Cruickshank later confronted him via text about their earlier interaction, only to receive an offensive reply calling him a “C---head”, which was apparently meant for someone else.
Crown Prosecutor Annica Fritz said this enraged Cruickshank, who texted back “see you in 15 (minutes). I’m in Gympie … I thought we were mates. Dog C---”.
An hour later, the man was lying awake in his bed when Cruickshank broke in through a sliding screen door and attacked him.
Cruickshank smelled of alcohol.
Ms Fritz told the court Cruickshank punched him multiple times to the head while the man pleaded with him to stop; even telling him he had been to hospital that day for heart murmurs.
“Immediately after he was told this, the defendant punched the complainant to the chest,” Ms Fritz said.
Cruickshank then dragged him out of bed and onto the floor, where he continued to punch him in the face and head.
“He was telling the complainant he was going to break his jaw,” she said.
Cruickshank then attempted to strangle him, twice.
“(The victim) said to police ‘the lights were going out’ and he ‘thought he wasn’t coming back’,” Ms Fritz said.
The violence then stopped, as Cruickshank leaned in and told the man not to call police.
He then shook the man’s hand and said “we’re still mates, right?” before fleeing the property.
The man suffered numerous bruises to his face, neck and chest, but did not make a complaint to police until six days later.
Cruickshank was sentenced to two and a half years jail, but only served six weeks after spending 229 days in presentence custody. He was released on parole on September 5, 2022.
Phillip Leonard Doolan
A 39-year-old Gympie man was convicted of one count of assault occasioning bodily harm and three counts of common assault in the Gympie District Court on July 27.
The court heard Phillip Leonard Doolan was between the ages of 36 and 37 at the time of the offences, which included punching a woman in the face, then chasing her down when she tried to escape.
He then punched her again, causing bruising to her face, it heard.
On a later date, Doolan punched the same woman in the face again, causing her to fall down.
Doolan also made a young boy cry after he chased him down, drove his knee into his back and pulled his shoulders back.
Crown prosecutor Sam Rigby said a victim impact statement from Doolan’s victim shared a “significant impact” including panic attacks and vivid dreams.
Doolan was sentenced to three years behind bars, but after spending 620 days in presentence custody, was immediately released on parole on July 27, 2022.
Harley Keith George Groves
A 25-year-old former chef convicted of a spate of violent offences including deprivation of liberty and choking was jailed on December 3, 2021.
Harley Keith George Groves appeared in Gympie District Court via video link and pleaded guilty to 13 charges, including deprivation of liberty, assault occasioning bodily harm and common assault.
Groves, who had assaulted a woman multiple times over several days in June 2021, drove her to Toolara State Forest and told her to lay on her stomach while he tied her arms and legs.
Crown Prosecutor Zachary Kaplan said when the woman tried to break free, Groves became enraged and insinuated to her that she was going to die.
He then left her tied up in the forestry, returning some time later to untie her and force her to walk beside the car he was driving while he screamed at her to walk faster.
On a separate date, Groves punched the woman in the face after she brought him a slice of pizza, then drove her back out to the Toolara Forest, the court heard.
When she tried to escape his car, he put her into a headlock and strangled her. After Groves dropped the woman back at her house some time later, she called 000 and Groves was arrested on June 10, 2021.
He said despite the serious nature of the offending, the victim did not sustain significant physical injuries and there was no suggestion she ever lost consciousness when she was choked.
His 176 days spent in pre-sentence custody was declared time served, and Groves spent a further three months behind bars.
Daniel James Flight
A former McDonald’s employee and Gympie man condemned his possession of 50 child abuse videos and countless more images while his sentence was handed down in court on December 3, 2021.
Daniel James Flight, 21, faced the Gympie District Court via video link, where he pleaded guilty to 13 charges relating to the possession and distribution of child abuse material.
The court heard the offences occurred over a two-year period between August 2019 and April 2021, where Flight, aged between 18 and 20 at the time, was involved in sharing and distributing child abuse material online with more than 800 internet users over four different platforms.
Flight sometimes “traded” material with other users and regularly requested “underage porn”, the court heard.
Police found 50 videos and countless images of child abuse material during a search warrant, the court heard.
The material was described as “hard-core” and some of the children were as young as three years old.
He was ordered into a $1000 good behaviour bond for 18 months, and the 288 days spent in pre-sentence custody was declared as time served with an immediate release.
Shane Stanley Jocumsen
A former Queensland councillor was found guilty of four out of five historical sex allegations he was charged with in Gympie District Court.
Shane Stanley Jocumsen, 61, who served as a Cooloola Shire councillor from 2004 to 2008, was found guilty on April 22, 2022 of three charges of indecent treatment of a boy under 17, and one charge of indecent assault.
The offences happened on an unknown date between 1979 and 1980, and in 1985, when Jocumsen was between the ages of 19 and 25.
The court previously heard Jocumsen used his weight to “pin down” his victims during the assaults.
Jocumsen targeted the first complainant, the teenage boy, while he was alone and inappropriately touched him before dragging him to a bedroom and indecently dealing with him.
“The defendant … pinned him down by using his weight across (the victim’s) body,” Mr Stark said. Jocumsen then performed an indecent act shortly after, still on top of his victim.
Then, approximately five years later in 1985, Jocumsen inappropriately touched his second victim, the court heard.
Jocumsen worked alongside the Salvation Army, the Gympie Show Society and served as councillor in the early 2000s.
Jocumsen also worked as a school facilities officer at James Nash State High School for ten years, until he was charged with the crimes before the court and had his blue card revoked.
Jocumsen was sentenced to 18 months in jail, but will be eligible for parole after eight months.
Justin Shane Chapman
There were tears in Gympie District Court on June 22, 2022, when a 33-year-old junior rugby coach was sentenced over a physical and sexual attack on a group of teens on the Cooloola Coast in 2020.
Justin Shane Chapman was the second man to be dealt with for the incident, after his co-accused Joel Andrew Kenneth Murray pleaded guilty to two counts of common assault and one of going armed to cause fear.
The court heard Chapman and Murray were travelling along Teewah Beach on the evening of September 23, 2020, when they came across a group of 20 teenagers camping.
The teenagers were aged between 17 and 18 at the time, and did not know Murray or Chapman, who were drunk at the time.
The court heard the men joined the teenagers at their campsite, but quickly outstayed their welcome when Chapman made unwanted sexual advances towards some of the teens.
Nine of the teens were assaulted during their visit, including a 17-year-old girl whose chest Chapman touched inappropriately with a beer bottle and asked “do you like that?”.
He then squeezed her bottom and inappropriately touched her between her shorts and underwear.
He later grabbed the crotch of an 18-year-old boy and asked if he was “sleeping with the boys later on?”, and went on to inappropriately touch two more boys, grab the bottom of another boy, force a kiss on an 18-year-old girl’s cheek and another kiss onto a separate 18-year-old girl sitting in a camp chair.
Chapman also punched one of the boys he inappropriately touched when he was asked to leave, and a fight broke out.
Chapman was sentenced to 21 months behind bars, suspended for three years. He was also placed on three years’ probation for the assault occasioning bodily harm charge.
Jeffrey Owen
History was made in Gympie District Court on March 25, 2022, when local business owner Jeffrey Owen was found guilty of industrial manslaughter.
A Queensland Industrial Relations spokesperson told The Gympie Times Owen was the first individual in the country to be convicted of the charge, which commenced under the Workplace Health and Safety Act in 2017 in the wake of the deaths of four people at Dreamworld the year before.
Owen, 67, who owns Owen’s Electrical Motor Rewind on Tozer St, was charged after 60-year-old Gympie man Noel Ormes was crushed to death by a falling generator on July 3, 2019.
CCTV footage showed the rear of the forklift lift off the ground while carrying the generator.
The man helping Owen and Mr Ormes had jumped on the back of the forklift to act as a counterweight after Owen, who was operating the forklift, had left the vehicle unattended.
Then, the generator slipped from the tines of the forklift, rolled on to its side and landed on Mr Ormes, crushing his pelvis and legs.
Owen had assisted with investigations, but pleaded not guilty to industrial manslaughter on March 22.
He was sentenced to five years behind bars, but will only serve 18 months before the rest of his sentence is suspended. A conviction was recorded.
Lloyd John Tree
A 79-year-old Tin Can Bay man was jailed after it was revealed he scammed the Australian Government out of more than $330,000.
Details of how Lloyd John Tree spent nearly two decades using a false identity to obtain a second passport and numerous government benefits were shared in the Gympie District Court on July 18, 2022.
The court heard Tree, who was 58 at the time, first assumed the identity of Russell Graham Tree in 1998, after the real Russell Tree passed away in Western Australia almost 50 years earlier in 1948.
He used the false identity to obtain a second passport, and proceeded to scam the federal government out of $337,313.77 in social security benefits, while already receiving social security benefits in his own name.
The court heard Tree even appealed a decision to reject a disability support pension application under the false identity during this time.
This continued for more than 18 years, until Tree was caught on August 20, 2019, while making an application for a new passport using his real identity.
The court heard he was undone with facial recognition technology from the Australian Passport Office, which launched an investigation and was arrested on October 1, 2019, at 76-years-old.
He pleaded guilty to five charges, including defrauding the commonwealth, giving false or misleading information in relation to an Australian travel document, and three charges of obtaining financial advantage by deception.
He was jailed for four years, but will be released on parole on January 18, 2024. A conviction was recorded.
Ian Byron Anderson
A 41-year-old Booyal man with a history of violence was given “one last time” to redeem himself after he bashed his step children’s father unconscious in the middle of a Rainbow Beach intersection.
Ian Bryon Anderson was sentenced in Gympie District Court on July 29, 2022, after the court heard details of the vicious attack on July 27.
Anderson pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm.
On July 27, the court heard the victim, who was the father of Anderson’s step children, was walking to collect his children from Anderson and his partner’s home in Rainbow Beach on the Cooloola Coast when he was approached by Anderson at an intersection.
Crown prosecutor Annika Fritz said Anderson told the victim to “leave the kids here” before punching him in the face.
The victim was knocked unconscious and fell onto the bitumen, but Anderson continued to kick his motionless body, Ms Fritz said.
The attack only stopped when two witnesses intervened and called police.
The victim suffered swelling to his right eye socket and right side of his face, but was otherwise not seriously injured.
Anderson was sentenced to 18 months behind bars but he was immediately released on parole.
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