15 Ipswich offenders guilty of assault, violent incidents named - see the full list

With the number of assaults on the rise in Ipswich, offenders behind sickening incidents involving group attacks and bats used to break bones have fronted court. Here are some of the offenders who recently appeared in court. Full list.

The number of assaults reported in Ipswich over the past year is on the rise with the details of brutal and violent attacks emerging in court as perpetrators face justice.

A total of 1326 assault offences have been reported in the Ipswich police district in the past 12 months.

That is markedly up from the 1039 offences from the 12 months prior between September 2019 and September 2020.

From brutal group attacks to headbutting a police officer, the facts about sickening incidents have been laid bare in court in recent years.

Here are 15 people from Ipswich who have been sentenced for violent attacks on their victims.

Dylan Apelu.

DYLAN TYRON APELU, DANE HANNA MULIVAI AND MATTHEW JAMES SUMMERS

Three men who took part in a cowardly attack on a night club patron in 2017 narrowly avoided jail.

An Ipswich court was shown footage taken from Ipswich Safe City cameras, which captured the man running down the street and tripping after being evicted from a venue.

He was then kicked, stomped, and punched as he lay motionless on the road.

The three men appeared in the dock of Ipswich District Court in 2019.

Dylan Apelu pleaded guilty to three counts of assault causing bodily harm when in company and receiving tainted property obtained through a criminal act.

Dane Mulivai.

Dane Mulivai, a former boxer, pleaded guilty to assault causing bodily harm when in company.

Club bouncer Matthew Summers pleaded guilty to three counts assault causing bodily harm when in company; and stealing.

The court heard Summers did not deliver any physical blows.

Crown prosecutor Evan O‘Hanlon-Rose said the victim was aged 22, did not know the men, and had been a patron at The Switch nightclub.

When the man tripped and fell, Mulivai kicked him and Apelu stomped his head and appeared to kick him to the back of his head.

Matthew Summers.

Apelu went on to kick him in the stomach.

Summers bent down and removed the man’s wallet from his pocket, and Apelu stomped his right foot.

The court heard the injured man was taken to Ipswich Hospital suffering bruising to his face and ribs. He also reported blood in his urine.

Apelu was sentenced to nine months’ jail, immediately suspended for one year, with two years of probation.

Summers was sentenced to a two-year probation order. A conviction was not recorded.

Mulivai was sentenced to 12 months’ jail, to be served by way of an Intensive Corrections Order. He was ordered to pay $1500 to the victim.

Luke Daniel Fuller-Genders.

LUKE DANIEL FULLER-GENDERS

A fight after a game of soccer in the Lockyer Valley left a 77-year-old man with a broken arm after he was struck with a baseball bat.

Luke Fuller-Genders pleaded guilty in 2019 to doing grievous bodily harm to Warren Jensen, then 77, and assault causing bodily harm to Kenneth Jensen, then 55, at Laidley in 2018.

A medical report found Mr Jensen’s right arm fractures were consistent with defensive injuries.

The court heard a boy and a girl had been kicking a soccer ball in the street when the Jensens apparently took exception after the ball struck their car.

The boy’s mother later walked to their house but was told to leave.

She refused and punched Kenneth Jensen who then allegedly punched her several times.

Fuller-Genders entered the fray when he heard the mother yelling.

Fuller-Genders swung a baseball bat, striking 77-year-old Jensen once in the forearm.

The younger Jensen was struck as he ran towards his father.

Fuller-Genders was sentenced to two years’ jail for grievous bodily harm, suspended for three years, and two years’ probation for the assault.

James Bale.

JAMES BALE

Wielding a baseball bat, an angry dad made a young man sit on a chair before beating him.

The father had accused the 21-year-old of inappropriate behaviour towards his daughter.

Builder James Bale refused to later tell investigating police the identities of two other men who joined in the assault.

His behaviour was labelled as “vigilante”, an Ipswich court heard in 2018.

James Roderick Bale pleaded guilty in the Ipswich District Court to assault causing bodily harm to the young man while armed with an offensive instrument/and in company; and wilfully and unlawfully damaging a mobile phone.

The young man was a friend of Bale’s daughter.

When the victim arrived in his ute, Bale blocked him in with his own car, then reached inside the ute and took the keys.

Bale briefly went inside and walked out holding a metal baseball bat in one hand and a black metal pipe in the other.

Mr Anoozer said Bale began to hit the man with the bat while he was seated on a chair.

The man had put up his arms yelling to Bale to stop.

He was struck five or six times.

The court heard the victim was taken to another area where two other men began to assault him.

He fell to the ground twice before managing to run back to his ute.

Bale asked the man if he had any messages or photos on his mobile phone from his daughters before smashing the phone.

The man drove to Ipswich Hospital where his injuries, including a fractured eye socket and bruises to his arms and torso, were treated.

Bale was sentenced to 18 months’ jail, suspended for three years in which he must be of good behaviour.

He was ordered to pay $5000 compensation to his victim.

Nathan Nicholls.

JOSEPH ETHAN NICHOLLS AND NATHAN JAMES NICHOLLS

Distressed after his partner ended their marriage, a young man focused his anger on the woman’s father when he returned to their house to collect his property.

In 2019, an Ipswich court heard Joseph Nicholls hadn’t fully come to terms with the break-up of his relationship.

The incident escalated further when his brother Nathan joined the assault on the then 45-year-old man.

Joseph Nicholls from Collingwood Park and Nathan Nicholls from Bellbird Park pleaded guilty to assault causing bodily harm at Collingwood Park on August 21, 2016.

Joseph Nicholls.

Sergeant O’Neill said Joseph was the primary aggressor and delivered punches to the man and continued to attack when the victim was on the ground.

Photos of the injures showed clear trauma to both eyes.

Nathan became involved in the attack only once the victim was on the ground.

The brothers were sentenced to six months‘ jail, immediately suspended for 12 months.

Aaron Davidson.

AARON BARRY DAVIDSON

Apparent bad blood between a horse trainer and farrier boiled over at a trotting event.

A horse trainer was knocked out with two punches to the face, delivered by farrier Aaron Davidson at the Marburg Trots in 2018.

Ipswich Magistrates Court heard that Davidson claimed assault victim Francis Weston, then 60, blew a kiss in his direction.

Davidson, a farrier from Rosewood, pleaded guilty to seriously assaulting a person aged over 60.

Davidson said Mr Weston “blew a kiss” to him and spittle landed on his chest and a child’s arm.

Davidson said it was taken as a threat and he proceeded to punch Mr Weston twice in the face.

He told police he punched the horse trainer to the side of his nose and to the cheek, saying he became furious as he believed he and his son were spat on.

Davidson was fined $1200. No conviction was recorded.PIC

Dion Nu'upotopoto Tavita-Matavale.

DION NU’UPOTOPOTO TAVITA-MATAVALE

An argument between two families erupted into a nasty brawl after a few carloads of young males turned up to a local sports ground.

Ipswich District Court in March heard one man had to be taken to hospital with serious injuries after he was punched, kicked and stomped on.

One of the offenders, Dion Nu’upotopoto Tavita-Matavale from Redbank Plains, pleaded guilty to assault causing bodily harm when in company over the September 2019 incident.

The court heard Tavita-Matavale kicked the injured man in the neck while he was on the ground, with other offenders stomping on him.

The court heard the man lost consciousness and was hospitalised for three days.

A fight had earlier been planned between the victim and Tavita-Matavale’s brother.

The injured male suffered a deep laceration to his upper lip that required stitches.

He also had bruising to his left eye, swelling to his jaw, and some cuts and grazes.

The man’s victim impact statement said he suffered nightmares and felt unable to go out.

Tavita-Matavale was sentenced to a supervised 18-month probation order. No conviction was recorded.

Hewan Geoffrey Sampson.

HEWAN GEOFFREY SAMPSON

Grabbed in a bear hug by a senior police officer who he had known for years, Hewan Sampson inexplicably reared his head and headbutted the sergeant.

The blow left the police officer reeling with a painful injury to his left eye socket.

Sampson was being evicted from his local hotel when celebrating Christmas with family in Toogoolawah in 2018.

The nasty assault earned him a jail term after he appeared in Ipswich Magistrates Court.

Hewan Sampson pleaded guilty to seriously assaulting Sergeant John Cumner at the Toogoolawah Hotel.

Security were trying to remove him when Sergeant Cumner and a Rosewood police officer entered the venue.

Sergeant Cumner identified himself as a police officer and recognised Sampson, telling him to leave the pub because Sampson was drunk.

Sampson was seen to pull an arm back to throw a punch at a security guard and Sergeant Cumner restrained him in a bear hug, saying ‘Hewan, it’s me’.

Police allege Sampson recognised the officer but then “cocked his head and forcibly headbutted Sergeant Cumner in his face”.

Sampson was given an informal breath test, returning an alcohol reading of .081.

The injured officer was taken to hospital with bruising and swelling to the left eye.

He was convicted and sentenced to eight months’ jail.

The jail term suspended for 18 months.

William Pearson.

WILLIAM CHARLES PEARSON

A neighbour’s loud music proved to much for a pensioner who finally snapped and clobbered the man with a wooden stake in the dark.

William ‘Bill’ Charles Pearson from Leichhardt, pleaded guilty in Ipswich Magistrates Court in 2019 to assault causing bodily harm when armed.

Senior Constable Carl Spargo said the neighbour, a man named Peter, reported the assault to police the following day.

Peter said his wife found him unconscious.

The man told police he’d been playing music through his computer monitor when police arrived following a noise complaint.

Later that night he walked across the street to the home of another neighbour.

“When walking back home, he heard a man say ‘hey, Pete’, and saw a shadowy person in the dark. He said he was hit with a what looked like a metal bar,” Senior Constable Spargo said.

“He put his arm up and it hit his shoulder.

“He said he passed out on the couch and was found by his partner the next day.”

Pearson was convicted and sentenced to four months’ jail, which was suspended for eight months.

Ben and Michael Briody.

MICHAEL BRIODY AND BEN BRIODY

What should have been a relaxing night watching a rugby league game imploded when two Ipswich brothers attacked a neighbour.

A court heard the worst offender was Ben Briody, who smashed his way into the next door neighbour‘s house before striking him with a PVC pipe.

Ben’s older brother Michael didn’t enter the neighbour’s home until after the pipe was broken and the serious assault had ended.

Ben, from Redbank Plains, pleaded guilty in Ipswich District Court in 2019 to break and enter while armed in 2017; and unlawfully assaulting and causing bodily harm.

Michael, from Sadliers Crossing, pleaded guilty to the charge of assault causing bodily harm in company.

The court heard there had been a verbal altercation with the neighbour earlier that day about a dog.

While watching the game a loud noise was heard that the brothers believed to be caused by a rock thrown by the neighbour.

Ben grabbed a PVC pipe and ran to the man’s house.

Ben used the pipe to assault his neighbour who lay on the floor trying to protect his head from the blows.

The pipe was used with such force it shattered.

Michael went into the house to remove Ben but while the victim was on the ground Michael punched him, and Ben kicked him the man in the ribs.

Michael was sentenced to nine months’ jail with immediate parole.

Ben was sentenced to an 18-month jail term with immediate parole.

Saphfire Angel Erihe-Schaeffer.

SAPHFIRE ANGEL ERIHE-SCHAEFFER AND JONATHON WILLIAM GRAHAM

A despicable attack by teens high on ice left a woman suffering injuries when she was “thrown like a rag doll” and her head slammed into concrete.

The then 25-year-old woman was in the car park of Riverlink Shopping Centre in 2019 when she was violently assaulted in a bid to get her car keys and steal her Ford Mondeo.

Saphfire Erihe-Schaeffer from Raceview and Jonathon Graham from Leichhardt pleaded guilty in Ipswich District Court last year to attempted robbery with personal violence in company at North Ipswich; and unlawful use of a motor vehicle (that car belonged to another victim in a separate incident).

The court heard the attempted car stealing at The Terrace in Riverlink involved the woman being grabbed by Graham, his shirt covering his face and nose, with demands made for her car keys.

“She tried to get away. He threw her around like a rag doll. She struck her head on concrete bollard,” Crown prosecutor Clayton Wallis said.

The woman was screaming for help, he head wound bleeding profusely with blood running into her eyes obscuring her vision as she wrestled with Graham.

A good Samaritan came to the defenceless woman’s aid when he heard the commotion.

The pair got her keys but were then unable to start her car and fled on foot.

“It was serious, brazen, gratuitous and horrific,” Mr Wallis said.

Graham was sentenced to concurrent jail terms of two years, and 12 months with parole after he’d served one third.

Erihe-Schaeffer was sentenced to 18-months jail, suspended for two years after she served 111 days which she already had, and a concurrent jail term of 12 months for unlawful use.

Read more stories by Lachlan McIvor here.