Brenyn Franklin, Joshua Williamson,Terry Pullen sentenced for violent Ipswich assault

A machete and metal bars were used in a brutal Ipswich street brawl leaving three men bashed after a group of men took the law into their own hands and launched a “vigilante” attack.

An Ipswich judge handed down three separate jail terms following a brutal and bloody bashing on a residential street at Bellbird Park.

An Ipswich court heard three young men attacked two brothers and their father after an alleged traffic incident on September 5, 2020.

Terry Pullman was released on bail after beating two men during a violent street fight at Bellbird Park.

Crown prosecutor Amanda Robinson said Ipswich brothers Brenyn Tyla Franklin, Joshua James Williamson and their proclaimed ‘brother’ and friend Terry Pullen were responsible for the violent “vigilante” attack.

After one of the victims allegedly ran over a motorbike on purpose, Ms Robinson said the furious men left to arm themselves before returning to the victim’s home.

Ms Robinson said the youngest of the trio who had no criminal history, Williamson, 20, acted as a lookout while Franklin and Pullen attacked the men.

First, Franklin, 22, punched a man, dropping him to the concrete which cracked his skull and caused a traumatic brain injury.

The court heard the man was lucky to be alive.

Pullman, 22, attacked the injured man’s brother, relentlessly hitting him the man with a metal pole while he lay injured on the ground.

The victim’s father emerged from his home wielding a machete to defend his sons, although he was set upon by Franklin and sustained fractures to his ribs and wrist.

Brenyn Tyla Franklin was jailed after he assaulted a man casing and serious injury to a man brain..

Ms Robinson noted Franklin had a criminal history which included a suspended prison sentence breach, while Pullman’s included assault, stealing, and drugs.

Ms Robinson said police also found drugs hiding under Pullman’s foreskin at the time of his arrest.

Barrister Scott Neaves said Pullman had an exceptionally difficult upbringing and turned to marijuana from the age of 10 to cope with trauma, although by the age of 17 the drug abuse had escalated to shooting up meth.

“The people around him who showed him love became his family, and those people were offenders,” Mr Neaves said.

Franklin’s legal representation said the mechanic apprentice was apologetic for his past actions and had spent 224 days in custody for the crime.

Williamson’s legal representation said during the attack his client who was 18 at the time was not acting as a lookout but had frozen in shock.

Judge Dennis Lynch QC told the young men they were lucky no one was killed during the serious assault.

Judge Lynch QC told the men they should have gone to police as “civilised societies do not take the law into their own hands,”.

On Thursday, February 10, Franklin, Pullman and Williamson, pleaded guilty to two charges of assault causing bodily harm while armed/ in company, and one count of grievous bodily harm.

Pullman also pleaded guilty to drug possession.

Franklin was sentenced to four years jail which will be suspended for four years after he serves 12 months in custody.

As Franklin already served 224 days in pre-sentence custody, he was sent back to jail to serve the remaining 141 days.

Pullman walled free on parole after he was sentenced to four years jail suspended for four years, after the 520 days he spent in pre-sentence custody was declared time served.

Williamson was sentenced to a three year suspended prison sentence and spent less than a day in custody at the time of the crime.