Booval dad Richard Robert Kura Cloudy jailed for relentless assault on woman

A court has heard how a Booval dad with a history of domestic violence repeatedly punched a woman as she screamed at him to stop.

A Booval man with a violent criminal history has been jailed for a shocking assault on a woman.

Richard Robert Kura Cloudy, 26, pleaded guilty in Ipswich Magistrates Court on Friday (July 22) to assault occasioning bodily harm (domestic violence), two breaches of a domestic violence order, and once count of enter premises and commit indictable offence by break.

The court heard that in May, 2020, Cloudy was at a woman’s house in Ipswich when the two had a verbal argument.

Cloudy told her to “f*ck off” and they continued arguing before he warned her “you’re making me angry”.

The court heard Cloudy then punched her in the face and she fell back into a wall.

He continued to punch her and she fell to the floor.

The woman attempted to shield her face and yelled at him to stop but Cloudy covered her mouth to stop her screaming.

She headbutted Cloudy, who she realised was drunk, hitting him and causing him to stop briefly before he resumed hitting her.

The court heard Cloudy eventually left, and the woman had bruising around her eyes.

Just over a week later, Cloudy broke into her house and stole her phone charger.

“This is unacceptable behaviour,” Magistrate Andy Cridland said.

He noted Cloudy’s offending was particularly serious because his criminal history included violent offences against multiple victims, including an incident in which he punched the dashboard of a car, took a victim’s phone and stomped on it.

He also tried to open the victim‘s car doors as she drove off, even though children were inside.

The court heard Cloudy was, at that time of this most recent offending, on a suspended sentence for similar offending.

Defence lawyer Kevin Rose said Cloudy’s mother and employer had both put forward statements defending his character.

Mr Rose said Cloudy had struggled with anger management after suffering significant trauma at a young age, with alcohol abuse also contributing to his offending.

“Realistically you need to address these problems or you’re going to spend many years in prison,” said Mr Cridland.

He sentenced Cloudy to 18 months‘ jail for the current offences and activated his previous suspended sentence of one month.

Parole release was set for November 21, with 72 days of pre-sentence custody declared time-served.