Court: Redbank Plains dad Mitchell McLean’s knife attack during bloody funeral ambush

An Ipswich wake turned bloody blitz when a funeral goer demanded retribution against a local dad who had earlier passed by their gathering.

An Ipswich wake turned bloody when a funeral goer demanded retribution against a local dad who scraped their car, a court has heard.

An Ipswich father has spent almost two years in jail after a driving error outside an Ipswich wake led to him being hunted down by mourners, triggering a bloody fiasco.

Redbank Plains tradesman Mitchell Robert McLean, 31, fronted Ipswich District Court on August 1, having spent 655 days in custody waiting for his sentence.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of unlawful wounding, along with one count each of possessing a dangerous drug (cocaine), unlawfully possessing a section 4 medicine (diazepam), and supplying a schedule 2 dangerous drug (buprenorphine) within a correctional facility.

The court heard McLean had been drinking at an address in Redbank Plains on October 15, 2021.

There was a wake being held on the same street.

As McLean drove away, he swiped the side of a car which belonged to one of the attendees.

A group of funeral-goes came outside after hearing the noise, but McLean had already driven away.

Judge Dennis Lynch said the funeral-goers went to the address McLean had been visiting and demanded McLean return and speak to them.

The court heard McLean returned when called – but when he arrived, the funeral-goers pulled him from his car and kicked him.

Two other people tried to intervene and calm the situation.

However, McLean punched one of them four times and used a pocket knife to cut her arm – which required seven stitches.

McLean then struck the other person with the knife, causing a deep 8cm laceration.

Judge Lynch said this was an “excessive” response, but he still needed to consider the fact McLean had been attacked first.

“It might be very difficult to understand who’s an aggressor and who’s not in the circumstances … The other people behaved unlawfully,” he said.

The court heard police had apprehended McLean soon after the incident and found a small amount of cocaine and a valium tablet in his car.

While McLean was remanded at the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre, he organised for his partner to bring suboxone strips into the jail.

It’s alleged that when she attended the jail on November 9, 2022, a package fell out of her 18-month-old child’s nappy containing 56 suboxone strips.

The court heard she had been charged as a result, but that her matter was still progressing before the court.

Defence barrister Allana Davie said McLean was a father of two with a limited Queensland criminal history.

His employer spoke highly of him and was willing to offer him a “second chance” upon his release, the court heard.

Judge Lynch noted McLean did have earlier entries on his New South Wales history for an assault with intent to rob in company, and also demanding property in company with menaces and intent to steal.

However, he said the 655 days McLean had already served in presentence custody was “well in excess” of what he likely would have been ordered to serve if the matter had been brought on earlier.

He said he wasn’t sure he would have ordered any actual imprisonment for the wounding offences alone under the circumstances.

“But you certainly should have been required to serve some actual imprisonment for the supply offence,” he told McLean.

Judge Lynch said he would reduce the head sentence he would otherwise have imposed as a result.

“Hopefully this has been an expensive lesson for you,” he told McLean.

“There’s no reason you can’t return to being a decent contributing member of the community and decent role model for your children.”

He sentenced McLean to 655 days imprisonment, with the full sentence declared time already served – meaning McLean would be released immediately.