‘Society’s failures’ of Indigenous people blamed as stabber walks free after spitting assault

A Townsville woman — who once stabbed a woman so violently the blade broke off inside her victim — has walked free from prison after assaulting corrective services officers during her time behind bars.

Picture: FILE

A Townsville woman with a ‘raging alcohol addiction’ and a history of violent assaults has been allowed to walk free from prison, after seriously assaulting two corrective services officers.

Matilda Rose Fulford, 51, faced Ipswich District Court on Tuesday and pleaded guilty to two charges of serious assault after spitting on two corrective services officers on separate occasions in June 2022, while serving a lengthy prison sentence for a previous offence.

Fulford spat at one officer after becoming agitated and verbally abusive when he asked her why she was attending the medical centre, and her spit landed in his eye and mouth.

The court heard how Fulford suffered from a range of serious mental health issues due to an brain injury she recieved when she was stabbed in the head in 1997.

Since that time, she has been incarcerated multiple times for a series of violent assaults that occurred to due to “aggressive outbursts” and her “poor impulse control”.

In 2018 Fulford stabbed a woman in the stomach and groin hard enough to snap the knife blade off inside the victim, who required surgery on her bowel.

She was later convicted of assaulting a fellow inmate while incarcerated.

Fulford was sentenced for the stabbing offence on June 6, 2019 in Townsville District Court after pleading guilty to grevious bodily harm and was given 4.5 years’ imprisonment, which she was still serving when she faced court again for the assault of the inmate.

At the time of sentencing for the assault of the corrective services officers, Fulford was still serving time for those two offences.

Judge Alexander Horneman-Wren declared a conviction would be recorded, but that there would be no further punishment, and that Fulford would be released from prison immediately.

“Sadly, your criminal history reflects our society’s failures in relation to a lot of Indigenous people in circumstances where, through no fault of their own, they fall through the cracks in our society … and that’s resulted in criminal offending and sadly, incarceration,” he said.

Fulford’s barrister Dan Baddice said she would be returning to Townsville upon her release from prison, and had secured an NDIS-funded house.