Peter John Fleming sentenced for serious assaults on partner
A Qld boilermaker doused his partner’s home in petrol and dragged her by the hair up and down a flight of stairs while she begged for him to stop. *Distressing.
Harrowing details have emerged of a woman who woke up to her boyfriend strangling her for one minute before slamming her into a door frame twice and dragging her down a flight of stairs.
It happened a day after the man doused the home they shared in petrol before he dragged the woman by the hair up and down a flight of stairs, pushing her over the guard rails and smashing her face into the wall.
The assault left her hospitalised needing nine stitches to her eyebrow and a CT scan.
Peter John Fleming pleaded guilty in Mackay District Court to one count each of assault occasioning bodily harm, strangulation, common assault and threatening violence.
The court heard on November last year, Fleming poured petrol on the floor of the home he had been sharing with his then partner, threatening to “burn the place down”.
On another occasion, the 40-year-old took his partner by the hair, pushed her up against a guard railing while she “begged for him to stop”.
He then dragged her up and down a flight of stairs and pushed her over the guard railing.
The following day, the woman woke up to Fleming strangling her for up to minute while she began to lose consciousness.
He then “took hold of her head with two hands and slammed her face into a door frame twice.
“She was screaming and begging you to stop,” Judge Jennifer Rosengren
But this didn’t stop the man from assaulting his then partner.
The court heard that Fleming dragged her to the stairs and slammed her face into a wall causing a large hole twice.
The man had previous history of domestic violence abuse more than a decade ago which involved a different woman.
The man, who ran his own business as a boilermaker before it ran aground after losing his license, had a criminal record littered with weapons and drug charges including drug trafficking.
His lawyer, Scott McLennan, told the court his client became homeless and was living in a storage shed, though had strong prospects of returning to work as a boilermaker when he was freed.
He also argued that the victim’s CT scan revealed no underlying injury to her neck, though his client was remorseful and ashamed of his offending.
Judge Rosengren said it was serious offending and reflected a grim pattern of behaviour amongst other perpetrators of domestic violence.
“In just about every single case that I have before me of domestic violence is this context of a perception that the complainant is cheating,” she said.
“She tried to tell you she had not, she even offered you her phone to look at it to satisfy yourself of that but you did not take up the offer.
“Sometime later, you accused her of denying access of her phone.”
Ms Rosengren sentenced Fleming to a head sentence of three and a half years, with 333 days served.
He will be eligible for parole on November 17 this year.
