Mackay police stats reveal hundreds of assaults in 2021

Bashings, stabbings and one-punch attacks. Mackay’s police have been responding to a spike in assaults that are getting far more violent.

Mackay is on track to at least match its number of assaults from last year after a series of bashings, punch ups and brawls sent figures climbing in the past six months.

The region’s police have been called out to 462 assaults across the district in the past six months after almost 1000 incidents were recorded in 2020.

Queensland Police figures reveal the level of violence was getting worse.

Of those 462 since January this year, 272 were considered either serious or grievous while 190 were classed as common assault offences.

Mackay police released this image of an assault that happened in the CBD earlier this year.

In the same period last year, just 163 common assaults were reported to police, who responded in total to 438 in those six months.

The figures paint a concerning picture given that for an attack to be considered grievous, the victim would have been seriously maimed with injuries such as lacerations, stab wounds or broken bones.

Earlier this month Mackay Magistrates Court heard details of a disturbing assault in which two men attacked a 60-year-old man attacked at a pub in January.

Police responded to more than 900 assaults last year.

Another confronting incident that put the numbers into perspective occurred in April, when a man allegedly called a club’s manager a “f***ing gay c***” before punching him in the face twice.

The man, the court heard, had been asked to leave after he had allegedly been pestering a female punter.

In March a mining worker is alleged to have gouged a security officer’s eye during a scuffle at a popular pub.