Parolee jailed for violent roadside bag snatch

The woman clung to her bag and kicked out at the attacker after he punched her in the face repeatedly

A man has been jailed for three years following a violent bag snatch on Milton St

A CRIMINAL on parole punched a Japanese woman in the face before wrenching her purse from her grip in a violent roadside bag snatch on the Mackay city fringe.

Judge Deborah Richards said the conduct deserved a four-year jail term but because the 45 year old had already spent 12 months behind bars on other charges, she reduced it to three years.

Michael William Johnstone passed his victim, a Japanese woman, on a Milton St road crossing and began following her – it was about 7pm on July 16 last year and they did not know each other.

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“Without warning (Johnstone) pushed her to the back and (she) fell to the ground,” Crown legal officer Michael Andronicus said.

“He punched her three times to the side of the head.”

Mackay District Court heard Johnstone demanded her handbag and hit her in the face again, breaking her glasses.

“(She) held on to her handbag and tried to kick him away,” Mr Andronicus said, adding the straps of her bag broke and Johnstone fled with her property including $100 in cash, bank cards and house keys.

The court heard Johnstone’s DNA was found on the broken bag straps at the scene.

Her injuries included facial cuts a wound to her torso and she needed stitches to her hand.

Johnstone pleaded guilty to robbery with violence.

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Mr Andronicus told the court Johnstone had “accumulated a disgraceful Queensland history” in the past six years including 32 entries for fraud, 13 for stealing and receiving tainted property, 16 for enter premises, nine for breaching bail and six for failing to appear.

The court heard he also had a New South Wales criminal history with similar entries as well as convictions for violence, and that he had been on parole at the time of this robbery.

Defence barrister Paul Rutledge said his client had a long history of drug abuse dating back to his childhood, but that this was “outside the usual type of offending”.

Johnstone had moved to Mackay to try and reconnect with a former partner.

Mr Rutledge said he had a history of mental illness and suffered chronic lower back pain.

He had lost his father weeks before he was returned to jail, where he is being held in protective custody.

The court heard he had spent one year and one week in jail after his parole was suspended and any new sentence would need to be cumulative to any he was currently serving and would not begin until April next year.

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Judge Richards said the robbery was an escalation of is offending.

“In my view a sentence of four years would be appropriate but for the fact that it’s a cumulative sentence,” Judge Richards said.

“And there’s a year of time in custody that you’ve served that’s not declarable.”

Judge Richards said “in those circumstances” she would reduce the penalty to three years jail with parole eligibility after about eight months on June 5 next year. Convictions were recorded.

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