Landlord left bleeding after Alison Louise Jeeves’ distraught assault

Here’s why an award-winning songwriter launched an attacked on her landlord and snapped her glasses in half.

An award-winning songwriter and former government employee made her landlord bleed after pushing her in the face and hitting her with a newspaper, a Coast court has heard.

Alison Louise Jeeves’ landlord was trying to give the 52-year-old a document regarding her eviction when she lashed out on February 24 in Mount Isa.

Police prosecutor Alison Johnstone told Noosa Magistrates Court on Tuesday Jeeves flailed her arms away from the document and yelled “get away from me” before becoming aggressive.

Sergeant Johnstone said Jeeves repeatedly slapped the landlord’s car bonnet while she tried to leave.

She said it was when the landlord got out of the car that Jeeves lunged towards her and hit her in the chest with a newspaper while yelling at her.

“(Jeeves) suddenly pushed the victim in her face, with her right hand connecting with her nose, mouth and left cheek causing pain and blood to flow from the victim’s nose,” she said.

Jeeves, a Queensland Music Awards finalist, also snapped the victim’s glasses in half.

Defence lawyer Laura Nightingale told the court the longtime Sunshine Coast local, who had moved to Mount Isa for work opportunities, had just returned home from court where a second eviction application was dismissed when the landlord presented the third.

“She was extremely distraught by this and when approached she became extremely upset and felt that she was being bombarded with another application,” she said.

The court heard Jeeves also harassed three Mount Isa businesses, including a caravan park she was evicted from between March 12 and 15 and two beauticians between October 5, 2020 and March 1 this year.

Ms Nightingale said Jeeves was extremely offended by a message from the beauticians that she said included racial slurs referencing her being of Indigenous heritage prior to the harassment.

Jeeves pleaded guilty in Noosa Magistrates Court on Tuesday to seven charges, including common assault, wilful damage and three counts of using a carriage service to menace, threaten or harass.

Ms Nightingale said Jeeves was a former Queensland Government employee and had future work prospects that would be impacted by a conviction.

She said Jeeves had spent four days in the watch house after being arrested and suggested fines as an appropriate punishment.

Outside court the proud sixth-generation Australian and multi-award-winning songwriter said she feared for her life while in custody.

“What I witnessed at Mount Isa being incarcerated in the lock up there was actually devastating and eye opening at the same time my worst fear as an international songwriter was I was going to be another death in custody case,” she said.

She said she was known as being a kind person and acted out of character.

“I really needed to plead guilty today despite me always maintaining my own innocence in the face of a fairly broken system and I have done that … because I’m very keen to get back on with my life,” she said.

Magistrate Haydn Stjernqvist fined Jeeves a total of $900 for the common assault and wilful damage charges and $300 for each count of using a carriage service to harass or threaten.

Convictions were only recorded for the three counts of using a carriage service to harass or threaten.