Jay Conan Marsh left homemade bombs at a Gladstone house

When a Gladstone mum saw a bright light coming from her garage she screamed for three children in her care to “get back”. Within seconds, chaos unfolded as two homemade bombs exploded - leaving one child with hearing issues.

Late on the night of January 30, 2021, a Gladstone street descended into chaos moments after a child called out to a mum “your car is moving.”

A mother and the three young children in the house then went outside, but the car was gone.

They saw a bright light coming from the garage and the mother yelled for the kids to “get back!”

Then a bomb exploded, creating a “very loud” noise and fragments of metal “flew over the concrete”.

One of the children, an 8-year-old boy who was on a sleepover at the residence that night, began crying and said his ears hurt.

He was rocking back and forth in pain.

An old rag had caught alight but it was extinguished quickly.

Emergency services crews rushed to the scene and the boy who was on the sleepover was subsequently taken to hospital.

It was later discovered there was a second bomb which had also exploded at the scene.

The bombs were both homemade, and they were in the form of soda bombs or sparkler bombs.

The bombs were set by 40-year-old Jay Conan Marsh - he was the person who drove off in the Gladstone mother’s car that night.

Marsh left the two bombs at the residence.

Marsh, now 41, pleaded guilty in Rockhampton District Court on September 24 to numerous charges, the most serious being unlawfully dealing with explosive substances.

The court heard that Marsh and the mother were friends.

In the Gladstone mother’s care on the night of the explosion was her son, her son’s friend who was there on a sleepover, and another girl.

Crown Prosecutor Joshua Phillips tendered a victim impact statement from the mother of the boy who was sleeping over.

Mr Phillips said in that statement, which had been written recently, this mother spoke about the ongoing difficulty she had with a child who had “plainly been changed” from being exposed to the explosion.

Mr Phillips said this mother also believed now, her son had suffered some hearing loss.

Mr Phillips said back in February, a head and neck surgeon based in the Bundaberg area had examined the boy and written to the child’s GP.

“And his opinion, having examined the boy, was ‘I think (child) has had an explosive noise to his ears and that has aggravated his ears. It is likely his hearing is normal, or will slowly return to normal. The ringing is probably aggravated by muscle tension around the base of the skull’.”

The court heard that since the incident, the 8-year-old boy had not been able to withstand loud noises, and he had been “getting a hard time” at school as a result of having to wear either earmuffs or ear plugs.

In relation to the explosion, Mr Phillips said the actual risk of serious property damage and “frankly death” should not be underestimated.

“One of the problems, of course, with improvised explosive devices, is that they’re improvised.

“The people that make them don’t have the level of expertise to accurately predict the extent of the damage.

“So there is a real and present danger created to anybody in the vicinity of these things, and including in this case, children, who one might imagine the defendant knew were present.”

Marsh’s Barrister Tony Arnold said Marsh was a father of two, a daughter and a son.

Mr Arnold said Marsh’s upbringing could only be called “severe emotional and material deprivation, even distress.”

“And one constant was a lack of suitable, adult role models.”

Mr Arnold said Marsh’s parents had divorced before he was born and he never knew his father.

“His mother, who had serious problems, had a string of other partners.

“My instructions are that domestic violence was a constant present at his home.

“He recalls the police turning up on many occasions - and at one time was taken away by police for a short period for his own safety, into care.

“He recalls his mother stabbing one of her partners in the street.

“And his mother, who was the only constant, adult role model for him, was a dysfunctional alcoholic who consumed significant quantities of cask wine on a daily basis.”

Mr Arnold said Marsh’s mother had encouraged him to consume alcohol from the age of about 10.

“His mother was also an illicit drug user, and at 14, he had to assist her in taking those illicit substances intravenously,” he said.

“Although this only occurred, happened on one occasion, Your Honour, it’s an indication of the type of upbringing Mr Marsh has suffered.”

Marsh’s mother died aged 57 with her substance abuse a contributing factor, the court heard.

“This was traumatic in itself, as she was his only emotional anchor in life,” Mr Arnold said.

The court heard Marsh left school in Year 8 and Mr Arnold said Marsh was “functionally illiterate” to the point where he could not do employment that was in any way dependant on the ability to read and write.

“His work history, which follows from that, is indicative of that lack of ability,” Mr Arnold said.

“He’s basically been a labourer.”

The court heard that Marsh’s criminal history included offences of public nuisance, drunk and disorderly, possession of a knife in public, trespass and enter premises.

“All related to a lifestyle to obtain the drugs that he needed at the time,” Mr Arnold said.

The other charges Marsh pleaded guilty to on September 24 were unlawful use of a motor vehicle, stealing, and possessing cannabis and drug utensils.

Marsh had spent 236 days in pre-sentence custody and it was the prosecution’s submission for a head sentence in the order of three years.

Marsh’s barrister asked Judge Jeff Clarke to consider a head sentence of 18 months with immediate release on parole.

Before delivering sentence, Judge Clarke said Marsh’s offending was “incredibly irresponsible and potentially very dangerous and harmful.”

“It was quite churlish behaviour for a man of your age to engage in,” he said.

Judge Clarke noted that in 2018 there had been a legislative change to increase the maximum penalty for the explosives charge that Marsh pleaded guilty to, from two years’ jail to seven.

He also said he could not support the submission from the defence.

Judge Clarke said he would reduce the penalty because of Marsh’s co-operation with authorities and his early guilty plea.

Judge Clarke imposed a head sentence of two-and-a-half years’ jail and set Marsh’s parole release date at November 30, 2021.