Magistrates Court five charges assault and wilful damage

The accused had been drinking since 10.30am on a Whitsundays boat cruise

Airlie Beach foreshore. Pic: Mark Fitz

An officer from the Capricornia Correctional Centre has been suspended by Queensland Corrective Services after assaulting a police officer in Airlie Beach.

Ashley Laurence Buckle appeared before the Rockhampton Magistrates Court on Wednesday, May 26, to face five charges stemming from a drunken episode in Airlie Beach.

Buckle was detained in March at the Mantra Club Crocodile on Shute Harbour Road after he argued with staff over putting the bill on his room tab.

He pleaded guilty to creating a public nuisance, obstructing police, seriously assaulting a police officer and wilful damage.

The court heard Buckle threw chairs within the restaurant, knocking over pot plants, and challenged other guests to fight him.

When police arrived at the venue around 8.50pm, Buckle got an officer in a “choke hold”, pulling him to the ground where the officer sustained a scratch to his right cheek.

The officer’s body-worn camera was also damaged during the assault.

The court heard that, at 10.05pm in the Whitsunday watch-house, Buckle pushed past an officer and ran down the corridor, yelling “I didn’t mean to hurt anyone”.

Buckle, 33, said his history with drinking began when he was manager of a Dan Murphy’s store in Geelong for eight years, and he mostly only drank now while FaceTiming with his friends in Victoria.

He said he had little recollection of the day in question as he and his friends began drinking on a boat cruise at 10.30am.

Magistrate Schubert said he accepted the defendant was embarrassed and remorseful, “and so you should be”.

“You’re better placed than most people to understand what risks the police take every day.”

Buckle was fined $446 for damage to the camera and $500 for injuring the police officer.

He was placed on a 70-hour community service order and placed on probation for 12 months. No conviction was recorded. The court heard he had also been suspended from his position.