Aaron Frederick Harold Kuhn and Jak Alan Kuhn found guilty of grievous bodily harm charges

Aaron Frederick Harold Kuhn, 52, and Jak Alan Kuhn, 20, were sentenced on Thursday afternoon in Rockhampton District Court after they were found guilty by a jury.

A young man with no criminal record will spend the next 20 months in prison after following his father’s lead in a violent attack on a “lunatic” motorcyclist.

Aaron Frederick Harold Kuhn, 52, and Jak Alan Kuhn, 20, were sentenced on Thursday afternoon in Rockhampton District Court after Kuhn senior was found guilty of malicious intent to cause grievous bodily harm and Kuhn junior was found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm.

They had entered pleas of not guilty on November 29 to malicious intent to cause grievous bodily harm in relation to an assault on Craig Douglas Chicken on May 5, 2020, at Ogmore - 150kms north of Rockhampton.

Mr Chicken, 42, sustained very serious head injuries which resulted in him being flown to Brisbane for surgery and spending 12 weeks in a brain rehabilitation unit.

He now has to take anti-seizure medication for the rest of his life.

The jury took just over four hours of deliberation to reach their verdicts.

“He made a horrible mistake on this occasion, and dragged his son into it,” Kuhn senior’s barrister Ross Lo Monaco said.

Barrister Ross Lo Monaco

The versions of what exactly happened on May 5, 2020, were so varied two rare events took place - Kuhn junior took to the witness box after the jury reached their verdicts and Judge Paul Smith made findings about what the facts were for sentencing purposes.

The assault on Mr Chicken took place in two locations - the first at Tooloombah Creek (which runs off the Styx River) crossing on Ogmore Road and the second outside Mr Chicken’s residence on Wilangi Street, which turns into Styx Road at the edge of town.

Mr Chicken’s partner Laine Kennedy, 38, had driven her ute to the creek that afternoon and Mr Chicken followed on his motorcycle.

Witnesses in the trial described Mr Chicken as “driving like a lunatic” around Ogmore at high speeds.

The Kuhns turned up minutes later in a dual-cab ute, which belonged to Kuhn junior.

All four told the court the two parties had not met each other prior to this incident.

Kuhn junior had claimed they went to see if the motorcyclist was okay, being concerned about an accident as the noise of the motorbike had suddenly stopped.

However, Judge Smith said “it was unlikely they were concerned about his welfare” because of Kuhn senior’s actions at the bridge.

Kuhn senior got out of the ute and asked Mr Chicken and Ms Kennedy if there was a problem.

Mr Chicken, who has gaps in his memory as a result of his brain injury, recalled replying “no mate. Is there one?”

Kuhn senior punched Mr Chicken in the head.

“I just hit the deck,” Mr Chicken said.

He said he was trying to pick himself up when the assault continued.

Kuhn senior pushed Mr Chicken’s head against the rear of one of the utes, causing blood to “spurt” from his temple.

Kuhn senior then punched Mr Chicken five more times.

Ms Kennedy attempted to put herself between Mr Chicken and the assailants, to try and protect Mr Chicken.

She managed to get Mr Chicken free of Kuhn senior’s assault momentarily before Kuhn senior grabbed a chair from the back of Ms Kennedy’s ute and lifted it above his head as if he was going to hit Mr Chicken with it.

Ms Kennedy said “No. Stop.”

The Kuhns left.

Five minutes later, Ms Kennedy and Mr Chicken drove home separately with Ms Kennedy stopping at train tracks to be sure Mr Chicken was still following.

When they arrived home, Ms Kennedy went inside.

Mr Chicken grabbed a baseball bat from a shed, rode his motorcycle over to the Kuhn residence on Charon Street with the bat and made threats.

Ten minutes after Ms Kennedy returned home, Mr Chicken was back at the residence and the Kuhns drove up in a different ute, swerving at Mr Chicken who was outside his residence.

Mr Chicken approached the vehicle, after having jumped out of the way of its path, and hit the vehicle with the bat.

Kuhn junior got out of the passenger side, armed with a chain, went around to Mr Chicken and hit him with the chain.

Mr Chicken turned towards Kuhn junior and Kuhn senior got out of the vehicle.

The assault on Mr Chicken, from this point, was mostly carried out by Kuhn senior.

During the assault, Mr Chicken attempted to run towards Ms Kennedy’s father’s house, which was two doors down from their residence.

However, he slipped and the Kuhns, who had been chasing him, continued their assault on him - Kuhn senior punching while Kuhn junior struck him in the legs with the chain.

“There was so much blood,” Ms Kennedy said.

It is unclear how the bat Mr Chicken had been holding was removed from him, but Kuhn senior used it at one stage to hit Mr Chicken on the head.

It was later picked up by Ms Kennedy who used it to threaten Kuhn junior, effectively.

Ms Kennedy’s father Brian, and her neighbour Mick Thompson, came out.

It was after Mr Thompson came out that the fight stopped and Kuhns left.

Ms Kennedy said Mr Chicken was on his hands and knees and she helped him up.

She said she tried to clean him up as he was bleeding from injuries on his left side and back of his head.

“I thought that I could see his skull,” Ms Kennedy said.

She said Mr Chicken did not want an ambulance or police called, worried the incident could impact his bail.

He was on bail at the time for assaulting a man at Tara in July 2019 and possessing a firearm.

However, after Mr Chicken was unable to recognise her or her children, screamed out “mum” and “help me” the next morning and then started having seizures, Ms Kennedy then called an ambulance.

The assault on Mr Chicken was not the first assault Kuhn senior had been convicted of.

Crown prosecutor Samantha O’Rourke said in 1998, Kuhn senior was convicted of an assault occasioning bodily harm on a man who had gone to the rescue of his 70-year-old female neighbour.

She said Kuhn senior had been kicking the neighbour’s door.

Ms O’Rourke said he had other assault charges on his New South Wales criminal record.

Mr Lo Monaco said Kuhn senior had lived at Ogmore for 36 years and worked mustering, in construction with JM Kelly, fencing, and crane driving including at the Empire Hotel construction site.

He said Kuhn senior helped care for his 77-year-old father who has terminal cancer and only has weeks to live.

Mr Lo Monaco said Kuhn’s partner of over 20 years, Simone Wright, who was the mother of his two children Jak and Renee, died suddenly three years ago.

He said his client had repartnered and had been in a relationship for two years.

Kuhn junior’s barrister Maree Willey had argued her client was under the assumption he and his father were going to feed his grandmother’s goats, when they had stopped at Mr Chicken’s residence.

She said the only route to the grandmother’s place was to drive past Mr Chicken’s place and the reason they took the second vehicle instead of the first one was that the goat feed was in the second vehicle.

However, Judge Smith did not accept this.

Ms Willey said her client lost a close friend to suicide a month after his mother’s death, and then lost another friend in a buggy accident in June last year.

She said he was four months away from completing a mechanics apprenticeship and had lined up a dual apprenticeship to be an electrical mechanic, but had not started it due to the pending trial.

Judge Smith said this case was one of the more serious cases of grievous bodily harm he had seen.

Judge Paul Smith. Pics Tara Croser.

He said it warranted a serious violent offender (SVO) declaration for Kuhn senior, which requires defendants to serve at least 80 per cent of their sentence before being eligible for parole, however he decided to reduce the head sentence to reduce the impact of the SVO.

Judge Smith sentenced Aaron Kuhn to 7.5 years’ prison and declared him a SVO.

He then sentenced Jak Kuhn to four years’ prison, suspended after serving 20 months and operational for four years.

Earlier: A father and son accused of assaulting a motorcyclist, who was described as riding his bike like a “lunatic”, told police they noticed the noisy bike had suddenly stopped and were concerned it had crashed.

This is what a jury heard on audio recordings from police when they interviewed Aaron Frederick Harold Kuhn and Jak Alan Kuhn on May 6, 2020 - the day after the alleged assault on Craig Douglas Chicken at Ogmore, 150kms north of Rockhampton.

Both Kuhns pleaded not guilty to one count each of malicious intent causing grievous bodily harm in the Rockhampton District Court on November 29.

Audio recorded by Detective Sergeant Jason Milner, of Rockhampton’s Criminal Investigation Branch, was played to the jury on Tuesday afternoon.

Detective Sergeant Milner investigated the alleged assault after emergency services were called to the scene more than 20 hours after the incident.

Mr Kuhn senior told the detective he was about to catch his horse to go mustering when he heard the motorbike “roaring down” the road, at about 100km/h.

He said his son noted the bike had gone suddenly quiet and raised concerns the rider had crashed.

Mr Kuhn senior said when they arrived at the Styx River crossing, Mr Chicken was there next to a white ute driven by a woman - Laine Kennedy.

He said they went across the bridge to turn around and as they drove back, Mr Chicken called out to them, asking them if they “had a problem, c---”.

Mr Kuhn senior said he replied he didn’t, but Mr Chicken would “in a minute”.

“You don’t pull someone over and talk like that to them,” Mr Kuhn senior said.

“I’d never met him in my life.”

When Detective Sergeant Milner asked Mr Kuhn junior later on why they had stopped at the bridge, he said “It’s a small town thing. If someone is down there fishing, you pull up and talk to them”.

Mr Kuhn senior said Mr Chicken then tried to punch him through the window, but missed.

Mr Kuhn senior said he then got out of the vehicle and Mr Chicken punched him again.

He said he then punched Mr Chicken.

From there, the court heard the pair attacked each other and were on the ground at one stage.

Mr Kuhn senior said at one stage, Mr Chicken had a hold of his shirt and his son was trying to get Mr Chicken off him.

He said once Mr Chicken was off him, he and his son returned home.

Mr Kuhn senior told the court Mr Chicken turned up in his street three times that afternoon, threatening to kill them and burn their houses down.

Mr Kuhn junior said the first visit by Mr Chicken took place five minutes after they arrived home and he returned the second time with a baseball bat, parking down the street from his house.

He said he went and told his father about Mr Chicken’s location and when they went to look, Mr Chicken started hitting his handlebars with the bat before riding down the street and hitting the bitumen with the bat.

Mr Kuhn junior said afterwards, he and his father decided to go feed the family goats at his grandmother’s house.

He said they were on their way there when Mr Chicken came out onto the road with the bat.

Mr Kuhn junior said his father had to swerve to miss Mr Chicken who was in the middle of the road.

“He was smashing the car,” Mr Kuhn junior said.

He said he thought Mr Chicken was going to harm his father, who was driving.

Mr Kuhn junior said he grabbed a chain to hit Mr Chicken with to stop him trying to hurt his father with the baseball bat.

Later in the interview, Mr Kuhn junior told the police that when the fight had broken up, Mr Chicken’s partner grabbed the bat and looked like she was going to hit his father with it.

He said one of the children then ran out holding a knife.

Mr Kuhn junior said as they drove away, he saw Mr Chicken’s hand in the shape of a pistol and moving as if the pistol had been fired at them.

He said Mr Chicken’s partner had told them not to fight Mr Chicken as he had been drinking alcohol.

During day two of the trial, the jury heard evidence from Mr Chicken’s neighbour, Mick Thompson, and a woman who lived in between the Kuhn men in another street.

Mr Thompson, who police did not take a statement from until November 7, 2021, despite having his contact details since the day after the alleged incident, said he saw both Mr Chicken and his de facto partner, Laine Kennedy, that morning after they returned from Marlborough with Mr Chicken allegedly complaining Ms Kennedy had drunk ‘half a bottle of Wild Turkey’ on the way home.

He alleged Mr Chicken was talking and moving at “100 miles an hour”.

Mr Thompson said the pair helped he and his wife with a fencing job before they returned to their residence.

“Not long after the fencing, he (Mr Chicken) got on his motorbike and rode like a lunatic all over town for about 20 minutes,” Mr Thompson said.

“He came back at one stage.

“I was out the back. I saw Laine get on with him and they went over towards the bridge.

“The motorbike came screaming back, pulled up in Brian Kennedy’s (Laine’s father’s) yard.”

Ashlee O’Rourke-Casey, who resides in the house between Mr Kuhn senior and Mr Kuhn junior, told the court she had been outside talking to the Kuhns while her children played in the street when a motorbike allegedly “went through at a ridiculous pace”.

She said the noise of the bike suddenly stopped after it left their view with concerns raised the rider may have fallen off.

She said Mr Kuhn junior went to his car to go check on the rider with his father jumping in to help.

Ms O’Rourke-Casey said the Kuhns returned five to 10 minutes later and Mr Kuhn junior helped her get her children inside, saying the motorbike rider was “off his head down at the river”.

Mr Thompson said Mr Chicken went into a shed, grabbed something and rode off again “like a lunatic”.

Ms O’Rourke-Casey said that once inside with her children, she heard the motorbike come back about 10 minutes later and then heard a baseball bat hit the ground in her driveway.

She said she looked out her window and saw the motorbike rider.

The court heard that while Ms O’Rourke-Casey had never met Mr Chicken before this incident, she had heard there was a motorbike rider in town called ‘Chicken’.

Ms O’Rourke-Casey said she saw Mr Chicken swing the baseball bat around and heard him yelling for about 10 minutes before he took off.

She said she heard the Kuhns take off 10 minutes later.

Mr Thompson said that when Mr Chicken and Ms Kennedy returned, Ms Kennedy was holding her hands out in front of her and they looked like they had mud or blood on them.

He said he recalled thinking Mr Chicken may have fallen off the motorbike.

Mr Thompson told the court he was sitting in his backyard with his wife when they heard screaming several minutes later.

He said he then heard a vehicle coming down the road, swerving and a bang.

Mr Thompson said he next heard screaming and yelling, which sounded like Ms Kennedy and one of her children, so he went around the front to stop it.

He said Mr Chicken was on the ground in the strip between his house and Mr Kennedy’s house, with Mr Kuhn senior holding him by the collar which looked like Mr Kuhn was trying to restrain Mr Chicken.

Mr Thompson said Mr Kuhn junior was standing about five metres away.

“I told them to f--- off, that they were in my yard,” he said.

“Aaron let go of (Mr) Chicken’s collar and started walking towards his ute.”

Mr Thompson said one of Ms Kennedy’s teenage children ran after the Kuhns, holding a knife.

He said he approached Mr Kuhn senior about the skid marks on his lawn, which Mr Kuhn apologised for and told him he would fix.

Mr Thompson said Mr Kuhn senior then told him Mr Chicken had attacked his vehicle with a bat, showing him damage to the door.

He said at that point in time, Mr Kuhn was holding a baseball bat he claimed he took off Mr Chicken as Mr Chicken had used the bat to attack his vehicle.

Judge Paul Smith, who is presiding over the trial, asked Mr Thompson if Mr Kuhn senior had any injuries.

Mr Thompson replied none he could see.

Crown Prosecutor Samantha O’Rourke told the jury on Monday the alleged victim, Craig Chicken, lived in Ogmore, about 150km north of Rockhampton, with his partner Laine Kennedy when he was allegedly assaulted on May 5, 2020 by two men he had never met.

Ms O’Rourke said Mr Chicken was with Ms Kennedy at Styx River when he was approached by Aaron Kuhn and was allegedly punched in the face a number of times.

“That wasn’t to be the last time Craig was attacked that day,” Ms O’Rourke said.

She said Mr Chicken was in a neighbouring yard when he approached a car and was allegedly hit on the back with a chain by Jak Kuhn.

“What followed after that was a hammering,” Ms O’Rourke said.

She said Mr Chicken was on the ground and was allegedly struck by the chain again and hit with a bat by Aaron Kuhn.

Ms O’Rourke said Aaron and Jak Kuhn chased Mr Chicken and, after he fell, Aaron Kuhn allegedly hit Mr Chicken’s head and upper body while Jak Kuhn allegedly used the chain to target Mr Chicken’s legs and lower back.

She said Jak Kuhn had stopped but Aaron Kuhn allegedly continued to punch Mr Chicken while he was on the ground before he “delivered a final blow” and they left.

Ms O’Rourke said Mr Chicken suffered a fractured skull and that a fragment of the bone had cut his brain.

“The traumatic brain injury that Craig received, if left untreated, would have resulted in his death,” she said.

Ms O’Rourke said the jury would hear evidence from Mr Chicken and Ms Kennedy, and that Ms Kennedy would tell the jury that she didn’t see Mr Chicken throw a single punch.

She said the jury would also hear evidence from a doctor who would go through the extent of Mr Chicken’s injuries, as well as a police officer who would give evidence about the accounts the accused gave him, claiming Mr Chicken to be the aggressor and that he struck first.

Ms O’Rourke said there was not going to be much dispute about whether the injury amounted to grievous bodily harm or the identity of the people involved.

She said this was going to be a trial about the how and the why.

“How precisely Craig Chicken was assaulted by Aaron and Jak Kuhn on that day, and that’s the second assault we are focused on at the house, and what the state of mind was of Aaron and Jak Kuhn when they committed that assault,” she said.

The trial continues with closing addresses finished and the judge giving directions to the jury this afternoon.