Beau Daniel Cleland Greaves choked friend during alcohol-fuelled rage at Yeppoon

A man with a lengthy history of alcohol-fuelled violence told psychologists it was his latest female victim’s fault he assaulted her.

Beau Daniel Cleland Greaves (pictured at headlands at Sunshine Coast) pleaded guilty on August 30 in Rockhampton District Court to one count of assault occasioning bodily harm and one of wilful damage.

A man with a history of alcohol-fuelled violence told psychologists it was his latest female victim’s fault he dragged her from a car by her hair and threatened to slit her throat.

A court heard Beau Daniel Cleland Greaves also told psychologists his victim took him to a party where he had an altercation with the host before his brutal assault of the female victim.

Greaves, 31, pleaded guilty on August 30 in Rockhampton District Court to one count of assault occasioning bodily harm and one of wilful damage.

His criminal record spans five pages with 17 magistrates court appearances and 34 convictions including public nuisance convictions from four separate occasions where he tried to fight strangers while intoxicated and one where he threatened to kill a family at a Noosa campsite.

Beau Daniel Cleland Greaves (pictured at Noosa River) pleaded guilty on August 30 in Rockhampton District Court to one count of assault occasioning bodily harm and one of wilful damage.

Crown prosecutor Bianca Volling said Greaves attended a birthday party on December 21, 2019, with the victim, who was a friend of Greaves at the time of the offence, and they left the party together after an altercation between Greaves and the host of the party.

She said that on the drive to the victim’s home in Zilzie, Greaves turned his aggression towards her, punching the windscreen of her car, causing it to crack.

Ms Volling said the victim pulled over and Greaves pulled her out of the car by her hair, threatened to kill her by slitting her throat with a knife while he imitated the slitting action.

“He repeated this threat several times to her,” she said.

Ms Volling said when Greaves released his grip on the victim, he smashed the rear window of the car, leaving him with an injury to his forearm.

She said the victim convinced Greaves to get back in her car and they drove towards her home. Greaves tried to crash the car three times.

Ms Volling said when they arrived at the victim’s home, she tried to administer first aid to Greaves’s injured arm but he grabbed her by the neck and yelled at her “it’s your fault”.

She said Greaves released his grip and stroked her face, telling her he loved her and would always protect her.

Ms Volling said the victim left to go to the bathroom and Greaves followed her, stood in the doorway, and again grabbed her by the throat, choking her.

She said Greaves grabbed her by the wrists, picked her up by her shoulders, then put her on her feet and pushed her across the lounge room until she fell over and hit her head and back on the side of furniture before landing on the floor.

Ms Volling said the victim pleaded with Greaves to stop and he grabbed her by the neck and told her “it’s your fault”, then released his grip and stroked her face again, telling her he would never hurt her and would always protect her.

The victim got up off the floor and told Greaves if he didn’t stop, she would call the police.

Greaves shoved her and she called triple-0.

The victim was left with fingerprint impressions and contusions to her neck, observed by a treating doctor at a hospital.

She also had to pay the $500 excess on her insurance to fix the damage to her car.

Beau Daniel Cleland Greaves (pictured at Cooktown) pleaded guilty on August 30 in Rockhampton District Court to one count of assault occasioning bodily harm and one of wilful damage.

Greaves’s history with violence dates back to 2012 when he appeared in Proserpine Magistrates Court and then kicked a watch-house door until his foot bled and he spread the blood around the cell.

He has been convicted four times for trying to fight members of the public while intoxicated.

In 2014, he drunkenly yelled at campers at Noosa, threatening to kill a family and their 10-year-old son and was fined $800 for public nuisance.

He was told by Magistrate John Hodgins then to give up drinking alcohol as his behaviour was an example of an “ugly drunk”.

Greaves was fined, with no conviction recorded, for assaulting two police officers where he applied force to one of the officer’s arms while the officers attempted to arrest him in 2018.

During his interview with police for that last assault, he told police “he had a problem with alcohol which causes him to change his behaviour and become aggressive and belligerent”.

Greaves’s defence barrister Julie Marsden tendered two psychologist reports to the court, along with 10 character references including one from Tom Hearn from Camping on Country TV show and Captain Dan Farrell, Sevjen Indigenous Incorporation, two from his parents and one from his current girlfriend.

She also tendered letters from a Noosa doctor and two letters from Lives Lived Well.

Judge Jeff Clarke raised issues he had with the reports from the psychologists which stated Greaves told them he blamed the victim for him becoming aggressive and assaulting her.

Ms Volling said these versions showed Greaves was unremorseful and had very little insight into his behaviour.

Ms Marsden urged Judge Clarke to ignore that part of the report, saying Greaves told this version to the doctors as it was what he believed at the time but now accepted the assault was his fault.

She urged Judge Clarke to focus on the parts about Greaves’s depression and anxiety diagnoses, how he suffered from social anxiety on the night and had consumed marijuana and alcohol.

Ms Marsden also pointed to parts of the report where concerns were raised there would be “inadequate treatment” in prison.

Judge Clarke said prisons were not designed for comfort.

“They are designed as punishment,” he said.

Judge Clarke sentenced Greaves to 18 months prison with immediate parole along with an order to pay $500 restitution.