Court: Daniel John Shields was taunted by his machete attack victim Raymond Jarvis

The victim of a machete assault “took every opportunity to taunt” his attacker in lead up to a stabbing incident in Central Qld. Now the attacker’s attempted murder charge has been overturned. Full details here.

A man who stabbed another with a machete during a toxic love triangle fight had been significantly taunted by the victim who also called him out to fight many times, a court has been told.

Daniel John Shields, 50, was previously found guilty of attempted murder by a jury in November 2020, but had the finding overturned by the court of appeal in November 2021 and was re-sentenced on Monday, May 3, 2022, for malicious act with intent to cause grievous bodily harm for the stab wound he inflicted on Raymond Jarvis in February 2019.

Instead of a retrial, the Crown put Shields’ offer – to plead guilty to the lesser alternative charge of malicious act with intent to cause grievous bodily harm – back on the table and Shields accepted.

Shields, who looked like a completely different man in court this year to the one in the trial in 2020, had been in a relationship with Allison Whyte, the former defacto partner of the stabbing victim, Raymond Jarvis.

Defence barrister Craig Eberhardt said his client had broken off the relationship with Ms Whyte and he was relocating to live with his mother at Yeppoon.

He said his client felt Ms Whyte was “dragging her feet” at picking up her belongings from his soon-to-be former residence and thought he could find her at Mr Jarvis’ residence so attended the Thora Street, Gracemere, home.

Mr Eberhardt said when Shields arrived on February 6, 2019, Mr Jarvis’ vehicle was not parked out the front so he thought Mr Jarvis was not home.

Shields and Mr Jarvis ended up in a physical altercation where Shields was armed with a machete and Mr Jarvis armed himself with a piece of wood.

Daniel John Shields prior to the trial in the Supreme Court in Rockhampton in November 2020.

Mr Jarvis sustained a stab wound to his torso under his armpit while Shields sustained a laceration to his arm which has caused ongoing pain and loss of function in two fingers.

Mr Eberhardt said Ms Whyte had taunted Shields that day saying she’d had sex with Mr Jarvis.

He said this was not the first time his client had been taunted about an ongoing sexual relationship between Ms Whyte and Mr Jarvis, having received messages from Mr Jarvis while Shields was in a relationship with Ms Whyte, between 2012-2019, telling him they had sex.

“The opening salvo, there was reference to this in the opening trial, was when Mr Jarvis saw the defendant at a shopping centre with Allison Whyte and called him out for a fight,” Mr Eberhardt said.

Victim Raymond Jarvis leaving the Rockhampton courthouse during the trial in November 2020.

He referred to another alleged incident between Mr Jarvis and Shields, which had also been raised during the trial, where Mr Jarvis attended Shields’ residence, called him out for a fight and Shields was convicted for swinging an axe during the incident.

Mr Eberhardt told the court about other alleged incidents in the background of this case which included someone putting a hose through a rear window of Shields’ residence and flooding the house (something Mr Jarvis had done to one of his family members in the past), key scratches along Shields’ car and burnt out marks on his front lawn.

“Mr Jarvis took a great dislike to my client just because he was in a relationship with Allison Whyte,” he said.

“And took every opportunity to taunt him.”

He said Ms Whyte was not innocent in this, pointing to a conviction and eight-month prison term for wounding Shields with a knife, leaving a “very significant scar” on his arm, during a “fight over gravy on the roast meal”.

Mr Eberhardt also pointed out Mr Jarvis’ criminal record which contained convictions for assaults against Ms Whyte, including a choking conviction.

He said his own client’s criminal record including the axe incident conviction and drug convictions.

“(It’s) a very limited and unremarkable history, not consistent with a man with anger management issues and a proficiency for violence,” Mr Eberhardt said.

With regards to what happened during the altercation with Mr Jarvis where the stabbing took place, Shields maintained what he told the jury in 2020 – he could not recall what happened.

During the trial, Shields told the jury he had blacked out during the altercation with Mr Jarvis.

Mr Eberhardt said Shields had endeavoured to get medical record evidence showing he had a history of panic attacks and blackouts from the Yeppoon Hospital, but due to him not being a patient there for a lengthy period, the records had been destroyed.

Daniel John Shields, 50.

He said that during Shields’ 1040 days in prison on the attempted murder charge, he was hospitalised a couple of times due to his mental health status linked to the prospect of serving 14 years in prison from the jail term handed down for the now discharged attempted murder, along with four two-week Covid lockdowns, two months in solitary confinement and a month-long lockdown following the infamous Capricornia Correctional Centre riot in October 2022.

Mr Eberhardt said Shields was not involved in the riot.

He said that after his release two-months later, following the Court of Appeal’s retrial decision, Shields moved in with his brother in Blackwater and had been “making himself useful in the community” and rehabilitated.

Justice Peter Davis said, from the material provided to the court, he concluded it was “perhaps inevitable there would be a confrontation between the pair”.

“When one looks at your (Shields’) criminal history (it) is barely relevant,” he said

“Your offending on this day seems to be out of character.”

Justice Davis sentenced Shields to three years and two months prison, did not declare the 1024 days presentence custody but did discount the sentence instead, and ordered the sentence be wholly suspended with a three year and two month operational period.

The attempted murder charge was dismissed.