Dallas Horrigan abducted, choked his estranged wife with wire and hit her with axe handle

Armed with an axe handle, a jilted, violent monster waited in the dark, pouncing on his target when she opened her door. Now, his chillingly similar attacks on other women are revealed.

*Distressing content

First, they fell for him. Then they learned just how hard it would be to escape him.

Horror details about what the latest of three women to be romanced by muscle-ripped, repeat domestic violence offender Dallas Horrigan, was subjected to have been revealed in Rockhampton District Court.

The court heard Horrigan abducted and assaulted his estranged wife in Central Queensland as she put the cat out for the night.

He had been jailed in the Northern Territory 18 years prior for chillingly similar offending against two other women.

The 48-year-old was sentenced for his Queensland crimes this month after pleading guilty to one count of entering a dwelling at night with intent, armed and used violence, along with one count of assault occasioning bodily harm, one of choking, two common assaults, one deprivation of liberty and two breaches of a domestic violence order.

Crown prosecutor Matthew Sutton said Horrigan’s criminal history from the Territory, where he’d worked as a bull rider and labourer, and also unrelated offending in Western Australia was “most concerning”.

He said the NT history included convictions for similar attacks on former partners – abduction and strangulation.

Mr Sutton said the recent Rockhampton assault and abduction of Horrigan’s estranged wife was premeditated as he’d gone to her Frenchville home armed with an axe handle.

Judge Katherine McGinness said Horrigan, who was 46 at the time, had been told by the victim the day before the attack that their marriage was over.

Horrigan waited outside the victim’s home on August 19, 2020, and when she opened the garage door to let the cat out, he pounced, rushing at her with the wooden axe handle.

Horrigan struck her head with the handle multiple times, causing her to fall to the ground.

They both ended up in the laundry where Horrigan struck her body, including hits to the left side of her head which caused bruising.

“At one point, Horrigan put a thin wire around her neck and pulled it tight for a few seconds so that she was unable to breathe,” Judge McGinness said.

“She called out to the (three) kids, no doubt in an attempt to try and make you come to your senses.

“Soon after you released her, but you continued to pursue her.”

Horrigan continued hitting the victim’s head with either his hand or an unknown object.

“She continued to beg you to stop,” Judge McGinness said.

“At one point, you held a pair of pliers and some wire in your hands and lunged towards her with them, however, they did not make contact.

“The victim tried to escape under the garage door screaming.”

Horrigan pushed the victim onto the grass and wrapped a thicker wire type object around her neck, using it to pull her into a sitting position.

He then dragged the victim down the road and forced her to walk to his car.

Horrigan told her he was driving her to the hospital.

“ (Horrigan) did not take her directly to hospital,” Judge McGinness said.

“Rather he drove around for a period of time.

“He continued to yell at her at her including that you’d hoped that her boyfriend be at the house and that he was going to kill him.”

The court heard Horrigan drove towards Emu Park before taking the victim to the Yeppoon Hospital, despite the Rockhampton Hospital being the closest to the Frenchville crime scene.

After dropping the victim at the Yeppoon Hospital, she was transferred to Rockhampton Hospital due to the extent of her injuries.

Police spotted Horrigan’s car, activated lights and sirens, but he sped off.

He was apprehended at 4am when he attended the hospital and created a disturbance.

Judge McGinness said Horrigan’s NT criminal record was relevant as he had been convicted for breaking into a former partner’s home, assaulted her and deprived her of her liberty in breach of a restraining order and while on bail.

A Northern Territory Court of Appeal decision, where Horrigan appealed his sentences outlined the facts of the assault, choking and deprivation of liberty.

According to the documents, Horrigan flew into a rage after being told “no sex” one night, punching the victim’s back so hard it took her breath away.

He then yelled at her and asked “why did she not try harder to make the relationship work”.

Horrigan then strangled her while she was in bed and told her he was going to kill her before squeezing her throat six times.

At one stage, Horrigan had the victim pinned on the floor, choking her.

Dallas Horrigan.

He then threw her across to the other side of the bed where she landed on her back, causing the wooden bedhead to snap off.

He picked her up by the hair and yelled at her, threw her on the bed again and grabbed her by the throat.

At one stage, he placed a pillow or the doona over her face and she struggled to breathe.

This attack on the NT ex-partner lasted two and a half hours.

Six weeks later, he broke into her home, dragged her to his car and drove off from the property at Humpty Doo and later onto a dirt track that led to Acacia Hills.

The victim attempted to yell out of the vehicle and Horrigan responded by slamming her head into the seat between them.

He later stopped in the middle of bushland and told her he just wanted to “talk” about the criminal charges she had laid against him.

Horrigan was spooked by a helicopter noise nearby after the victim told him she was on the phone to police when he broke into her residence, so he drove her to Palmerston Police Station.

His NT criminal record also included an aggravated assault against another previous partner in 1998 for which he received a three-month suspended prison sentence, and another assault in 1998.

Judge McGinness told the Rockhampton court there were also convictions for assaulting and threatening to kill his estranged wife in Queensland while squeezing her throat from July, 2020.

Defence barrister Jordan Ahlstrand said Horrigan admitted he had “behaved like a caveman”.

He said this attack was not out of jealousy but one of his sons had told him she was intimate with her “boyfriend” in front of the kids.

He said his client had sought help from the Mental Health Ward at Rockhampton Hospital a week prior to that attack.

He also said Horrigan was now free of illicit drugs (methamphetamines), having been in jail for about two years, and was engaged with mental health services.

The NT decision also referred to Horrigan having depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder along with taking the prescription medication Zactin at the time of those offences.

The Rockhampton court did not refer to current diagnoses or what medications Horrigan was on, if any.

Judge McGinness sentenced Horrigan to six years and three months in jail, declared 593 days presentence custody as time served and set a parole eligibility of December 31, 2023.

He was also disqualified from driving for two years.

“These were very serious offences upon your wife in the sanctuary of her home, where she is, at the very least, entitled to feel secure,” Judge McGinness said.

“Your children were also home as well … there was a risk that they could have been in some way caught up in either witnessing or in some way being hurt.”