Dylan Andrew Ludlow, 26, told his tyre iron to face victim he was a drug dealer and had a pistol

A teenage boy bashed in the face with a tyre iron by a stranger in an unprovoked attack lost multiple teeth and still lives with ‘constant pain’.

The boy was attacked in the early hours of the morning.

A heavily tattooed drug addict hit a 17-year-old boy in the face with a tyre iron after offering him and his friends alcohol, telling them he was a drug dealer and had a gun, and inviting them back to his place.

Dylan Andrew Ludlow, 26, pleaded guilty in Rockhampton District Court on October 5 to one count of causing grievous bodily harm.

Judge Jeff Clarke described the attack as “a particularly violent, unprovoked, outrageous attack on a young person in public with use of a dangerous weapon”.

Crown prosecutor Matthew Sutton said the victim and his friend were sitting on the corner of Musgrave and Armstrong streets, Berserker, in the early hours of April 10, 2021, when Ludlow rode up to them on his bicycle and produced the tyre iron.

He said Ludlow boasted about being a drug dealer “on a business trip” and said he was “carrying a pistol”.

Mr Sutton said Ludlow told them he used the tyre iron to bash people with and gave the victim and his friend alcohol before inviting them back to his place.

“The complainant and his friend accepted the offer,” he said.

“As they were packing up their things to leave, the defendant’s swung the tyre iron into the complainant’s face.”

Mr Sutton said the victim blacked out momentarily, noticed a hole in his mouth “seemingly from missing teeth” and asked Ludlow why he hit him.

“They got into a verbal argument and the defendant punched him three to five times,” he said.

Mr Sutton said Ludlow demanded the victim give him his lighter which was refused.

He said Ludlow and the victim’s friend then got into an altercation before Ludlow left on his bike.

Mr Sutton said Queensland Ambulance Service were called at 1.30am to tend to the injured teen victim.

He said the victim lost two teeth, had three or four cracked teeth, a laceration to his lower lip, loss of sensation nerves and fractures in his jaw.

Mr Sutton said the victim required surgery to remove the roots of the teeth that he lost, but has not had them replaced, nor surgery to fix his jaw due to medical advice as the jaw was still developing.

The court heard the victim still suffers with constant pain.

Mr Sutton said the victim and his mother provided victim impact statements with the victim saying the assault had affected his social life, he had lost weight due to difficulty eating, his mental health had taken a downturn and he had difficulty working due to reliability issues.

Mr Sutton said the victim’s mother wrote of the impact the assault had on the victim’s nine-year-old brother who now fears being hurt.

Mr Sutton said Ludlow, who has a 10-page criminal record, was on parole at the time of the assault for burglary and assault offences on February 19, 2020.

In those offences, he entered a stranger’s house drug-affected and a female victim asked him to leave, but Ludlow pushed her away and rushed at a second female victim with a crowbar, hitting her in the head.

He received a sentence of 2.5 years prison on January 14, 2021, and was released on parole on January 19, 2021, after presentence custody was declared and he had served 11 months of his sentence.

Ludlow had been sentenced in 2016 to a four year prison term for robbery with violence.

Defence barrister Maree Wiley said Ludlow’s mother had a history of using drugs and his father died when Ludlow was six years old.

She said he claimed he was sexually abused as a child and started using drugs when he was 13 years old.

Judge Clarke asked Ms Wiley if Ludlow had provided a reason why he “acted in such an outrageous fashion” towards the child.

Ms Wiley said no, but he had expressed an acceptable level of remorse after the victim statements were read to him before his sentencing.

She said he had been in prison before this offence and had applied, but was deemed unsuitable, for the opioid program.

However, Ms Wiley said her client had attended Alcohol Anonymous and undertaken certificate studies in sports coaching.

She said he now had a 19-20 month old child with his partner and he was focused on the child and abstaining from drug use.

Ms Wiley said Ludlow planned to live with his grandmother when released from custody.

Judge Clarke said Ludlow’s criminal record was concerning for someone of his age.

He sentenced Ludlow to four years prison, cumulative on the 2021 sentence for assaulting the women.

Judge Clarke declared 47 days presentence custody and set parole eligibility for April 5, 2023.

The court heard Ludlow had outstanding charges in relation to allegations of sexual and drug offending in the Maryborough region.