Meth addict Richard Steven Saunders, 35, jailed for carjacking with gun, violent attack on woman

A ‘serious violent offender’ pointed a gun in a man’s face before pushing it into his back as he got out of his car during a carjacking. In a separate incident, he bashed a woman and left her on the side of a rural highway.

A serious violent offender who has been incarcerated 15 times pointed a gun in an armed robbery victim’s face and abandoned a beaten-up woman on the side of the highway with no phone, wallet or medications.

Richard Steven Saunders, 35, pleaded guilty on October 24 in Rockhampton District Court to two counts of armed robbery, three of unlawful use of a motor vehicle, one assault occasioning bodily harm and one common assault.

The offences took place in July and August 2021.

Crown prosecutor Tiffany Lawrence said Saunders was convicted in 2007 for two grievous bodily harm charges and declared a serious violent offender.

She said the sentencing remarks for one of those convictions indicated Saunders “may have been the individual who threw the first bottle that ultimately then involved a group assault which had very serious consequences” and left the victim with “significant head injuries”.

Judge Jeff Clarke told the court he recalled the group assault on Nathan Grindlay as it was “highly publicised”.

Mr Grindlay, according to reports from the sentencing of his attackers, was not expected to survive his injuries from the attack on March 2, 2004, which included a fractured skull, fractured eye socket, top and bottom jaw, internal bleeding and a subsequent stroke.

The judge who handed down Mr Grindlay’s victim compensation payout of $75,000 five years after the attack, described the assault as “merciless, savage and unprovoked”.

Richard Steven Saunders, 35, pleaded guilty on October 24 in Rockhampton District Court to two counts of armed robbery, three of unlawful use of a motor vehicle, one assault occasioning bodily harm and one common assault. The offences took place in July and August 2021.

According to the report, his attackers were originally charged with attempted murder.

Saunders, whose criminal record now spans 10-pages with 26 appearances in court for 80 offences, including five assault occasioning bodily harm convictions, two grievous bodily harm convictions, two serious assaults and three common assaults.

Ms Lawrence said no sentence, including the 15 sentences where he was incarcerated, had deterred Saunders from his violent offending.

She said the assault occasioning bodily harm, common assault and one of the unlawful use of motor vehicle charges from 2021 involved one female victim.

Ms Lawrence said Saunders met the victim through associates a few days before the offences on July 30.

She said they had a casual relationship and on July 28, the victim picked Saunders up and drove him from Dingo to Rockhampton to visit family.

Ms Lawrence said they were sleeping in her Ford Laser on July 30 with Saunders in the front with the seat reclined and the victim in the back.

She said about 4am, the victim accidentally and gently hit the defendant’s face.

Saunders jumped over the seats into the back and repeatedly punched the woman in the face, causing injuries to her lips, nose, eyebrow and teeth.

“She begged him to stop, but he continued,” Ms Lawrence said.

She said Saunders “eventually stopped” and about an hour later, while still parked in the vehicle, he asked the victim if she was going to tell the police and if she was going to leave him.

“She was terrified of defying the defendant and told him ‘no’,” Ms Lawrence said.

The defendant drove the pair towards Dingo, leaving about 6.30am, and stopped at the Dingo roadhouse where the victim used the toilet.

When the victim returned to her car, Saunders had moved to the passenger seat.

“While she was reversing the car out of the car park, the defendant suddenly, and without the complainant’s permission, changed the gear from reverse into drive,” Ms Lawrence said.

The victim’s car collided with another vehicle and Saunders told her to drive away.

Richard Steven Saunders, 35.

“She drove just outside the roadhouse and then pulled over,” Ms Lawrence said.

The victim demanded Saunders get out, but he hit her in the face, pushed her out of the car, moved across to the driver’s seat and drove off.

Ms Lawrence said Saunders abandoned the victim, leaving her on the side of the highway without her purse, handbag and medication.

Queensland Ambulance Service treated the victim at the roadhouse and took her to Blackwater Hospital.

Saunders later abandoned the vehicle and had messages sent to the victim through others about where to find it.

Four days later, Saunders was with an unidentified male when his next two victims, who were workmates, drove past and pulled up nearby at a Thomasson Street, Park Avenue, residence about 9.30pm.

Adam* was sitting in his green Commodore with his door open and Barry* was walking over to Adam when Saunders and alleged co-offenders walked up the driveway towards them.

Judge Clarke said one of the offenders asked Barry if either of them had said something to them as they drove past with the victim responding “in a most disagreeable fashion saying quote ‘f--- off you black c---”.

He said the offenders then covered their faces with bandannas before Saunders pulled a handgun from his pants and a co-offender pulled out a flick knife.

Judge Clarke said Saunders approached Adam and placed the handgun about 30 centimetres away from his face before telling him to get out of the car.

“As he did, you shoved the gun hard against the back of his neck and pushed him, telling him to move,” he said.

Judge Clarke said meanwhile, the unidentified co-offender placed the knife to Barry’s throat and demanded his keys, phone, wallet and cigarettes.

He said the co-offender cut one of Barry’s fingers when he was waving the knife around and Saunders, at one stage, waved the gun at Barry.

Judge Clarke said Saunders also kicked Adam to the back of his legs, telling him to get down.

He said both victims got down to the ground where they were threatened to not move by the offenders who then took off in their vehicles at high speed.

The court heard the co-offender crashed Barry’s car soon after.

About an hour later, police located Adam’s vehicle near the KFC store outside Stockland Rockhampton.

Saunders had stolen Adam’s wallet which had been in the car.

Judge Clarke said DNA samples and fingerprints were matched to Saunders, along with CCTV capturing him running away from the vehicle wearing distinctive red shoes.

There was also dashcam footage from Adam’s vehicle which showed Saunders had stopped to talk to a woman before abandoning the vehicle.

Defence barrister Sheridan Shaw said her client had a drug problem, which he was not using as an excuse for his offending.

“He was on methamphetamines during both sets of offending,” she said.

Ms Shaw said Saunders had an unstable childhood.

She said that unstableness followed him into adulthood.

Richard Steven Saunders, 35, pleaded guilty on October 24 in Rockhampton District Court to two counts of armed robbery, three of unlawful use of a motor vehicle, one assault occasioning bodily harm and one common assault. The offences took place in July and August 2021.

Ms Shaw said Saunders was close to his three brothers and sister and had met his parents in his late teenage years.

She said his father had since died from cancer.

Ms Shaw said her client had managed to get qualifications as a boiler maker while in prison, but had not worked in that field.

She said Saunders had been a fruit picker.

Ms Shaw said her client had ruptured his achilles heel while jogging in the prison yard two weeks ago.

She said Saunders, a father of four, had made attempts to get assistance for his drug addiction by way of attending a mental health unit, but “nothing had stuck”.

Judge Clarke said Saunders had shown little remorse for his offending, other than early pleas of guilty.

He described the attack on the woman, where she was in a confined space and unable to escape, as “entirely unprovoked, sustained and cowardly” along with “unpredictable and protracted”.

“To compound your offending, you simply callously discarded her afterwards and took her means of transportation,” Judge Clarke said.

He said the fact both offenders in the armed robbery with violence had been armed and had bandannas indicated they had planned to carry out some sort of offending that evening.

Judge Clarke sentenced Saunders to 18 months prison for the assault on the woman, and 4.5 years for the armed robbery, to be served cumulatively.

He declared 443 days presentence custody as time served and set parole eligibility after he serves 20 months – on April 8, 2023.

** The names of the victims have been changed to protect their identity.

Mindframe numbers.