Philip De Wet found guilty of choking, assaults in Rockhampton court

Love gone wrong: A Queensland man is behind bars after a dating site romance turned into a series of brutal assaults.

Philip De Wet, 30, hails from Parguay and had been employed as a disability support worker before he was charged with one count of assault occasioning bodily harm, two of choking, three common assaults and one possessing a dangerous drug.

A man who carried out several serious assaults against a girlfriend he’d met on a Christian dating site was recorded saying “I could have hurt you worse” after he smashed her head into a bench and choked her.

Philip De Wet, 32, dropped to his knees as he was jailed in Rockhampton District Court where the chilling recording had been played to the jury which found him guilty of two counts of choking – domestic violence, two of assault occasioning bodily harm and two common assaults.

The former disability worker and personal trainer also pleaded guilty to one count of common assault before the three-day trial.

Crown prosecutor Cassandra Nitz said De Wet and the victim had been in a three-month on-again, off-again relationship living at times in different parts of Central Queensland which were about two hours driving distance apart.

The victim said they had met online on a Christian dating website in May 2023.

Ms Nitz said the relationship was “fraught with both physical and emotional abuse” with De Wet’s charges arising from four separate occasions where he attacked the victim.

De Wet attacks included shoving her in a bedroom, shoving her against a fridge multiple times, smashing her head against a kitchen bench, grabbing her upper arm and choking her.

The court heard, during his sentencing, that De Wet had been convicted for possessing methamphetamines in June 2024, a drug driving conviction and he breached the bail conditions for the assaults seven times.

The court also heard De Wet, who was born in South Africa near Johannesburg, had a child from a previous relationship.

Ms Nitz said it was also alleged De Wet monitored the victim’s movements and phone activity, but he was not charged in relation to that.

“He would repeatedly accuse her of lying and cheating,” she said.

Ms Nitz said the victim felt “obliged to reassure him” by changing her contact details and sharing her whereabouts with him, what she was doing, what she was wearing, who she was seeing.

“He became really controlling,” the victim told the jury.

She said she even stopped going to work because of him.

Judge Jeff Clarke described De Wet’s offending to show his “vitriolic, hateful, belittling and horrible attitude” towards the victim who said as she was getting ready one day and De Wet came up from behind her, she turned, and he put his hands around her throat and squeezed.

“I’ve never had that done to me in my whole life,” she said.

“I could feel the pressure.

“I just felt terrified because I had no idea why he would want to do that. Yes, we had the argument but that doesn’t justify …”

In another incident, in August, when they were staying in a caravan the victim poured them bourbons to drink and De Wet poured his in her face.

“I proceeded to throw my glass into his face, the alcohol, because it really burned,” she said.

This was after De Wet had choked her until she felt dizzy and “like I couldn’t breathe”.

“I did scratch him,” the woman said.

“I was just trying very hard to get his hands off my throat so I could breathe.”

The most serious attack took place a week later, on August 31, after the victim returned home after speaking with her employer about her absences.

She said she found De Wet sitting outside smoking, and he told her “you have to take me home now” and she told him she couldn’t because she had obligations in the afternoon.

The victim said the original plan involved her driving him back on the Friday due to her commitments and he would be home before work on the Saturday.

She said they argued and went inside her residence, and she started washing dishes before De Wet came up behind her, picked her up, grabbed her by the throat and shoved her head against the fridge twice, and she lost consciousness.

After he had let go of her throat, he grabbed her by the hair and shoved the right side of her head against the kitchen counter.

The victim used her phone to record De Wet while he was shaving, after he had packed his belongings.

During the three-minute-long video played in court, the victim confronted De Wet, saying he shouldn’t have done what he did.

He responded: “I could have hurt you a lot worse … I held myself back because I do care about you.”

Defence barrister Jordan Ahlstrand said his client’s father died from cancer in 2023 in Paraguay.

After this, De Wet had come to Australia when he was about six years old and his mother remarried a man who was an Australian citizen.

Mr Ahlstrand said his client consumed marijuana when he was aged 19-23 and started consuming meth when he was 25.

He said De Wet, who was raised in a Christian house, was now an Australian citizen and had a 14-year-old child.

He had worked as a personal trainer for three years after high school and more recently, was employed as a disability support worker until February 2023.

He’d also worked as a fruit picker, farm hand, handyman and in hospitality.

Judge Clarke said he was concerned by De Wet’s behaviour during the court proceedings as he was “carrying on like (he) really wished he (the Judge) would hurry up” and about his prospect for reform given his attitude prevailed two years after the attacks, during the trial and sentencing.

As Judge Clarke sentenced De Wet to four-years’ prison, De Wet fell to his knees in the dock.

De Wet will be eligible for parole from June 26, 2027.