Quentin Beach pleads guilty to assault after headbutting his mate twice for crying about mental health problems

After the second headbutt, the man put his teenage mate into a choker hold which caused him to lose consciousness. Here’s what happened.

A Capricorn Coast man has pleaded guilty to assault after he headbutted his teenage mate twice for crying about mental health problems.

Quentin Beach, 21, pleaded guilty in Yeppoon Magistrates Court on March 3 to unlawful assault.

The court heard that on January 19, Beach and the 17-year-old victim were drinking at Beach’s residence.

Police Prosecutor Clancy Fox said the pair had “a deep conversation which turned emotional”.

“The victim began to cry and opened up about some mental health issues,” Mr Fox said.

Mr Fox said Beach then grabbed the victim and pushed him up against a wall, headbutted him and told him to “harden up” and “stop talking nonsense”.

“There was a physical altercation and (Beach) headbutted the victim a second time, placing him into a choker hold until the victim lost consciousness for a short period of time,” Mr Fox said.

The next day, the victim went to a police station to make a complaint.

Mr Fox said when police questioned Beach and told him the victim’s version of events, he responded: “That sounds about right.”

The court heard that Beach had one previous entry on his criminal history, for public nuisance in 2021.

Beach represented himself in court and Magistrate Cameron Press asked him if there was anything he wanted to say about this offence or anything that he wanted taken into account.

Beach replied: “No, Sir.”

Mr Press then asked him if he had an anger management problem.

Beach said when he was younger he did and when Mr Press asked if it played a part in this incident, Beach responded: “A little bit, Sir.”

Before handing down penalty, Mr Press told Beach it was a serious offence to headbutt someone twice.

“I don’t quite understand why that would be necessary or even considered, frankly,” Mr Press said.

Mr Press placed Beach on probation for nine months with conditions including a requirement that he attend anger management counselling.

No conviction was recorded.