Rockhampton court: Kristina Ethel Williams, 51, guilty of going armed to cause fear after Berserker incident

A woman fed up with her neighbour’s dog barking made a disturbing threat to slice its heads off while brandishing an axe. Here’s what happened in court.

A woman who threatened to slice her neighbour’s dog’s heads off while brandishing an axe appeared in Rockhampton Magistrates Court earlier this month.

Kristina Ethel Williams, 51, pleaded guilty in Rockhampton Magistrates Court on June 8 to one charge of going armed to cause fear.

Police Prosecutor Jennifer Leach said the incident occurred in the front yard of the victim’s property in North Street, Berserker, on May 6, 2022 about 11pm, and was sparked by an ongoing dispute over barking dogs.

The court heard Williams swung an axe at her female neighbour, while threatening her dog.

Her neighbour was home with family members when she reported hearing Williams yelling out words to the effect of “your dog, you need to shut your f---ing dog up”.

Ms Leach told the court Williams said: “I’m going to jump this fence and slice the dogs’ heads off with this axe.”

“I’m going to jump this fence and bash youse (sic) with a bat and axe.”

The court heard that while Williams was standing outside the victim’s front fence, she yelled at her neighbour, “come down here and fight me you sl--.”

The victim said she was standing on her front stairs and saw Williams holding an axe with two hands, with the axe slung around her shoulder, Ms Leach said.

Ms Leach told the court the victim said she could hear Williams hitting the fence with the axe and repeatedly asked Williams if she had an axe and Williams said “yes I’ve got an axe, you b----”.

The victim told Williams she wouldn’t talk to her while she was holding the axe and, fearing for her safety and that of her dogs, rang the police from inside her house.

Police spoke to Williams on the phone and noticed she was highly intoxicated, the court heard.

Williams told police she was sick of the victim’s dog barking and told her to “shut your f---ing dog up” before the victim came outside and engaged in a verbal argument with her.

The court heard Williams told police she went and got an axe from her backyard, walked back to the fence and yelled at the victim.

Williams told police at the scene that she was going to cut the victim’s dog head off because the dog continuously barked.

Police found an axe handle on an outdoor chair opposite to where Williams was sitting and an axe head wedged in between two fence palings located in the shared front yards of both properties.

A axe stuck in a piece of wood

Williams’ defence lawyer told the court her client was currently unemployed but had gained work that would begin in mid June.

She said Williams, who had a one page criminal history, was knew she was highly intoxicated but that didn’t excuse her behaviour.

She said Williams didn’t recall a lot of what happened but did accept the facts presented to the court and was ashamed of her actions.

The court heard there was an ongoing dispute between Williams and her neighbour, and she did have some like offences in her criminal history, but hadn’t offended since 2014.

Magistrate Cameron Press acknowledged her early plea of guilty by imposing a suspended sentence.

A factor that influenced the sentence was the consideration of a general deterrence.

“We cannot live in a society where people are going around to their neighbour’s with axes,” Mr Press said.

“Because inevitably it gets out of hand, and inevitably people get killed and maimed.”

Mr Press sentenced Williams to four months prison immediately suspended with an operational period of 12 months.

A conviction was recorded.

Barking beagle in summer garden.