Rockhampton court: Patrick Lloyd Swayne, 47, busted supplying drugs

A violent criminal who had long stints in prison for serious offences – once for assaulting a man which left him chronically injured – has narrowly avoided going back to jail due to needing to care for his severely burnt brother.

A violent criminal who had long stints in prison for serious offences – once for assaulting a man which left him a chronic invalid – has narrowly avoided going back to jail due to needing to care for his severely burnt brother.

Patrick Lloyd Swayne, 47, pleaded guilty on May 25 in Rockhampton District Court to three counts of supplying dangerous drugs.

Crown prosecutor Tiffany Lawrence said Swayne had four lengthy prison terms on his six-page criminal record which included two Supreme Court convictions, four District Court convictions for 43 different offences; primarily for violence, drugs and home invasions.

She said one of the Supreme court convictions was a grievous bodily harm in 1998 where the assault took place in a nightclub and left the victim with an open brain injury which had left him a chronic invalid.

Ms Lawrence also pointed to the time Swayne was convicted of producing dangerous drugs in 2011 where he was involved in an enterprise with three others, but police had seen Swayne direct the other much younger people involved.

She said he was busted with 37 marijuana plants with a total weight of 7.944kg and Justice Duncan McMeekin noted in his sentencing remarks Swayne’s rehabilitation forecast was “pretty bleak”.

Ms Lawrence also pointed to a conviction in 2015 for grievous bodily harm where Swayne broke a man’s jaw.

She said the charges before the court this month were detected after police executed a search warrant at Swayne’s residence and seized a mobile phone which contained messages about the three supplies.

The court heard Swayne offered to supply $50 of marijuana on April 30, 2019, then one gram of methamphetamines to a different person on August 20, 2020, and an unknown amount of marijuana to a third person on December 15, 2020.

Ms Lawrence said the August 2020 supply agreement included a $600 exchange if transport to Gladstone was included.

She said despite having a long standing issue with drugs, it appeared Swayne had never made attempts to address it.

Defence barrister Sheridan Shaw said while Swayne was in prison for the 2015 GBH, his mother was diagnosed with cancer.

“He spent much of the time she was sick in custody,” she said.

Ms Shaw said he was released at the tail end of her battle and cared for her until she died.

She said this affected him greatly as she noted he teared up about it when they conferenced about this case.

Ms Shaw said eight or nine months after Swayne’s mother died, his father also died from cancer.

She said Swayne cared for his father while he was sick, while also raising his own four children.

Ms Shaw said Swayne’s brother was severely burnt in March this year, in front of Swayne, and had only just been moved out of an Intensive Care Unit in Brisbane.

She said her client would be caring for his brother when he was released from hospital.

Ms Shaw said her client inherited his parents’ house, which had provided him with the first stable accommodation he has had in his adult life.

She said he lived there with his partner and her children while his children were being cared for by others until this matter was resolved in court.

Judge Brian Devereaux sentenced Swayne to 12 months prison, wholly suspended and operational for three years for the first supply and to a 12-month prison term with immediate parole for the other two.