Connor Healy pleads guilty at Kingaroy District Court to choking, assault
A young Kingaroy man has faced court over a series of violent attacks on his own estranged family in the lead-up to Christmas.
South Burnett
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A 20-year-old Kingaroy man has escaped jail time after first assaulting his mother in the lead-up to Christmas, and then choking his brother when confronted about the attack.
Connor Healy pleaded guilty in Kingaroy District Court Wednesday to multiple charges including two counts of common assault, wilful damage, and choking.
The court was told during a “heated argument” on December 8, 2022 Healy violently shook his mother, who suffered from multiple sclerosis, then grabbed her glasses from her face and then knocked over a table which landed on her toes.
After the assault Healy left, slamming the front door hard enough to damage the wall.
When he returned later in the day his brother, who suffered from cerebral palsy, confronted him about the incident.
In the ensuing fight Healy choked his brother three times, the court heard.
When his brother rang the police Healy slapped him over the head.
In a victim impact statement by Healy’s mother partially read to the court, she said his parents separated when he was around two years old.
His mother raised him and his brother on her own, moving frequently.
When Healy was about eight years old, his mother entered a relationship with a man who was “extremely violent”.
“He was extremely abusive to Healy over many years,” the court was told.
In 2020, during Covid, the family fled the man.
When Healy was about 13 he suffered mental health issues, including PTSD relating to the abuse he had suffered, and started seeing a psychologist.
Healy’s defence barrister told the court his client “lost control in a way he hasn’t before” when he assaulted his mother and brother.
Healy hasn’t had any contact with his family since the assaults.
His only support was his uncle who died unexpectedly from a heart attack a few months earlier.
Judge Glen Cash told Healy there was “no excuse for violence of this kind”.
He sentenced Healy to jail for 18 months, with the sentence wholly suspended.
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