Kacee Maddison Oberle spared jail time after unprovoked attack leaves woman with collapsed lung

A young Burnett mother has been spared jail time to care for her sick child, after leaving a woman with ‘life-threatening’ injuries in an unprovoked attack.

Kacee Maddison Oberle narrowly avoided prison after an unproked attack left a woman with serious lung damage. Photo/Dominic Elsome

A South Burnett mother has narrowly avoided jail time for an unprovoked attack that left a woman with serious lung damage.

She was instead released on immediate parole to care for her sick child.

Kacee Maddison Oberle pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm and attempting to pervert the course of justice when she appeared before the Kingaroy Magistrates Court.

The court was told the 34-year-old complainant was approached by Oberle on March 4, 2019, after leaving a Kingaroy address where she’d been involved in an altercation.

When she spotted the defendant walking toward her, the complainant said, “I don’t want to fight, I’m not going to hit you”, crown prosecutor Alex Stark told the court.

Oberle proceeded to punch the complainant in the head, which caused her to fall backwards onto the ground.

She then kicked the woman in the chest with her bare foot, which caused a collapsed lung (pneumothorax) and bleeding between the chest and lungs (hemothorax).

“If left untreated they would be likely to endanger the complainant’s life, causing permanent difficulties in breathing and/or stopping her breathing,” Mr Stark said.

The complainant was admitted for treatment, had a chest drain inserted and was later referred to a physiotherapy review.

Between May 8 and 13, while on bail for the grievous bodily harm offence, Oberle was charged with attempting to pervert justice for her role in a false confession.

The defendant’s ex partner was in custody at the time and was seeking another person to sign an affidavit to take full criminal responsibility for drugs found in his car.

During a call to the defendant from prison, he encouraged Oberle to pressure the woman into “taking the rap” for the crime, who ultimately produced the false affidavit.

The defendant was represented by James Benjamin, who said while the head sentence for these offences would typically sit at two to three years, it was an unusual case that called for a degree of leniency.

Mr Benjamin said the root of Oberle’s behaviour seemed to lie with her ex partner, who was 15 years older than her.

“It seems readily apparent that the influence (her ex partner) had upon her was dreadful,” he said.

While reading a letter provided to the court by a family member, Mr Benjamin said Oberle “had been in a long-term extremely violent and toxic relationship since reaching adulthood, and had been harmed both psychologically and physically in this context”.

More significantly, the defendant’s daughter suffers from a number of medical conditions, having been diagnosed with cerebral palsy and had more recently started having seizures which she was still being assessed for to discover the cause.

Mr Benjamin said Oberle was the sole carer for her daughter and incarcerating her could have very serious consequences for the young child’s development.

Noting the exceptional nature of this case, Judge Nicole Kefford sentenced Oberle to two years’ imprisonment with immediate parole.

“The absence of offending in more recent times, and personal growth that you’ve experienced by removing yourself from (your ex partner) and poor influences, and focusing on the needs of your child suggests to me that there is no ongoing risk of harm to the community,” Ms Kefford said.

Convictions were recorded.