Named and shamed: South Burnett violent crimes and the perpetrators behind them

From a drip torch wielding volunteer fiery to a man attacking his young stepson, these are some of the Burnetts’ most violent offenders and the crimes that brought them before the courts in recent months. FULL LIST HERE:

South Burnett courts are routinely dealing with shockingly violent crimes, from domestic violence incidents to broad daylight assaults.

The state has recorded a massive spike in violent crime with the number of assaults rising by more than 12,000 in a year and police say there is one main reason behind the surge.

Queensland Police figures show that the state recorded 39,300 offences of assault last year – the highest figure in at least 20 years – up almost 50 per cent on the figures for 2020.

But authorities say the sharp rise has not been driven by an increase in crime, but rather a new approach to the way police are reporting domestic and family violence (DFV) offences.

In July last year, the Queensland Police Service changed the way criminal offences associated with DFV investigations across the state were recorded in the QPRIME computer system.

The shift meant that if police attended a reported breach of a domestic violence order that may include an alleged assault, the matter would not just be recorded as a DFV breach.

Here is a list of some of the region’s most violent cases and what happened when the offenders faced justice.

See the full list below:

Conviction recorded

Man assaults victim with hammer demanding money

A man who fractured another man’s skull with a hammer in a terrifying armed robbery has been sentenced in the Kingaroy court, more than five years after the violence took place.

The victim and his wife were getting ready to go to a barbecue on January 7, 2017, when they noticed Daniel John Bell and an unnamed co-offender in their backyard, armed with a hammer and screwdriver respectively.

After forcing their way inside, 28-year-old Bell, armed with the hammer, demanded the man tell them “where the money was”.

“When the victim told him there was none in the house, (Bell) struck him in the head with the hammer a couple of times,” Ms O’Rourke said.

“He threatened to use the claw end of the hammer next time.”

Bell pleaded guilty to one count each of burglary with violence while armed and armed robbery in company with personal violence.

He was sentenced to four years’ jail, wholly suspended for five years.

FULL STORY

Father of 4 threatens to hit cancer-stricken partner with shove

A South Burnett man unleashed a vicious attack on his cancer-stricken partner, pushing her where she had a medical device inserted under her skin, and threatening her with a shovel.

The 40-year-old serial abuser exploded into a rage after walking in on a conversation between the woman and one of their children, accusing his partner of “bad-mouthing” him.

He shoved the woman on the right side of her body where she’d had a port-a-cath installed, which was implanted to give doctors easy access to veins as she underwent treatment for cancer.

The man pleaded guilty to breaching a domestic violence order.

He was sentenced to nine months’ jail, but was released on immediate parole.

Magistrate Andrew Sinclair noted he’d already sentenced the 40-year-old to jail several times in the past for domestic violence.

FULL STORY

Kingaroy woman sentenced for violent attack on hotel manager

A regular work day took a violent turn for an Ayr hotel manager when a Kingaroy woman started attacking a fellow patron before turning on the manager when he attempted to intervene.

The violent ordeal began when an intoxicated Rebecca Bransby, 26, started brawling with another guest at the Queens Hotel in Ayr last November.

The Kingaroy woman had the man pinned to the ground of the front bar when the hotel manager pulled her off him, holding her arms from behind as she attempted to throw punches at him, police prosecutor Sergeant Lisa Manns told the Kingaroy Magistrates Court.

She pulled free and gouged at the 41-year-old man’s left eye and punched him twice in the head before he and another staff member were able to restrain her and drag her struggling from the building.

As they pulled her outside she grabbed the victim’s work shirt and tore it.

She pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm, wilful damage of the shirt, and failing to appear in court.

The 26-year-old was fined $1500.

FULL STORY

Children watch in horror as mum left bloodied, bruised by drunken partner

A terrified nine-year-old girl was forced to call triple-0 after watching her mum savagely bashed by her partner, with police later finding a 12-year-old boy cowering in a bedroom following the brutal attack.

Kingaroy Magistrates Court was told a triple-0 operator answered the desperate pleas of the little girl on December 13, with the girl telling police to, “hurry up and get here, Mum is hurt.”

“She’s on the floor and he’s hurting her,” the girl told the operator.

“He’s hitting her. He won’t get out of the house.”

Officers arrived at the Kingaroy home to find the woman bruised and bleeding between her eyes and down the side of her face, hiding in a bedroom with two young girls.

In a second bedroom they found an “emotionally distraught” 12-year-old boy, police prosecutor Sergeant Lisa Manns said.

The man, aged in his 20s, had already left the property, with police noting a bloodied bathroom with holes punched in the door and wall.

He pleaded guilty to contravening his domestic violence order and was sentenced to six months in jail, with his parole date set for May 26.

FULL STORY

Man’s terrifying attack on ex-partner using pliers

A South Burnett woman was locked in a room, brutalised with pliers and threatened during a terrifying incident that lasted hours after her ex-partner accused her of stealing his drugs.

When the young woman arrived at Samuel Woodward’s home to give him food in May 2021, things quickly spiralled out of control as the heavy ice user began to accuse her of stealing drugs from him.

The now 32-year-old subjected his victim to hours of terror, locking her in his bedroom and yelling threats, crown prosecutor Samantha O’Rourke told the Kingaroy District Court.

The shocking incident into physical violence when Woodward approached the woman with a weapon in his hands.

“(He) took a pair of pliers and clamped them over her fingers which caused an injury when she pulled her hand away,” Ms O’Rourke said.

He pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm, deprivation of liberty and making threats.

Woodward, who served almost 10 months in pre-sentence custody, was sentenced to 18 months’ jail and released on parole on April 29.

FULL STORY

32-year-old jailed for assaults on 8-year-old stepson in Murgon

A family holiday in Murgon turned into a nightmare for an eight-year-old boy, when he was headbutted and kicked by his stepfather.

The young boy was assaulted twice by his stepfather in Murgon in January this year while the man was heavily intoxicated.

The 32-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect the child’s identity, had been drinking on January 9, and began hurling abuse at the boy and calling him names.

This quickly escalated, with the child’s siblings telling police they saw the man headbutt and kick the boy as well as “put him in a trash bin”.

The abuse continued when the group returned to a caravan park, with the man continuing to kick the boy and call him “pissy pants”, despite the boy’s mother telling him to stop.

The man faced Kingaroy Magistrates Court on April 21, 2022, and pleaded guilty to two counts of assault occasioning bodily harm while intoxicated.

Magistrate Barry Barrett sentenced the man to nine months’ jail, suspended for 15 months.

FULL STORY

Man jailed for violent attack on mother of his children with machete

A Cherbourg man was sentenced to two and a half years in jail after he grabbed the mother of his children by the neck and cut her arm with a machete.

Tyreece Elijah Mervyn Simpson went home to rest after attending a party at Cherbourg on September 12 when his girlfriend of eight years told him she wanted to return to the event, which infuriated him to the point of grabbing her by the throat.

The 21-year-old told the woman she “wasn’t f–king leaving” and forced her by the neck into the bedroom, Crown Prosecutor Samantha O’Rourke told the Kingaroy District Court.

With Simpson’s hand gripping her underneath the jaw and blocking her airway, the victim’s vision was starting to blur by the time he threw her on the bed and continued to choke her. He then armed himself with a machete.

Simpson held the blade to the victim’s skin, which cut her forearm and hand as she instinctively moved her arm.

Once he spotted the blood dripping from her arm he apologised at once and told her “he’d kill himself before he killed her”, Ms O’Rourke told the court.

Simpson pleaded guilty to choking, strangulation or suffocation, assault occasioning bodily harm, assault occasioning bodily harm while armed, and two counts of contravening a domestic violence order, and was sentenced to two and a half years in jail

His parole release date was set for April 30.

FULL STORY

No conviction recorded

Volunteer firefighter sentenced for igniting vegetation fire, serious assault with drip torch

Kyle William West

A volunteer firefighter has walked free from the Kingaroy court after deliberately igniting a large vegetation fire before assaulting a colleague with a drip torch when his victim tried to stop him.

Kyle William West was a volunteer rural firefighter at Ballogie Station in October last year when he failed to hand in a signed letter from his parents allowing him to participate in that day’s training and was asked to go home.

The 28-year-old did leave the site but took a drip torch with him, taking off down Chinchilla Wondai Rd and lighting several fires along the way.

Another volunteer warned West to stop, who told him to ‘f —k off, I’ll show you how to light fires’.

West then swung the drip torch at the other man and hit him in the shoulder, causing some pain but no injury, and continued to light fires as he raced further down the stretch of road.

He also kicked a police officer in the leg as he was being taken into custody at the scene.

West pleaded guilty to one count each of serious assault while armed with a dangerous instrument, setting fire to vegetation, and assaulting a police officer.

He was placed on probation for two years and no conviction was recorded.

FULL STORY