Shane Robert O’Hara: Kingaroy man sentenced for late night assault of woman in Blackbutt

A drunk father of three who brutally slammed a 50-year-old legally blind woman onto the concrete and pummelled her in a horrifying incident later claimed he thought he was being robbed.

A blind woman was thrown onto a concrete footpath by a 35-year-old man so violently her head “bounced”, before being punched more than a dozen times and kicked.

Shane O’Hara later told police he didn’t know she was a woman and he believed she was threatening to rob him at knifepoint, despite CCTV showing him turning his back on her before launching his assault.

The 50-year-old woman, who has just six per cent vision in one eye and one per cent in the other, was on Coulson St in Blackbutt about 2am on September 18.

Described in court as “short and thin”, the woman was walking the streets, collecting used cigarette butts with a friend.

O’Hara approached the woman carrying a bottle of rum after celebrating his friend’s birthday.

CCTV footage showed O’Hara begin speaking to woman, before turning his back to her and placing the bottle of rum on the ground.

Police prosecutor Lisa Manns told Kingaroy Magistrates Court he turned back and grabbed in victim by the throat and threw her to the ground, causing her head to “bounce off the concrete”.

O’Hara climbed on top of his victim and is seen punching her in face 13 times, before standing and kicking her in the torso, with audio showing the victim “crying for help”.

The Kingaroy man took himself to the police station later and told officers he “only attended because he had since found out that it was a female he assaulted that night”.

He claimed the victim, who he described as a person in a black hoodie, approached him and said “give me your phone and wallet I have a knife in my pocket”.

Sgt Manns did not dispute the victim had said something to O’Hara, but claimed the attack was “extremely excessive”.

Lawyer Mark Werner said his client accepted he went too far, noting the 35-year-old father of three was intoxicated and consumed about 12 rums on the night.

The disability support pensioner, who has never worked due to mental health, had no interactions with the victim prior to the incident.

Mr Werner said O’Hara was genuinely scared the victim had a knife, and said he himself had been unable to determine the victim’s gender from the footage.

“Not to be too unkind but she walked like a man,” Mr Werner said.

Magistrate Andrew Sinclair condemned O’Hara’s response.

“Whether it was a man or a woman or even from the pictures a small child, it's not a very big person, going as far as to punch them and kick them on the ground is clearly unacceptable,” Mr Sinclair said.

“That level of violence is not called for in any of the circumstances that I’ve heard about, particularly when she’s on the ground.”

O’Hara pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm and was sentenced to three months’ jail, wholly suspended for 12 months.