Brandon Dillon Dean Turnbull sentenced serious assault of a police officer

A 26-year-old who was so drunk he couldn’t tell the difference between his credit card and driver’s licence vomited in a police car, broke a door and spat towards an officer, a court has heard.

Brandon Dillon Dean Turnbull, 26, was sentenced to five months in prison on Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to the serious assault of a police officer. Picture: File.

A drunken night out ended badly for a 26-year-old who vomited in a police car before kicking it’s door panel off and spitting towards an officer, a court has heard.

Brandon Dillon Dean Turnbull, 26, was sentenced to five months in prison on Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to the serious assault of a police officer.

Police found Turnbull extremely intoxicated and bleeding from his knuckles at Elimbah Railway station on December 18 before he lashed out at officers.

Police prosecutor Mark Burrell said police were arresting an erratic and unpredictable Turnbull for obstructing police when he kicked the car door twice.

“(Turnbull) … lashed out with his foot kicking the door panel and screaming uncontrollably,” he said.

The interior panelling of the car door had fallen off and was lying on the ground when Turnbull repeated the action and kicked the door again.

Senior Constable Burrell said police had tried several times to place Turnbull in the car before he began to spit in the direction of an officer.

“(Turnbull) … said you sick c … t and intentionally directed his head towards the police officer’s direction and spat his saliva toward him,” Senior Constable Burrell said.

He said prior to Turnbull’s outburst police had organised to drive the Mountain Creek resident to his sister so he could be taken home before he vomited in the back seat.

The court heard Turnbull continued to be sick outside of the car and spat in all different directions.

He became argumentative with police and abused officers for 15 minutes after they asked him to stop spitting.

Senior Constable Burrell suggested four to six months imprisonment for Turnbull’s behaviour.

“It’s clear the intent was to spit at the officers and for that spit to land on the officers and that in my sub is just a disgusting act,” he said.

Turnbull pleaded guilty in Maroochydore Magistrates Court on Monday to five charges including serious assault of a police officer, wilful damage of police property, obstructing police and being drunk in a public place.

Duty lawyer Kylie Anderson the causal scaffolding, who was on holidays at the time, had limited memory of the drunken night out.

“(It was a) very drunken night out, he couldn’t even tell the difference between his credit card and driver’s licence,” she said.

“He was at Maroochydore and has no idea how he ended up at the train station.”

Ms Anderson said Turnbull’s criminal history had gaps including the past 10 months where he had been working.

“He is keen to continue his employment, it's the one thing that has been stable over his life and results in him keeping out of trouble,” she said.

The court heard Turnbull was on a suspended sentence and had breached probation at the time of the incident.

A Queensland Corrective Services representative said Turnbull had failed to report in accordance with his probation on several occasions and asked for the order to be revoked and Turnbull re-sentenced.

Ms Anderson said Turnbull was doing well with probation before he lost track of his matters and prioritised work.

Given the circumstances and the fact that the spit didn’t land on the officer Ms Anderson suggested a three to four month prison sentence.

She said an immediate release on parole would benefit both the community and Turnbull by allowing him to return to work rather than being a burden in the custodial system.

Magistrate Rod Madsen described Turnbull’s spitting assault as a “degrading, disgusting and horrible act”.

He said Turnbull was lucky his drunken state meant his spit did not land on the officer.

Mr Madsen said Turnbull was out of chances.

“If there is any repeat of this you can expect to spend a long time in custody,” he said.

Turnbull was released on parole for a total of 10 months.

His four-month suspended sentence was activated.

He was also given fines for a number of offences originally dealt with by the probation order including possessing utensils or pipes, stealing, and possession of property suspected of having been used in a crime.