Zach Lee George John Bamber pleads guilty to spree of assaults in Maroochydore

A man has admitted to throwing cake at an elderly woman and grossly spitting at a young girl in a spate of vicious Sunshine Coast shopping centre attacks.

Zach Lee George John Bamber appeared in Maroochydore Magistrates Court by video from prison on Friday. Picture: Patrick Woods

A Maroochydore man is in custody after “terrorising” a Sunshine Coast suburb over the span of week where he attacked three women and a young man, including spitting in the face of a young girl.

Zach Lee George John Bamber was set to receive more jail time in Maroochydore Magistrates Court on Friday until a court outburst saw his sentence postponed to next week.

Up until that point, the court heard of the 27-year-old’s crime spree after he pleaded guilty to 17 charges that included assault, assault while armed, common assault and another of serious assault.

Police prosecutor Jeanette Grigoris said his offending ran from September 14 to October 21 last year however all of the assaults occurred over a week period from October 14 to October 20.

Sergeant Grigoris said the first involved Bamber lunging at the 15-year-old girl and spitting in her face while she was riding her bike along Bradman Ave in Maroochydore.

Zach Lee George John Bamber. Photo: Facebook

Two days later the 27-year-old threw a can of Red Bull at a woman working at Woolworths. A day after that Bamber ran at an 18-year-old Hungry Jacks worker and struck the worker’s throat with his forearm.

The victim suffered a sore voice box and throat, and felt confused as to why he was attacked.

The court was told Bamber then smashed the rear window of a 72-year-old woman’s car before throwing an “object” at her when she hopped out of her car in the Big Top Shopping Centre car park in Maroochydore.

Sergeant Grigoris said the elderly woman was so rattled by the attack she had to be assisted by someone nearby, and could not drive her car to the police station nearby.

She was later taken to hospital.

The police prosecutor said they were random, unprovoked attacks on mostly women where he was effectively “terrorising” the area of Sunshine Plaza and Big Top.

Some of the assaults took place near Sunshine Plaza.

On top of this, Bamber was involved in a break in at a Nambour cafe where he stole items, $200 of staff tips and even the Guide Dogs Australia charity box. He also caused $1500 in damages to the business.

The court heard arresting police were of the belief Bamber was under the influence of drugs during his offending.

He was arrested and spent more than four months on remand up until his sentence on Friday.

Defence solicitor Amelia Walters told the court Bamber suffered from mental illness which contributed to his offending, and submitted there was no evidence he was on drugs at the time. An outburst from Bamber however prompted his solicitor to withdraw the submission.

“Mushrooms ... I took mushrooms, I stole a hammer, I stole food, I smashed a car window, I threw a cake at a woman and threw a Red Bull can at a woman,” Bamber said via videolink.

The elderly woman was assaulted by Bamber at the Big Top Shopping Centre at Maroochydore.

Ms Walters continued after a short adjournment, where she said Bamber had sought mental health services in jail as well as on the outside for a number of years.

Magistrate Rod Madsen read to the court the 15-year-old girl’s victim impact statement, which retold her disgust and concern after feeling Bamber’s saliva all over her face while she was riding along a footpath.

The teenager spoke of the anxiety of getting tests to make sure she did not contract any diseases from the Maroochydore man. These results had not come back to her as of Thursday.

As this was happening, Bamber interjected on the video link: “you’re making it sound worse than it is”.

After this bizarre remark, the magistrate remanded Bamber into custody and adjourned his sentencing to next Friday.

“Please can you finish it today,” Bamber said before the video link was closed.