Granite Belt man found guilty of assault occasioning bodily harm in Warwick District Court

A judge has deemed a man’s actions as cowardly during his sentencing for the assault on a woman.

The trial of a man facing nine charges has begun in Warwick District Court, with the man accused of inflicting a horror sexual attack on a woman.

A Southern Downs man has been found guilty of one charge, and not guilty of eight others, after a jury returned the verdicts following a two-day trial.

The Granite Belt man pleaded not guilty in Warwick District Court on Tuesday, October 8, to nine charges related to the alleged attack.

They were of two counts of rape, two counts of attempted rape, two counts of sexual assault and one charge each of strangulation, suffocation and assault occasioning bodily harm.

The man cannot be named to protect the identity of the victim.

On Friday afternoon, the man, aged in his 40s, was sentenced for one charge of assault occasioning bodily harm in District Court.

The court was told the offending occurred at a cabin in the Granite Belt region, where the man and his then-partner, were living.

Crown prosecutor Luke Smoothy told the court while the man had criminal history in NSW, Queensland and Victoria, they were not lengthy.

On March 17, 2022, the man returned to the cabin “massively intoxicated”, and came into the room where the woman was sitting.

The man began grabbing the woman’s thigh, digging his nails in and pinching her multiple times, causing the woman pain.

Disturbingly, the woman was on a video chat with a witness who saw everything.

“You could have very easily overpowered her due to her being rail thin,” Judge Benedict Power KC told the man.

The judge told the man the assault’s motivation was “retribution” for the an earlier incident, resulting in the police getting involved.

“This is cowardly retribution on a vulnerable woman,” the judge said.

Following his arrest, the man spent more than two months in custody, which the judge said if he wasn’t on remand there would have been “no hesitation sending you to jail”.

Judge Power declared 75 days in custody as time served.

The man was sentenced to six months imprisonment, with an immediate release on parole.