Man sentenced in Warwick Magistrates Court after ‘stupid’ attempt to escape police custody

A father who tried to slip away from officers while being taken to the watch-house after racking up a string of drug, weapons, and domestic violence offences has now been sentenced to time behind bars.

A man busted hiding in a bedroom in a nearby hotel after fleeing police custody while facing a string of domestic violence and drug charges has been sentenced in the Warwick court to jail.

An argument first broke out between the 25-year-old, who cannot be named, and his partner on June 24 after the woman was unable to drive him to the shops to get food due to their car not running and needing repairs.

Warwick Magistrates Court heard the man threatened to damage their car further before walking around to his pregnant partner’s side of the bed and trying to force a kiss on her as an apology, with the woman repeatedly resisting and eventually hitting the man several times to defend herself.

This again sparked the man’s rage and he punched a hole in the all above the woman’s side of the bed, and a child living with the couple could be heard crying in the background when the woman called police.

The Goondiwindi man was arrested at the scene and taken into police custody, and it as he was being transferred from the town’s courthouse to the watch-house in Toowoomba that he slipped away from officers and fled down the street on foot.

Police soon received information from the public that the fugitive was hiding in a bedroom at the nearby Goondiwindi Hotel and quickly tracked him down.

The court was told the man had another brush with the law just weeks before his attempted escape, with police searching his home on June 10 to find a bong and less than 1g marijuana inside the house and an unauthorised BB gun stashed in long grass outside, which the man had hidden to avoid alerting police.

The man had targeted his partner in another abusive attack only the previous month, screaming at the woman while she was on the phone to an employee within the Department of Housing.

He could be heard yelling, “Aren’t I good enough? Why don’t you put the f —king phone down and come into the other room” and other abuse, prompting the government employee to call the police to the house from fear for the woman’s safety.

The man had also previously failed to give police the passcode for his mobile phone during a search.

The court heard the man had been in custody for the 47 days since his arrest as he as serving to suspended sentences at the time, one of which as handed down after he was convicted of drug trafficking and supplying weapons.

Defence layer Sarah Campbell said her client had battled substance abuse since he was about 15 years old, but was working towards beating his addiction after several stints in custody and with his partner due to give birth next month.

She said the man had also previously suffered a burst eardrum and resulting hearing difficulties, which contributed to the raised voices and yelling involved in the domestic violence offences.

“In relation to the escape from lawful custody, it seems to have been rather spur of the moment and he accepts it as stupid and sometimes he just doesn’t stop and think about the consequences of his actions,” Ms Campbell said.

“It was silly, it was unsophisticated, and he was always bound to be caught.”

She also submitted a statement from the man’s partner to the court, which said she was relying on her partner’s support after struggling with complications through her pregnancy and wanted their family to be able to relocate to the Toowoomba area upon his eventual release from jail.

Magistrate Virginia Sturgess slammed the man’s behaviour towards his partner as controlling and manipulative, and warned that ongoing domestic violence would have long-term consequences for his children.

“Children who are exposed to domestic violence experience permanent, long-term psychological damage, and it may come to the stage where it is not safe for the children to be in the house with you or exposed to you if you continue to act in the manner that you have,” she said.

The man pleaded guilty to two counts of contravening a domestic violence order and one each of escaping lawful custody, possessing dangerous drugs, possessing drug utensils, unlawful possession of a weapon, wilful damage, and contravening an order in relation to providing information.

He was sentenced to nine months’ jail with eligibility for parole from September 24, with his time behind bars including the activation of his three-month suspended sentence.

He was also ordered to appear in the Toowoomba Supreme Court in the near future for breaching his second suspended jail term.