Whitsunday father faces court for assaulting man in Airlie Beach Hotel toilets

A man’s defence of his ‘distraught’ teenage daughter has landed him in court with no ‘pats on the back’ for the violent way he went about it.

A Whitsunday tradie has received a fine following a violent confrontation with a 62-year-old man he accused of sexually harassing his underage daughter who was working as a waitress.

The 48 year old pleaded guilty at Proserpine Magistrates Court this week to a charge of assault occasioning bodily harm resulting from a night out at the Airlie Beach Hotel in which he injured the older man with a punch to the head.

The court heard the father entered the men’s toilets a short time after the man on the evening of October 16, 2021, and approached him extending his hand as if inviting him to shake it.

Instead of shaking the man’s hand, the man gripped it so he could not get away, and proceeded to punch him in the face, call him a “dirty f---ing pedophile” and scream at him: “Stay away from my daughter”, before staff intervened to separate them.

The victim was later taken to hospital via ambulance for treatment of facial injuries.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Emma Myors said investigations revealed the man’s teenage daughter was a waitress at the hotel who had complained to her father about the 62 year old’s “inappropriate” behaviour towards her multiple times.

Airlie Beach Hotel staff intervened to stop an assault in the men’s toilets in October 2021.

The girl’s claims included that the man had kissed her on the cheek “close to her mouth” one night as she was finishing up a shift, which had left her feeling “distraught”.

Sergeant Myors said the girl told her father immediately after an alleged kissing incident on October 1, but did not make a formal statement to police about it until November 9.

The court heard the man admitted to police he had spoken to the girl at her workplace and a local fashion show in which she participated, making comments along the lines of “You should smile more – you look prettier when you smile” and “You look nice tonight”, but believed he had “never” been inappropriate or intended to cause her offence or harm.

Defence lawyer Steven Hayles said his client was a father of two and a qualified tradesman who had performed work at the hotel and was in good standing among its staff.

Mr Hayles said the man’s punching was “excessive in the circumstances” but pointed out the victim suffered no lasting injuries as a result.

Magistrate James Morton said the man’s defence of his daughter was “understandable” but added: “If everybody went and took the law into their own hands and started dishing out punishment as they feel, the place would be chaos”.

He said the man’s criminal history was “of little use” in sentencing, and agreed not to ban him from the hotel or record a conviction as this could affect his ability to tender for work.

“You get a pat on the back for looking after your daughter but you don’t get a pat on the back for how you’ve gone about it,” Mr Morton said.

He sentenced the man to pay a $300 fine plus $250 compensation to the victim.

No convictions were recorded.