Toowoomba court: Convicted rapist Dwayne Warnock fronts judge for brutal bashing
A love triangle involving a pregnant woman ended in blood, after a man was attacked and glassed in his bedroom by a man who committed gross and disturbing crimes against young girls. WARNING: Distressing content.
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A Darling Downs man lay bloody in his bed and on the verge of unconsciousness after a man walked into his home and brutally attacked him like a “neanderthal”.
A court heard when Dwayne Michael Warnock travelled more than 170km to the man’s home to carry out the assault, he was on a two-year suspended sentence for rape.
The Toowoomba District Court heard a 16-year-old girl was asleep and woke to Warnock raping her with his hands.
He later asked the girl if she liked it.
The Kingaroy-born man was also convicted of grooming a 15-year-old girl online in 2021, who was really an undercover police officer.
Crown prosecutor Ellen Fletcher said a love triangle sparked the brutal assault, as Warnock’s girlfriend was dating the victim but ended things when she found out she was pregnant with Warnock’s child.
The break-up was not amicable, and when text messages got nasty between the jilted pair, Warnock and the woman drove from Brisbane to the victim’s Jondaryan home on February 25, 2021.
Prosecutor Fletcher said during the assault, Warnock strangled the man while punching him in the head, before he picked up a glass Jim Beam bottle and hit the man in the back of the head.
When Warnock pleaded guilty to the assault at court on Monday morning, July 31, the court heard he had already spent “significant time in jail” following the bedroom attack, because his suspended rape sentence was invoked in March following the grooming offence.
The father of three, who whent to school at Bundamba Ipswich, was released from jail later than expected in June 2023, because he had trouble completing course work in prison.
Judge Michael Burnett told Warnock his violent behaviour was concerning and “neanderthal-like,” and noted a psychologist deemed him “borderline mentally retarded”.
Given his mental health issues and intellectual difficulties, Judge Burnett said Warnock needed to be supervised and supported to address his behaviour, and to protect the community.
He was sentenced to an 18 month jail term which was suspended for three years.
Judge Burnett said the community could be comforted by the fact Warnock’s mother was in court and aware of his history, and that he was living under her care via the disability pension.
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Originally published as Toowoomba court: Convicted rapist Dwayne Warnock fronts judge for brutal bashing
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