Toowoomba man James Wood guilty of “abhorrent” DV and methed-up crash
A Toowoomba father has narrowly escaped jail time after pleading guilty to “abhorrent” acts of domestic violence, and totalling his car while high on meth.
A Darling Downs man narrowly avoided jail time after fronting a Toowoomba court for “abhorrent” acts of domestic violence.
James Bradley Wood, 38, pleaded guilty to committing a number of crimes before the Toowoomba Magistrates Court on Tuesday, November 25, the most serious being assault occasioning bodily harm.
The court heard the father of four repeatedly beat the woman in the face and head while driving around Newtown in the early hours of the morning.
Later the same day, the court heard Wood became enraged after he found out the woman’s father had called the police and asked for officers to conduct a welfare check.
Wood then accused the woman of sleeping with his father before stabbing her in the leg with a pair of metal tweezers and dragging her from a bed.
“I’ll stomp on your head if you don’t get the f-ck out,” he told her.
She suffered minor injuries.
After the police took up with the woman at a safe house the following day, Woods was arrested and spent 92 days in custody on remand.
The court heard Wood’s four-page criminal history was relevant and included convictions for assault.
Wood also pleaded guilty to the dangerous operation of a car while high on drugs and unlicensed.
The court heard Warwick police arrived at the single vehicle crash on Dragon St in July, the bonnet was wrapped around an uprooted tree, and Wood was sitting in the driver’s seat.
He was so intoxicated he couldn’t walk on his own, he was drooling, slurring his speech, and his eyes were rolling into the back of his head.
Solicitor Kate McIntyre said Wood deliberately crashed his car during a mental health episode, however he was now properly medicated and seeing a psychiatrist on a weekly basis.
Ms McIntyre said Wood had also been abstinent from methamphetamine use for about two months after successfully completing the Drug Arm rehabilitation program.
She said Wood was incredibly protective of his children, given the abuse he suffered as a child, and tendered a number of reference letters from his friends and family stating he was a great dad.
Magistrate Kyna Morice told Wood, looking at his case on face value, she planned to impose more jail time given the serious and abhorrent acts of domestic violence he committed.
“Just imagine being placed in her shoes and being stabbed with a metal implement in circumstances where she’s already been verbally and physically abused by you,” she said
“It shows a complete lack of ability to control yourself, and that must have been incredibly scary for (her).”
Magistrate Morice said given the positive steps the disability support pensioner had taken to rehabilitate himself, she was satisfied to grant him immediate parole eligibility.
“If you don’t continue with your efforts, your positive conduct, your new treatment regime, counselling, and not committing further offences… the choice of being a good father, or any father, will be taken away from you,” she warned.
“This (drug addiction) is an ongoing battle for you, you will have bad days, and things will get worse than they are today, but you have shown you can stay clean.
“If you ever have days where you think that you can’t, or you think that things aren’t worth it, you should reflect on your children.”
The 92 days Wood spent on remand were declared time served, and he was sentenced to a 10-month jail term.
Wood was sentenced to a 10-month jail term, with immediate parole, after the 92 days he spent on remand were declared as time served.
His driver’s licence was disqualified for three years and three months.
The community-based sentence will run alongside an 8-month probation order Wood was placed on in August at the Warwick Magistrates Court when he pleaded guilty to crimes related to the crash.
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Originally published as Toowoomba man James Wood guilty of “abhorrent” DV and methed-up crash
