Toowoomba woman Hailee Jensen jailed for ramming cop car twice

A young woman who turned to hard drugs at the age of 13 has been jailed for ramming a police car with a stolen vehicle during a drug-fuelled rampage.

Toowoomba woman Hailee Jensen, 21, was sentenced to a three-year jail term for ramming a police vehicle in a stolen car at the Ampol Service Station, Charlton, in June 2022.

A court heard a young Darling Downs woman who was subjected to abuse at the hands of men for the majority of her life has been jailed for ramming a cop car.

Details on the 23-year-old’s “highly dysfunctional” upbringing were laid bare in Toowoomba’s District Court on Friday, May 17, when Hailee Jensen was sentenced for a raft of crimes she committed while high on meth in 2022.

The court heard during the offending, the then 21-year-old was in the grips of an ice addiction and a violent domestic relationship where she was allegedly beaten on a daily basis - sometimes with a gun.

Toowoomba woman Hailee Jensen, 21, was sentenced to a three-year jail term for raming a police vehicle in a stolen car at the Ampol Service Station, Charlton, in June 2022.

The man Jensen was in a relationship with, was in the passenger seat of the stolen car when she rammed police at an Ampol Service Station at Charlton on May 30, 2022.

Crown prosecutor Abby Kong said after police boxed the car in, two officers approached the front doors of the car, however Jensen rammed the police vehicle twice before fleeing.

One officer tried to deploy their taser and failed, and the other managed to smash one of the windows with his baton.

Ms Kong said soon after the incident police located the car burnt out, however it was not known who set the car on fire, nor was she connected to the burglary and subsequent theft of the car.

While on Supreme Court bail for the crime, Ms Kong said Jensen sold meth on 12 occasions and GHB on one occasion.

A psychologist report tendered to court said at the time of the offending Jensen, who likely suffered from PTSD and depression, was in survival mode and acting from a place of “fight or flight”.

The court heard as a child Jensen endured things no little girl should, which led her to be homeless and using meth from the age of 13-14.

Judge Alexander Horneman-Wren SC said it was not an excuse for her behaviour, but he accepted her trauma and drug use had played a role in how she reacted in the moment when confronted by police.

The Toowoomba court house.

“At the time of the offending you were in what I admittedly accept was a terribly messy domestically violent and controlled relationship and that too is implicated in your offending … as is your drug use,” he said.

Judge Horneman-Wren encouraged the young woman to go through with her plan to leave the region once released from prison to enable her to distance herself from bad influences.

“You know better than anyone though, the risk of falling back in with the wrong people and being drawn back into drug use,” he told her.

“It’s particularly difficult for young women to break away from the controlling effects of controlling young men, you sadly know that better than anyone.

“You are going to have to make every effort to do so, it’s going to require strength but I’m sure you will find it within yourself to do so.”

Jensen pleaded guilty to a number of charges including supplying drugs, dangerous operation of a stolen car, evading police, and arson, and was sentenced to a three year jail term.

The 312 days Jensen spent in custody was declared as time served and she was deemed eligible to apply for parole.

Originally published as Toowoomba woman Hailee Jensen jailed for ramming cop car twice