Man charged with assault, torture, choking of three-year-old boy

The 23-year-old man is charged with assault, torture and choking a three-year-old boy in his care. Here’s what happened in court:

A 23-year-old Toowoomba man accused of bashing a three-year-old boy has been remanded in custody.

The man remained in the watch house and was not required to appear before Toowoomba Magistrates Court when his charges were mentioned on Thursday, January 18.

The 23-year-old is charged with three counts of assault occasioning bodily harm, two counts of torture and one count of choking suffocation strangulation (as the charges read on the court material).

All counts have been charged as domestic violence offences and the accused has not as yet been required to enter any pleas to those charges.

The accused man remained in the watch house when his matters were mentioned in Toowoomba Magistrates Court.

It is believed the accused man was caring for the boy while the child’s mother was away from the home.

When Magistrate Louise Shephard asked whether the respondent to the domestic violence matters was at court, police prosecutor Rohan Brewster-Webb said “the victim is a three-year-old child”.

Defence lawyer Jag MacDonald, of MacDonald Law, told the court there would be no application for bail on his client’s behalf and that he would order a full police brief of evidence.

Mr MacDonald said it was conceded the Crown case was “very strong” and he had already sought that his client’s mental health condition be assessed.

Mental health provisions notwithstanding, the matters were likely to be taken straight up to the higher court, he said.

The condition of the boy was not disclosed to the court.

There being no application for bail, Ms Shephard remanded the man in custody and ordered the police brief of evidence be disclosed to the defence by February 22 and adjourned the case for committal mention back in the same court on March 7.

Originally published as Man charged with assault, torture, choking of three-year-old boy