Queensland mum raked over coals for knife threat to son’s ex-partner

A Queensland mum has been chewed out in court after threatening her son’s ex-partner with a knife while her children were only metres away.

A Queensland woman has faced court for threatening her son’s ex-partner with a knife. Picture: File

A mum has been scolded in court after intimidating her son’s ex-partner with a knife outside their family home.

A Queensland woman appeared in Toowoomba Magistrates Court on Friday August 16 where she pleaded guilty to going armed so as to cause fear after threatening her son’s ex-partner with a knife.

Police prosecutor Rohan Brewster-Webb told the court police were called to a Gold Coast address on March 3 of this year after reports of a disturbance involving a knife.

Mr Brewster-Webb said police found the woman, who legally cannot be identified, “highly intoxicated” at the scene and later uncovered footage which showed the woman wielding a knife.

“The footage shows the defendant on the ground floor within the driveway, common area of that address armed with a knife interacting with another female, the other female was not armed,” he told the court.

The knife was not recovered.

Defence lawyer Nathan Bouchier said the woman knew the other female to be her son’s ex-partner and feared she had come to the address to harm her family, including her two younger children, after she had been forcibly removed from the property a few weeks prior.

“She made the foolish decision to grab a knife and go outside to scare her off because she was concerned for her children,” Mr Bouchier said.

“She accepts it was a stupid thing to do, that it was dangerous and that it would have caused significant concern for the neighbours.”

“And her children,” acting magistrate Lisa O’Neill interjected.

Ms O’Neill chastised the woman for exposing her children to violence, stressing it was no excuse her children had not physically seen the altercation play out.

“It really was good luck that no one, including you, was hurt and what’s really concerning about that sort of incident was that it was done supposedly to protect your children but in fact being exposed to that must have been genuinely very frightening to them,” she said.

“Children hear as well as see what’s going on, they would have known and they would have been impacted by it.

“What sort of role modelling are you doing for them about how to resolve disputes?

“You could have called the police.

“If you’d done that, the whole thing would have been over without you getting involved.”

The woman was fined $400; no conviction was recorded.

Originally published as Queensland mum raked over coals for knife threat to son’s ex-partner