Wade Nicholas Duncan faces Toowoomba District Court for punching, strangling de facto partner

A 28-year-old who punched and strangled his de facto partner while she held their 10-month-old baby in her arms was described by a judge as ‘particularly cowardly’.

A 28-year-old Toowoomba man who punched and strangled his de facto partner as she held their 10-month-old child in her arms has been jailed.

At the time of the attack Wade Nicholas Duncan had been released from custody just weeks earlier and was subject to two probation orders imposed by the court for previous offences against the same woman, Toowoomba District Court was told.

Duncan had been using drugs the night before and woke on December 2, 2022, agitated by the crying of his baby who was being calmed by the 22-year-old mother inside a cabin at a Toowoomba caravan park, Crown prosecutor Emily Coley told the court.

Picking up a kitchen knife, Duncan approached his partner and threw up to 10 punches at her head and face, leaving her nose bleeding and with bruising to her head, cheek and eye, she said.

Toowoomba courthouse

Duncan had then used the knife to stab the walls and door of the cabin before grabbing and dragging his partner and throwing her onto a bed before squeezing her throat with both hands for about 10 seconds, leaving the woman out of breath and feeling dizzy, Ms Coley said.

During all these incidents, the woman had held onto her child, she said.

The park manager, who heard and saw some of the commotion, called police who arrested Duncan and took him into custody.

Duncan spent the next 248 days in jail before appearing in custody on Monday to plead guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm while armed, wilful damage and strangulation in a domestic setting.

His barrister Doug Wilson told the court Duncan at the time had been using meth but since his time in custody he had received drug counselling, been diagnosed with autism and had done literacy and numeracy courses.

His client intended on living with his grandmother in Kingsthorpe upon his release from jail, he said.

Judge Michael Burnett AM described the man’s attack on his partner as “particularly cowardly”.

Judge Michael Burnett AM said Duncan had displayed “particularly cowardly behaviour on your part toward your partner”.

“The offending itself is, in my view, objectively serious, it concerns a defenceless baby for which there is absolutely no excuse,” he said.

“You strangled the complainant to a point she couldn’t breathe and that’s a matter of concern.”

Judge Burnett sentenced Duncan to two and a half years in jail but, declaring 248 days as time already served under the sentence, ordered he be released on parole as of September 1, 2023, after having served one third of the head sentence.

Originally published as Wade Nicholas Duncan faces Toowoomba District Court for punching, strangling de facto partner