Yusuf Tesfamariam Gebreselassi released on parole after pleading guilty to assault, public nuisance

A 41-year-old was locked up for assaulting two women in the CBD Toowoomba then refused legal help, leaving him in the watch-house.

A 41-year-old man who spent three days in the Toowoomba watch-house because he refused the help of successive duty lawyers has been released on parole.

Yusuf Tesfamariam Gebreselassi was arrested and taken into custody on Monday, December 11, after throwing a full two-litre bottle which struck two young women as they crossed the street in Toowoomba’s CBD about 1.15pm.

At the watch-house during a search of his possessions, he was found to have a large kitchen knife with a 20cm stainless steel blade in his waistband, police prosecutor Anita Page told Toowoomba Magistrates Court.

Toowoomba watch house

The two women had felt immediate pain upon being struck by the juice bottle which struck both of them in the upper body and left red marks, Ms Page said.

Through a Tigrinya (a language spoken in Eritrea and Ethiopia) interpreter, Gebreselassi pleaded guilty to two counts of assault occasioning bodily harm and one of possessing a knife in public.

He also pleaded guilty to a public nuisance offence in which he had yelled and swore at staff of a Toowoomba employment agency after he was asked to leave on December 5.

As well as verbally abusing staff, Gebreselassi had placed a large juice bottle in front of his crotch and told a woman staff member he was going to rape her with it, Ms Page told the court.

TOOWOOMBA, AUSTRALIA – NewsWire Photos DECEMBER 13, 2023: A general view of the Toowoomba Courthouse. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

Ms Page said Gebreselassi had been sentenced to a two-month jail term, fully suspended for six months, by the same court on September 28 for other offences and asked that the suspended term be activated.

In broken English, Gebreselassi told the court he was single and not working at the moment.

Asked whether he had alcohol or drug issues, the 41-year-old replied: “I don’t drink alcohol anymore”.

“I smoke a little weed.”

Magistrate Louise Shephard noted Gebreselassi had an eight-page criminal history and though he didn’t have a history of assaulting people he did have previous for public nuisance offences.

Declaring the three days spent in the watch-house as part of his sentence, Ms Shephard sentenced him to three months in jail but ordered he be released on parole immediately.

Originally published as Yusuf Tesfamariam Gebreselassi released on parole after pleading guilty to assault, public nuisance