Released teen murderer terrorises Logan with blowtorch and steak knife

The offender was convicted of murdering an elderly WWII veteran when he was just 16, but decades in prison did nothing to combat violent tendencies born from years of “horrific” childhood trauma.

A convicted murderer broke into several Logan homes, stabbed a man in the chest and threatened his dog with a blowtorch in a series of frightening offences committed after his release from prison.

The Beenleigh District Court heard on Friday that the man, 32, was intoxicated by alcohol, high on inhalants and intravenous methamphetamine, and possibly in the midst of a psychotic episode, when he terrorised the suburban streets of Bethania on December 16, 2019.

It was the latest in a series of violent offences committed by the man since the young age of 16, when he and another juvenile were found guilty of breaking into a Toowoomba home and beating an 86-year-old WWII veteran to death with a plank of wood.

The man first appeared at the Toowoomba Courthouse as a 16-year-old following the senseless murder of a WWII veteran.

The elderly man was sitting alone in a chair when the youths broke in and took him by surprise.

Ambulance workers attempted to revive the man but he died of head injuries on October 24, 2005, leaving behind a traumatised widow.

As a teenager the man was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment at the Toowoomba Supreme Court, and due to the juvenile nature of his offending, he cannot be legally named in this story.

The court heard that since 2005 the man has spent just six months out in the community, due to his almost-immediate reoffending upon each failed attempt at release, at one point even cutting off a GPS tracking device to avoid recapture.

Bethania, where the offences of December 2019 took place.

On this occasion, crown prosecutor Elizabeth Kelso told the court the violent rampage began at 5.15am on Station Rd when he approached a home and banged on the wooden front door, demanding water.

The occupants of the home refused, prompting the man to fly into a rage.

“I’ll fucking kill you, c**t!” the man yelled, according to details read in court by Judge Craig Chowdhury.

“I’ll cut your throat, come outside and have a crack, I dare you!”

When he received no response, the man smashed in several windows then walked down the road to a nearby business.

The victim later noticed the man had poured paint thinner on his fuse box, cutting electricity to the home – A notable fact as he’d done the same thing to the home of the deceased veteran more than a decade prior.

A dog alerted its owners to the violent intruder at a home at Bethania.

The man continued to walk down the road with a knife in one hand and a hammer in the other, threatening passers-by, throwing random items at cars and smashing in the window of a second house.

The offending reached a crescendo at a property on Federation Drive, where the man was seen angrily muttering to himself and rummaging through a shed.

A dog alerted the male occupant to the intruder, and he emerged from the house with a baseball bat, having already told his wife to call the police.

He saw the man retrieve an oxy-fuel torch (typically used to cut steel pipes) and point it at his dog.

Fearing for his dog’s safety, the male occupant sprung into action.

He yelled at the man to frighten him off and, when the torch was turned on him, began hitting the man with the baseball bat.

A scuffle broke out, ending only when the victim felt a sharp blow to the left side of his chest.

An Oxygen Acetylene metal cutting torch, similar to the one used by the man at a home in Bethania.

The man had stabbed him, causing a 3cm wound that would later require 4 stitches and a drainage catheter in the pleural space around the lung.

Police arrived and chased the man through several neighbouring yards before finally arresting him.

“That blade could have gone through the intercostal region between his ribs and you could have easily killed him,” Judge Chowdhury said to the man.

Both men were transported to the Princess Alexandra Hospital.

The man continued his wild behaviour there, attacking four police officers and threatening to shoot them with their own guns.

He was taken into custody, where he has served 511 days of presentence custody at the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre.

The Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre, where the man has spent most of his time incarcerated in presentence custody.

The court heard the man suffered from treatment resistant schizophrenia and a severe form of PTSD that arose from “horrific” physical and sexual abuse as a child.

He was further impacted by witnessing his sister’s murder at two-years-old, then his uncle’s fatal heart attack at 14-years-old.

Without any caregivers, and having spent so much of his adult life in prison, the man had become “institutionalised” – Unable to withstand the pressures of the world outside prison walls, and desperate to return to life behind bars.

The man blamed his offending on the overwhelming desire to be incarcerated once again.

He pleaded guilty to a total of 14 offences, including four counts of wilful damage, four counts of obstructing a police officer, one count of break and enter and one count of unlawful wounding.

“This offending is serious, alarming, and gives the court grave concern for the public’s welfare when you’re released,” Judge Chowdhury said.

“But I cannot impose indefinite detention.”

The man received a head sentence of seven years imprisonment and convictions were recorded for all offences.