Bad blood spilt during family feud at World Gym Burpengary

One man has been hospitalised, with another in court, after a decades-long financial feud finally came to a head beside the weights machine in a southeast Queensland gym. 

Bad blood was spilt on the floor of the World Gym at Burpengary when a decade-long family feud came to a head in June, the Pine Rivers Magistrates Court heard today.

Darren James Stapleton, 41, was lifting weights at the gym when he saw his brother-in-law Shane Andrew Jones filling his water bottle, mere metres away.

Darren James Stapleton assaulted his brother-in-law when he ran into him at the World Gym in Burpengary.

It was the first time the two had laid eyes on each other for ten years, and the anger that had caused their estrangement still simmered beneath the surface.

The court heard the beef began when Mr Jones asked his mother, Stapleton’s mother-in-law, to refinance her home to support his fledgling business.

Defence lawyer Rory Cunningham told the court Mr Jones spent his mother’s money with “reckless disregard” and his business became a commercial failure.

“As a result, the family was torn apart,” Mr Cunningham said.

“The family saw it as the catalyst which sent (Stapleton’s father-in-law) down the path of dementia and ultimately, into a nursing home.

The court heard Darren James Stapleton was driven to assault his brother-in-law by a decade-long feud that "destroyed" their family.

“The family suffered a lot as a result of (Mr Jones) behaviour.”

The court heard Stapleton was unable to let the past go and on that morning June 19, he approached Mr Jones to make a snide comment about his tattoos.

When Mr Jones did not respond, Stapleton’s anger intensified and he sprayed water in his brother-in-laws direction.

Still, Mr Jones did not engage, so Stapleton punched him twice on the right side of the head, knocking him to the ground and causing significant bleeding.

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Mr Jones was transported to the Caboolture Hospital, where he received 12 stitches to his right ear, and Stapleton was charged with assault occasioning bodily harm, an offence for which he pleaded guilty during an earlier hearing at the Caboolture Magistrates Court.

The court heard Stapleton risked jail given his criminal history, which, though dated, contained two previous occasions of assault.

The assault occurred at the World Gym at Burpengary.

Given Stapleton’s early plea of guilty, his efforts to undertake anger management and his family’s reliance on his income as a concreter, he escaped the harsher penalty.

He was convicted, fined $1500 and ordered to pay $750 compensation to the victim.