Homeless, high and desperate: Brisbane private school grad targets mum at Maccas carpark
The tearful mother of a Brisbane private college graduate has revealed the moment she was targeted her own son, who was high, homeless and desperate at the time, in the carpark of an inner-city McDonalds.
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Methamphetamine addiction drove a Nudgee College alumni to a life of homelessness, desperation and crime, the Sandgate Magistrates Court heard today.
Zacherie William Sharman, 25, pleaded guilty to possession of a dangerous drug and possession of drug utensils, and chose to self-represent himself on a not guilty plea to a charge of driving while disqualified by court order.
The defendant’s mother, Jeanine Sharman, tearfully took to the witness stand to recall the morning of February 22 when she ran into her son at the McDonald’s in Albion.
“He was homeless at that stage, I think,” she said.
The court heard, via witness testimony and two recorded phone calls to emergency services, Sharman approached his mother to demand she give him money to pay off a drug-related debt.
Mrs Sharman went inside to withdraw $100, at which point she asked the manager of the store to keep an eye on them and call the police if Sharman became violent.
When Mrs Sharman gave her son the money, he attempted to snatch her car keys out of her hands, forcing another customer to step in to help her escape into the safety of her car.
During her testimony Mrs Sharman, who had been subpoenaed to appear at court, often paused for long periods of time, staring at her son, and was unable to recollect what had happened.
“I went through so much trauma last year … with all those bikies and all of that nonsense,” she told the court.
According to a statement given to police and tendered by the court, Sharman took a taxi to follow his mother back to her home in Sandgate.
Mrs Sharman drove past him as he was dropped off on a nearby street, and told him, “Get away from me, we want nothing to do with you,” but he continued walking towards their home.
Shortly after, Mrs Sharman called triple-0 to report her work ute had been stolen, and that she had seen her son, who had been disqualified from driving by an earlier court order, taking off with it in the direction of Deagon.
Sharman claimed his mother could not have seen who was driving the car, as she’d parked up a hill and couldn’t see the car at the time.
Five days later, police searched the home in regards to a different matter, and found a digital scale, glass pipe and .013g of methamphetamine belonging to Sharman.
Magistrate Jennifer Batts found Sharman guilty of all charges. He was convicted, fined $400 and disqualified from driving for two years.
He was ordered to pay the Queensland Police Service $1500 in compensation for their time, as the lengthy trial was deemed unnecessary given the strength of the prosecution’s case.
Sharman told the court he had recently discovered religion during his eight month stint at a drug rehabilitation centre in Hervey Bay, and had since stopped using drugs.