Russell Hirst successfully appeals sentence after north Brisbane home invasion

A man’s senseless attack on his neighbours has caused them to up and leave their north Brisbane home of 10 years, mid-renovations, never to return.

Russell Hirst has successfully appealed his sentence after carrying out a violent home invasion in Brisbane’s north.

A father-of-three who brutally beat his neighbours’ friend after mistaking him for a work acquaintance who wronged him has had his jail sentence reduced following a successful court appeal.

Russell Ian Hirst pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm in company, common assault, and burglary with violence in company in the district court last year, for which he was sentenced to 3.5 years’ jail with parole eligibility after one year.

Hirst, a plasterer of more than 30 years, committed the offences in Brisbane’s north on the afternoon of April 10, 2021.

It was about 5.35pm when the 53-year-old drove his car into his driveway and yelled at the couple who lived with their family across the road: “the boys are on their way … the party is about (to) start”.

Hirst’s neighbours and their friend, who were seated in front of their home, stood to go inside when another car driven by Hirst’s friend, Alen Kovac, pulled up.

Mr Kovac beelined for the neighbours’ friend while Hirst “chest barged” his female neighbour as she held her two-month-old child.

Mr Kovac pushed the friend in the chest, causing him to stumble.

“Whatever your problem is, it’s not with me,” the friend said.

“I don’t care, I’m going to knock your block off,” Mr Kovac said.

Hirst pushed the friend in the chest, punched him in the mouth and face, and kicked him in the ribs before his 23-year-old son joined and punched him in the jaw.

The three offenders then ran through Hirst’s neighbours’ home after its male occupant, shattering a glass sliding door along the way, and pushed him in the chest.

The man grabbed a kitchen knife before heading into a bedroom and locking the door, pushing against it from the inside while the trio kicked and punched it.

Wooden shards burst and cut the man’s forearms and chest before he pushed the knife through a hole in the door and the offenders backed away. Police arrived a short time later.

Hirst was sentenced in the Brisbane District Court on August 2 last year.

The District Court heard the “traumatised” neighbours left their home of 10 years that evening, mid-renovations, and never returned.

Hirst later told police: “I know I shouldn’t have done it but I had enough.”

He also said he wrongly thought his neighbours’ friend was a concreter who had threatened him earlier that day.

The neighbours’ friend suffered a cut lip, bruised jaw, black eye, pain in his arm, and was unable to chew on the right side of his jaw for two weeks following the attack.

While Hirst was sentenced to concurrent terms of imprisonment with parole eligibility after one year, his son – a co-offender in the assault occasioning bodily harm and burglary – was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment with immediate parole release.

Mr Kovac, who was 35 years old and intoxicated when he offended, was sentenced to eight months’ jail for the assault occasioning bodily harm offence and three years’ for the burglary, suspended after serving three months for an operational period of three years.

Hirst applied for leave to appeal his sentence on the grounds it was manifestly excessive and that Judge Bernard Porter KC did not recognise his “credible signs” of remorse.

Following a hearing last month, the Court of Appeal found he demonstrated “significant co-operation” with the administration of justice which was reflected in his early plea of guilty.

With no relevant prior criminal history and a great work history, Hirst was found to have received sentences that were “unreasonable or plainly unjust”.

“The sentence of 12 months’ imprisonment for the first offence physically committed by Mr Hirst which was the chest barge of the female complainant while she was holding her baby for which there was no injury was unjustifiable,” the judgment read.

“Mr Hirst has succeeded in discharging the onus of showing that the sentences imposed were manifestly excessive.”

The disparity between Hirst’s sentence and that of his son and Mr Kovac also gave rise to “a justifiable sense of grievance”, the decision read, which required some reduction of Hirst’s sentence to achieve “proper relativity”.

Hirst was resentenced to three years’ jail to be suspended after serving nine months in custody.