Ryan Morcom, Darren Jeffers: Duo guilty of slitting Yandina man’s throat

Two Sunshine Coast hinterland men have been sentenced for slitting an acquaintance’s throat and stabbing him repeatedly while high on amphetamines.

Two Sunshine Coast men with significant criminal histories and histories of mental illness have been jailed for slitting a man’s throat and nearly stabbing him to death in a public housing unit complex.

Yandina men Ryan John Morcom, 38, and Darren Christopher Jeffers, 54, were jailed in Brisbane Supreme Court on Friday for seven-and-a-half and nine years respectively for their part in the wounding of their 53-year-old at his Low St residence in the early hours of January 25, 2015.

Both men pleaded guilty to burglary in company at night and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

The court heard both offenders were known to the victim, who Morcom owed money to, and who Jeffers, a paranoid schizophrenic, believed was trying to poison him with a cup of coffee by way of fulfilling two contracts on Jeffers’ life put out by outlaw motorcycle gangs.

About 11pm, the pair arrived at the victim’s residence, ostensibly for Morcom to repay the loan but secretly for Jeffers to confront him with his allegation.

Yandina man Ryan John Morcom, 36, has been jailed for seven-and-a-half years with immediate parole eligibility. Picture: Facebook

Both men were armed with hunting knives; Morcom had purchased his earlier that day from a Maroochydore gun shop, while Jeffers was always armed due to his paranoia.

The trio began smoking cannabis and injecting amphetamines together, while the victim also drank alcohol and became intoxicated, the court heard.

At this time, Morcom began acting erratically after becoming seized with the notion that the victim had been spreading rumours that he, Morcom, had killed a child.

At some point, once Jeffers confronted the victim with his accusation he was trying to poison him, he demanded to cut the victim’s finger open and let his blood drip onto a candle flame to “prove his innocence”.

“The proof is in the pudding,” Jeffers told the man.

At this point, fatefully, a friend of the victim called and the man invited him over, hoping this would prompt Jeffers and Morcom to leave, but instead it served only to stoke their fear and paranoia.

Morcom stepped outside, but Jeffers approached the victim, who was sitting at a desk, from behind and “grabbed the top of his head” before slitting his throat, slicing his jugular vein.

The victim stood up and punched Jeffers, fleeing to the kitchen, but he was followed by the recovered Jeffers and the returned Morcom.

When in the kitchen, Jeffers stabbed him a further four times, puncturing his lung and piercing his liver, before the pair fled leaving their victim “to die”.

The victim managed to call triple-0 and would spend six days in intensive care, requiring intubation, ventilation and multiple surgeries.

Jeffers and Morcom, both of whom have criminal histories with Jeffers’, littered with armed robberies of banks and convenience stories, far the more serious, were arrested later that day.

They have spent the intervening period, a total of 1169 days, remanded in pre-sentence custody.

The court heard both of the men had troubled, violent childhoods and were both stricken with significant mental health issues, such that Justice Martin Burns effectively reduced their time in custody by refusing to declare them serious violent offenders, which would require them to serve 80 per cent of their sentence before being eligible for parole.

Significantly, Jeffers was released from the Nambour Hospital mental health wing, where he was inpatient, just three weeks prior to the stabbing, while Morcom had previously been convicted of wounding a man on November 18, 2016, the knife missing the man’s heart by 15mm.

Jeffers will be eligible for parole on July 26 this year while Morcom was made immediately parole eligible.

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