Fitness coach’s vile DV abuse of woman caught on camera

A Sunshine Coast fitness coach who choked and punched a woman and threatened to slit her throat has been jailed for the “nasty” attack.

A Maleny fitness coach who choked and punched a woman and threatened to slit her throat has been jailed for the “despicable” and “nasty” attack.

“Women are not possessions, you don’t own them, and you can’t control them,” Judge Geraldine Dann said in sentencing Joshua Collin Giffin on Wednesday.

The 33-year-old personal trainer was captured on CCTV inflicting the “terrifying” violence on a young woman in the lobby of his Windsor apartment in February 2022.

Joshua Giffin received a two years, nine month sentence.

Giffin faced the Brisbane District Court on Wednesday, pleading guilty to charges of choking, assault occasioning bodily harm, using a carriage service to menace or harass, and wilful damage.

The court heard Giffin and the woman had ended their relationship but were still living together and staying in separate bedrooms.

About 8.45pm on the evening of February 6 last year Giffin became angry after the woman told him she did not want to be in a relationship because she was scared of him.

He punched a wall four times, leaving holes in the plasterboard.

When the woman walked outside, Giffin sent her a message telling her to get out and she packed some belongings and left.

“You then proceeded to send a number of threatening text messages to her over a three-hour period, it’s apparent she didn’t see them because her phone was in her car,” Judge Dann said.

“But they included saying to her ‘pack your f****** s*** up on a day when I’m not here and get out’, ‘if I see your face again I’ll kill you’, you called her a ‘f****** w****’ and then you said ‘come back here and I’ll slit your f****** throat’.”

Joshua Giffin. Picture: Supplied

Giffin then went down the lobby where he found the woman who was too fearful to return to their unit.

He launched a violent attack on the woman, yelling at her, throwing a punch that missed and then grabbing her around the neck and choking her until she couldn’t breathe.

When he let go of her neck, he again raised his hand causing her to flinch and he told her “yeah you’re scared now you fat s***”.

Giffin repeatedly tried to take the woman’s phone from her before punching her twice in the head.

“Your honour it was vicious offending that was committed by a mature man that was terrifying for the complainant and has had a very significant effect on her,” Crown Prosecutor Elise Adams said.

The woman tendered a victim impact statement to the court in which she revealed she feared for her safety and that of other women when Giffin is inevitably released from custody.

Giffin had one entry on his criminal history for breaching a no-contact condition of a domestic violence order in relation to another woman.

Judge Dann said it was clear Giffin struggled to behave appropriately amid the breakdown of relationships.

“Your offending behaviour in addition to being violent was despicable, it was nasty and it was mean,” she said.

“Women are not possessions, you don’t own them, and you can’t control them.

“You are the person who is to blame in that respect for what you have done.”

Giffin was sentenced to two years and nine months imprisonment.

He has already spent 283 of declarable time in custody and will be released on parole on March 24.