Israel Colin Buggy applied for leave to appeal sentence for stabbing

A father of seven who stabbed a famed boxer in his Gympie home is seeking to appeal his prison sentence for the frenzied attack.

The moment before Gympie dad Danny Hawkins was stabbed during a confrontation with a group of men at his Parsons Rd property at Gympie.

A father of seven who brutally stabbed a famed boxer north of Brisbane several times is seeking to appeal his sentence.

Israel Colin Buggy, 47, is serving seven years jail for the frenzied attack on former mate Danny Hawkins at the boxer’s Gympie home on September 18, 2021.

The trigger for the violent altercation involving multiple offenders was an innocuous comment about Buggy’s ex partner looking pregnant.

Israel Colin Buggy, 47, is in jail for his attack on boxer Danny Hawkins at a Gympie home.

Danny Hawkins in hospital.

Buggy, who pleaded guilty to one count of acts intended to cause grievous bodily harm which the court declared a serious violent offence meaning he has to serve 80 per cent before being eligible for parole, applied for leave to appeal his sentence on Friday.

Barrister Martin Longhurst told the Court of Appeal it was open for the sentencing judge to make the SVO declaration but argued the sentence should have been six years.

He is asking the appeal court to set Buggy’s parole eligibility date at 50 per cent of his sentence.

Mr Longhurst said the crown conceded that his client had no intention of using the 15cm kitchen knife until the fight was underway.

Justice Jean Dalton said Mr Hawkins didn’t just end up with a few cuts on his forearm.

“This knife was plunged into his chest and abdomen three times in a way which he’s very lucky that the complainant wasn’t dead,” she said.

“And the third of those uses of the knife was when the complainant was on the ground and it was into his chest. Gee whiz.”

Mr Longhurst highlighted messages sent between his client and Mr Hawkins prior to the stabbing.

“Statements such as the complainant saying ‘come here now you keyboard warrior’ there’s obviously a fight envisaged,” he said.

“The complainant obviously agitated a fight.”

Danny Hawkins.

Justice Peter Flanagan said there was nothing in the messages suggesting Buggy was going to arrive with three helpers armed with a “serious kitchen knife”.

“So what you have is a series of communications where there was a previous relationship between the two, they were known to each, and saying you know come over and sort it out,” he said.

“It’s not envisaging what actually occurred.”

The court heard Hawkins initially armed himself with plastic knuckle dusters before removing them saying he didn’t need them.

“The very fact he says I don’t need them would suggest that all he was envisaging at that stage of the interaction was fisticuffs,” Justice Flanagan said.

Crown prosecutor Chris Cook argued the sentence wasn’t manifestly excessive.

“This was a baseless violent confrontation and those text messages my friend referred to don’t really egg on the defendant at all, the last one actually says ‘sleep it off.”

“It’s good luck rather than good management that he’s not facing life imprisonment for murder.”

Justices Sean Cooper, Flanagan and Dalton reserved their decision.