Man tortured woman for hours in Brisbane hotel

A father who tortured a woman for up to five hours in an unprovoked attack in a Brisbane hotel room told her: “You’re not getting out of this one alive.”

The court heard Trent Wayne Lawson’s assault was a “vicious attack” which only ended when the victim managed to open a door and yell for help.

A Queensland man who punched and kicked a woman for up to five hours, after which she needed a metal plate and screws to rebuild her eye socket, told her: “I’m going to enjoy beating you, you’re not getting out of this one alive.”

Trent Wayne Lawson, 38, a father of three, was in the Brisbane District Court on Tuesday before Judge Michael Burnett where Lawson pleaded guilty to four charges, one each of torture, common assault, wilful damage and stealing.

Judge Burnett described Lawson’s crimes as “reprehensible” and gave him a head sentence of six years’ jail, with immediate eligibility to apply for parole.

“It was a reprehensible body of offending ... against a woman who plainly was not only older than you, but less able to protect herself from you, a very large man,” Judge Burnett told him.

Trent Wayne Lawson.

Crown Prosecutor Farook Anoozer told the court that Lawson tortured the 48-year-old woman for between two and five hours on December 23, 2021 in a room at the George Williams Hotel on George St in Brisbane’s central business district, just metres from the courthouse.

“This is a vicious attack on the victim who was virtually held captive by (Lawson) in a hotel room,” Mr Anoozer told the court.

“He punched and kneed her during this time, it only stopped when she mustered some courage to open the door and shouted out for help,” Mr Anoozer said.

“The attack was unprovoked, it was accompanied by controlling denigrating and intimidating behaviour with threats to kill her as well,” he said.

“The punching and kneeing went on for at least two hours and may have been up to five hours,” he said.

He then forced her to give her online banking details and transfer $290 to him.

The torture began after she “elbowed” Lawson as he tried to move past her in the tight hotel room.

After beating her, Lawson left the hotel room before police arrived, taking all her clothes and medications in a bag.

Lawson was arrested the following day, and has remained in custody since his arrest because the torture occurred shortly after he was released on parole for unrelated crimes.

He was returned to custody to serve out that sentence.

The woman had surgery to reconstruct her broken eye socket and it was fixed with a metal plate and two screws, Mr Anoozer told the court.

The torture on December 23 came two days after Lawson assaulted the same woman at a South Bank apartment, grabbing her by her neck and pushing her up against a wall.

Defence counsel Antony Newman told the court that Lawson had written a letter of apology to the victim and that his client had been addicted to ice and heroin as a teenager.

Mr Newman said Lawson’s behaviour was “a result of misguided jealousy, alcohol and drug use”.

Lawson left school after completing Year 8, and had worked as a concreter and was an electrical apprentice.

His father left the family when Lawson was aged three, and his mother still lives in Hervey Bay, north of Brisbane, the court heard.

Lawson can apply for parole but will remain behind bars pending a decision on his application to the parole board.

Lawson wrote a letter of apology to the court.