Qld people convicted of domestic violence crimes in 2023: List
Domestic violence remains a scourge across Queensland – these are some of the terrifying cases that have rocked the state. SPECIAL REPORT
Police & Courts
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Queensland’s domestic violence scourge is now a state of emergency, as shocking new data shows increases in almost every offence in just a year, and more than 20 people killed, allegedly by a partner or relative.
These are some of the cases that went through our courts in 2023.
Jilted ex’s terror acts
A court heard horrific details of a Sunshine Coast man’s reign of terror against his ex-partner after they recently separated, as well as another man he knew.
Brendan James Blatchly, 55, appeared in the Maroochydore District Court on May 29, where he pleaded guilty to six charges spanning three days in March 2020.
The court was told Blatchly’s spree began on March 23, 2022 when he vandalised his ex-partner’s car after they had broken up.
Crown prosecutor Joana Dias said he had texted the woman prior to the vandalism and threatened to sue her workplace for slandering his reputation to a customer.
Early the next day Blatchly attacked a man he knew who was sleeping in his car with his girlfriend at Happy Valley, punching him in the head and striking him with bolt cutters.
He also smashed the driver’s side and rear windows of the car, as well as the car itself.
The victim was taken to hospital for a mild head injury.
Ms Dias told the court Blatchly then sent a series of threatening texts to the victim.
The next day, Blatchly threatened his ex-partner by text, saying “put all my things back or die” and warning her she had “nowhere to run” because the interstate borders were shut due to Covid.
Blatchly then went to her workplace later that morning at a service station and bought a set of matches before going outside and spraying lighter fluid onto a hose connected to a gas bottle. The woman was not at the workplace at the time. He was arrested at the scene and placed in custody.
Defence barrister Nathan Turner said Blatchly was diagnosed as bipolar and was mentally unwell at the time of the offence.
Blatchly pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm while armed, wilful damage, threatening violence and attempted arson.
He was sentenced to two and a half years behind bars, suspended for two and a half years.
‘I’ll flog your family’
A Toowoomba father will serve the balance of a four-year jail sentence after he breached a domestic violence protection order by threatening to harm his ex-partner’s family.
The 39-year-old man appeared in the Toowoomba Magistrates Court in May by videolink to plead guilty to one count of breaching a protection order and two lesser drug offences.
The court was told police had been called to a Toowoomba home on February 15 where they found the man inside his ex-partner’s home, despite a protection order being in place between the pair.
Police prosecutor Julia Wheaton told the court the man had a long history of domestic violence, which included receiving a four-year jail term in 2019.
Police arrested the man and found him in possession of a small amount of cannabis and a used syringe.
Defence lawyer Ryan McCullough said the relationship between the woman and his client was toxic.
He added that while drugs were “a flavour in the offending” his client was not someone who had a history of committing drug offences.
Magistrate Kay Ryan noted that the man’s parole had been cancelled and he would likely have to serve all of the time left on his prior jail sentence.
She sentenced the man to a four-month jail term, to be served concurrently.
Mother sobs as her violent son lectured
A loving, caring mother sobbed in court as a judge lectured her almost 40-year-old son about repeated domestic violence offending, telling him his “mother must be heartbroken”.
Adam John Hayward, then 39, turned up at his former partner’s Emerald residence on October 20, 2021, banging on the door and yelling.
Crown prosecutor Ryan Godfrey told Emerald District Court in May that the victim’s new partner had called emergency services while Hayward went around and entered through the back door.
He said Hayward had grabbed the victim, 33, by the throat and pushed her up against a wall, saying to her “you’re a f---ing b----, you’re a low life now you’ve left me for him”.
Mr Godfrey said the victim, who had previously been in a relationship with Hayward for eight years, pushed him off and he left.
Defence barrister Tom Polley said his client, who grew up in the Darling Downs, had “considerable support” from his family, including his mother who was in the courtroom during sentencing, and his new partner.
Judge Jennifer Rosengren said Hayward was at a “sliding doors” moment due to his history of domestic violence.
Hayward pleaded guilty to one count of burglary with violence and was sentenced to 15 months prison with immediate parole and ordered to undertake domestic violence programs as directed by parole.
Judge Rosengren also ordered he pay $1500 compensation to the victim within three months.
Vile beatings over chores
An 11-year-old girl was subjected to horrific violence at the hands of her mother on numerous occasions over doing chores, in what a magistrate described as abhorrent.
The court in May heard the woman attacked her daughter because she had not completed household chores and left the young girl’s body covered in bruises, abrasions, scratches, and on some occasions, cuts.
The woman’s name cannot be published to protect the identity of her child.
Judge Brad Farr SC said the woman’s actions were abhorrent, especially considering her child was vulnerable and had nowhere else to turn.
The court heard the woman warned the girl not to say anything about the abuse and told her to hide the bruises under long-sleeved clothing.
When sentencing the woman in May, Judge Farr SC mentioned a particularly distressing set of events that unfolded after the woman told the child, “if the dishes aren’t done, I’m going to belt the f-king hell out of you”.
On May 11, the woman pleaded guilty to three counts of common assault, one count of assault occasioning bodily harm, and three counts of assault occasioning bodily harm while armed, and was sentenced to a 12 month suspended jail term.
Woman stabbed in head
A man, 36, was in May sentenced to three years’ jail after stabbing his partner in the back of the head with a 30cm kitchen knife.
Edward Irvin Campbell appeared in Townsville District Court and pleaded guilty to charges of wounding and breaching a domestic violence order.
The court was told that Campbell had a substantial criminal history in the Northern Territory that included eight prior convictions for aggravated assault.
Crown Prosecutor Shannon Sutherland said those assaults included the use of weapons, including knives, torches, sticks and bottles.
She said he had seriously assaulted the same partner in 2018 and 2020 before his most recent attack on her, in February last year in Townsville.
The woman required stitches in her head.
“There had been no argument, he just stabbed her out of nowhere,” Ms Sutherland said.
Judge Dennis Lynch KC sentenced Campbell to three years’ jail. But he noted that he had spent 448 days in pre-sentence custody.
Campbell was eligible for parole from May 4, 2023.
Guilty verdict over axe attack
Government House security officer Cameron Turgay Bardak was in May found guilty of attempting to murder his ex-girlfriend in a terrifying axe attack in a Brisbane City carpark.
Bardak ambushed lawyer Maria Buci after she finished work on July 1, 2020, repeatedly striking her with a hatchet before going on to strangle her after a good Samaritan disarmed him of the weapon.
Upon hearing the verdict, Ms Buci – who had to be assisted into the courtroom due to her emotional state – gasped and sobbed.
Outside court she thanked the police, Director of Public Prosecutions Office and the good Samaritans who intervened on the night.
“They are the reason I am alive today,” she said.
Ms Buci said she hoped for “a fair sentence” for Bardak.
During the seven-day trial in the Brisbane Supreme Court, the 32-year-old claimed he never meant to kill or hurt anyone and that he had merely taken the axe with him to talk to Ms Buci so he could “badger her” into taking him back.
But the jury of seven men and five women rejected his story, finding him guilty of attempted murder after six-and-a-half hours of deliberation.
At the start of his trial, Bardak pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm to Ms Buci and to unlawfully wounding David Sturgess, one of the men who came to her rescue.
But he denied he had attempted to kill Ms Buci or that he intended to cause grievous injuries. He pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and to an alternate charge of acts intended to cause grievous bodily harm.
Bardak was sentenced to 14 years’ jail for attempting to murder Ms Buci and wounding a good Samaritan who came to her aid.
In September 2023 it was revealed Bardak had taken his case to Queensland’s highest court, appealing against his conviction for attempted murder and the 14-year prison sentence imposed for the crime.
Man jailed for four years over assault
A 50-year-old man who pleaded guilty to strangling, suffocating and assaulting his de facto partner of more than 20 years during domestic incidents was jailed for four years.
Judge Leanne Clare SC told Joseph Allen Cochrane that choking and smothering were “red flags” and that statistically such offending often led to domestic homicide.
Crown prosecutor Emily Coley told Toowoomba District Court in April that Cochrane had domestic violence incidents against the same woman dating back to 2007.
However she said these incidents on January 14, 2022, at their St George home were “an escalation” of that offending.
The pair had been drinking together earlier that day, but the woman had gone to bed only to be woken later by Cochrane calling her derogatory names before climbing on top of her in bed, Ms Coley said.
He had then put his hands around her neck and choked her before grabbing bed clothing and putting it over her face to the point she had difficulty breathing, she said.
The woman had a heart condition and feared she was going to die, Ms Coley said.
Cochrane was found by police on April 11 and had spent the ensuing 358 days in custody before pleading guilty to charges of strangulation and suffocation in a domestic setting and assault occasioning bodily harm in a domestic setting.
His barrister Nathan Edridge said his client accepted the relationship was now at an end and he didn’t want anything further to do with the complainant.
Judge Clare sentenced the man to four years in jail, however, declaring the 358 days pre-sentence custody as time already served, ordered he be eligible to apply for parole as of August 11, 2023.
Woman’s DVO car rampage
A Gladstone woman smashed up her boyfriend’s car because she was frustrated with him buying drugs, Gladstone Magistrates Court was told.
The 37-year-old woman, who by law cannot be named, pleaded guilty on March 6 to contravening a domestic violence order.
Police prosecutor Jennifer Leach said on January 12, police attended a Gladstone residence after they received information the woman had been there “destroying a car”.
Ms Leach said when police arrived they saw two of the cars windows had been smashed, the front passenger seatbelt cut, and stereo system ripped out.
Ms Leach said police spoke to the woman and she made admissions to “destroying the vehicle” saying she “did it to be a spiteful b--ch”.
The court heard the woman, who was on parole, had a two-page criminal history that included similar offending involving the same aggrieved in August, 2022, for which she was fined.
The court was told the couple was still living together.
Solicitor Jun Pepito said the woman’s offending stemmed from a financial situation and she was “frustrated” that her boyfriend could buy drugs for himself but not support his family.
Acting Magistrate Mary Buchanan fined the woman $900.
A conviction was recorded.
Prison for man who assaulted rescuer
A long-time meth user punched a man trying to stop him from hurting a woman.
Father-of-nine Ian Robert Armstrong, 38, was also busted illegally possessing prescription medications along with 0.36gms of MDMA and drug paraphernalia and breaching domestic violence orders (DVOs) 19 times.
Armstrong pleaded guilty on February 17 in Rockhampton Magistrates Court to common assault, possessing a dangerous drug, illegal possession of a medicine or poison, possessing drug utensils and other offences.
Police prosecutor Clancy Fox said Armstrong was having an argument with a woman in the frontyard of a Rockhampton residence on August 23 at 7.50am.
He said Armstrong punched the woman in the back of the head.
He then punched a good Samaritan in the face as he tried to protect the female victim, the court was told.
Mr Fox said the defendant then said “I will f---ing kill you”.
Police caught up with Armstrong who was hiding at a home in Stamford Street, Berserker on October 16.
Armstrong has a seven-page criminal record with convictions for drugs – including possessing drugs at Longreach – along with domestic violence and interfering with a corpse.
Defence lawyer Ken Spinaze said the father-of-nine started using drugs at a young age and it escalated to crystal meth.
Armstrong was sentenced to 12 months in prison with 124 days pre-sentence custody declared as time already served. He was released on parole.
PT’s ‘terrifying violence’
A fitness coach who choked and punched a woman and threatened to slit her throat was in February 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.
The 33-year-old personal trainer from Maleny was captured on CCTV inflicting the “terrifying” violence on a young woman in the lobby of his Windsor apartment in February 2022.
Giffin faced the Brisbane District Court, 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, 2022, 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.
“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--king s--t 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--king w---e’ and then you said ‘come back here and I’ll slit your f--king throat’.”
He then 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.
Giffin repeatedly tried to take the woman’s phone from her before punching her twice in the head.
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.
Giffin was sentenced to two years and nine months’ imprisonment.
He has already spent 283 of declarable time in custody and was eligible for parole on March 24.
‘My daughter isn’t safe’
A Brisbane pharmacist who campaigned against domestic violence as the president of his local community group returned home hours after being arrested for choking his pregnant wife and set fire to their house with the injured woman and her mother still inside.
His victim told a court in February of the terror she felt while being choked, and how she thought she would die, saying she fears for her life when her husband Curtis Shea Mickan is inevitably released from prison.
Her mother also pleaded with a judge not to let her daughter become a domestic violence statistic, saying Mickan was “unpredictable and dangerous”.
Mickan, 36, came home drunk after a football match in May 2021 and began attacking his wife, whom he threw furniture at, shook by her hair, verbally abused, bit and choked in a protracted and violent ordeal.
She called the police and Mickan was taken to the watch house but later released without charge.
Hours later he went back to their Wooloowin property to find his wife, who was being supported by her mother after her injuries were treated at the emergency department of the hospital where she worked.
Chief Judge Brian Devereaux SC said Mickan reversed his own car out from under the two-storey home then poured fuel over his wife’s car, turned on two LPG bottles and set fire to the accelerants before leaving.
His wife went downstairs and saw the flames and was able to get out with her mother, but it was too late to save the car, house and all their belongings, which were destroyed, with an estimated damage bill of about $1m.
Mickan pleaded guilty in Brisbane District Court to seven charges including arson, assault occasioning bodily harm, choking, common assault and wilful damage.
Judge Devereaux sentenced Mickan to seven years’ jail with parole after serving one third of that, or two years and four months behind bars.
Mickan will be eligible for parole on September 15.
Jealous man beat ex-partner and kids’ mum
A Toowoomba man will spend the next year in jail for committing horrific and prolonged acts of violence against the mother of his children.
A court was told in February that Kurt David Orford, 31, beat, strangled, and locked up his ex-partner during six months in 2022, with most offences after the woman ended the relationship.
Judge Alexander Horneman-Wren expressed condemnation over one of three violent incidents, where Orford became enraged after finding condoms in his ex’s house.
“It was extraordinary entitled behaviour,” the judge said.
The court was told Orford had been counting the condoms and flew into a rage after two went “missing”, despite the fact he and the domestic violence survivor were separated.
On one “terrifying” occasion, Judge Horneman-Wren said Orford locked his ex-partner in a woodshed for two hours.
On another occasion the woman was choked so hard she could not breathe.
Orford’s lawyer submitted a character reference he was a “good role model” to his boys, but Judge Horneman-Wren said it was a hollow submission.
The court was told the cycle of abuse was present in Orford’s childhood, as he witnessed his stepfather beat his mother.
Orford’s girlfriend was present in court during his sentence hearing in Toowoomba District Court, when he was sentenced to a three-year jail term after pleading guilty to 10 offences, including strangulation and choking, assault occasioning bodily harm, common assault, deprivation of liberty, and wilful damage.
Orford is set to be released on parole on February 2, 2024.
Angry dad strikes girl
A Cairns Magistrate slammed the “baby bonus” generation in January for their lack of discipline, thieving and disregard of the law, as he sentenced a father who took disciplining his daughter too far.
The man, who cannot be named as it would identify his victim who is a minor, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm – domestic violence offence.
The court heard he was angry with his teen daughter who had allegedly been involved in a car theft and joy ride, with the car crashing.
On October 4, 2022 the man went to his daughter’s address and when she opened the door he began punching her, with photographs showing she had a cut lip.
Another person intervened and the man said “she’s my daughter, I can hit her, I can discipline her”.
Magistrate James Morton said today’s youths were the “baby bonus generation, and now here we are 2023 with teens and people in their 20s with no direction in life, they don’t have to go to school and they can tell their parents to get f*****,” he remarked.
The man addressed the court via video from prison.
“I’m sorry, I regret everything that happened, I was just trying to be there for my family,” he said.
Magistrate Morton sentenced the man to seven months in prison, with 75 days in pre-sentence custody as time already served, and set a parole date of January 11.
The federal government’s baby bonus was introduced in 2001 to increase fertility rates and at its peak offered $6000 lump sum payments for new parents. It was discontinued in 2014.
NO CONVICTION
Terrifying domestic violence assault
A Toowoomba man who subjected his family to a violent and terrifying episode was sentenced to 12 months probation and 40 hours of community service.
A court was told in March that Matthew Joel Marshall was arrested and charged in the very early hours of Tuesday morning, March 21, for assaulting his brother and leading police on a foot chase through the streets of Glenvale.
Police prosecutor Rohan Brewster-Webb said an extremely intoxicated Marshall arrived home at midnight and began yelling from the street that he was drunk and someone had stolen his money.
After waking his mother and brother, Mr Brewster-Webb said Marshall began ranting incoherently, which included threatening to kill his ex-partner, her mother, and him looking for petrol to burn their house to the ground.
Mr Brewster-Webb said the 24-year-old then turned his sights on his brother, threatening to stab him, before leaving to rummage around in the kitchen draws.
The man’s younger brother fled into the backyard, but after Marshall began trashing the house and punching several holes in the walls, his mother told his brother to run.
When police arrived Mr Brewster-Webb said a chase ensued on foot which resulted in Marshall trespassing through a number of properties and refusing to stop.
Acting magistrate Andy Cridland placed Marshall on a 12-month probation order in order to assist with substance abuse problems.
The unemployed man was also ordered to complete 40 hours of community service after he pleaded guilty to common assault, trespassing, wilful damage, and four charges of obstructing police.
No conviction was recorded.
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