Jack Clarence Smith sentenced for police stabbing at Cairns Central Shopping Centre

A police officer viciously stabbed six times in a stairwell at Cairns Central crawled 20m for help with blood streaming out of him, a Cairns court has heard.

THE policeman stabbed six times in a stairwell at Cairns Central crawled 20m for help with blood streaming out of him, Cairns District Court heard on Wednesday.

Jack Clarence Smith, 23, pleaded guilty to a malicious act with intent along with 25 lesser charges – he has been held in custody since he stabbed Senior Constable Tim Liesegang at Cairns Central on February 16, 2021.

The court heard a month before the attack, Mr Smith had threatened a man who inquired if he was all right twice with a knife at Mt Sheridan Shopping Centre and that the offences occurred while he was on parole after receiving a suspended sentence for another crime.

Judge Dean Morzone, QC, noted that Mr Smith had been convicted of more than 60 offences with 15 court appearances.

“It’s an appalling rapsheet,” he said.

Jack Clarence Smith, 23, was using and selling methamphetamine when he stabbed a policeman six times in February 21, Cairns District Court heard. He was arrested and taken to Cairns Hospital in an ambulance after the incident. Picture: Brendan Radke

The court heard that Snr Const Liesegang attempted to handcuff Mr Smith, who produced a knife with a 12cm blade and stabbed him in the jaw, twice in the right lung, in his hip, and finger as he resisted arrest and the pair wrangled on the ground.

They stood and Mr Smith stabbed the policeman again in the chest.

“Standing up, you could have stopped, but you didn’t,” Judge Morzone said.

Snr Const Liesegang told the court he collapsed from lung injuries and crawled out of the stairwell gasping for air and as he registered the shock on his partner’s face, he was unsure if his injuries were life-ending.

“I have trauma that I was going to die alone, distant from my family … if the stab to my jaw had hit my neck, it could have been a different scenario,” he said.

His wife Caroline Liesegang, a nurse who was on shift at Cairns Hospital when her husband arrived in emergency, described “shock, disbelief, fright and stress” as she scrambled to contact their teen sons and was horrified at what she saw on hospital monitors.

“It has probed its way into every day of our lives and (Mr Smith) has shown no sign of regret, both I and my boys had to consider some random guy could kill Tim and he went back to work and dealt with a horrific murder,” she said.

Police officers arrested Jack Smith, who was 21 at the time, at the Bungalow Hotel after he stabbed a police officer six times at Cairns Central Shopping Centre. Picture: Brendan Radke

“There is fear every day with him going to work, and will he recover is an ongoing question.”

Prosecutor Nathan Crane pointed to Mr Smith’s repeated use of a knife over several offences, his aversion to authority – failing to comply with probation, parole and a suspended sentence - and disregard for public safety.

“He was willing to carry a knife and use it,” Mr Crane said.

Defence barrister Joshua Trevino, QC, said his client’s life had spiralled out of control with drug addiction.

Mr Smith had ADHD and mental health issues but did not require treatment for either, he said.

Mr Smith wrote a letter of apology to Snr Const Liesegang which Mr Trevino said indicated remorse.

“I crossed a serious line in a panicked, drug-fuelled state and there is a price I will have to pay,” Mr Smith said in the letter.

Mr Trevino said there was every prospect he could be rehabilitated.

Judge Morzone said voluntary intoxication with drugs was not a mitigating factor.

“I have to stop you from doing it again,” he said.

He sentenced Mr Smith to nine years’ prison with parole eligibility on February 16, 2026, declaring the 470 days he has been in custody part of time served.

Originally published as Jack Clarence Smith sentenced for police stabbing at Cairns Central Shopping Centre