Bendigo cricketer Joshua Mark Collinson jailed at Bendigo Magistrates’ Court for savage bashing of woman

A Bendigo cricketer and father of three has been jailed for a “shocking and harrowing” attack on a woman, dragging her by the hair into her kitchen and slamming her with an oven door.

Joshua Collinson was found guilty of brutally bashing a woman in Bendigo. Picture: Facebook.

A Bendigo cricketer and father of three has been jailed for a “shocking and harrowing” attack on a woman, dragging her by the hair into her kitchen and slamming her with an oven door.

Collinson dragged the victim by the hair and hit her with an oven door. Photo: iStock

Joshua Mark Collinson, 36, was found guilty at Bendigo Magistrates’ Court on Friday of a number of assault-related charges after he denied savagely bashing the woman after a night out at the Bendigo Club with his cricket mates in 2022.

Around midnight, the victim said she woke up on the floor of the hallway outside the bedroom of her home, not remembering how she got there.

The next thing she remembers is “coming to” to Collinson “yelling” and hitting her in the face.

The father-of-three then dragged her by the hair down the hallway into the kitchen and kicked her while she was on the floor and slammed an over door into her.

Collinson grabbed the woman by the hair and “screamed” in her face before grabbing her throat and choking her so she couldn't breath.

She was hospitalised and left battered, bruised and bleeding from her eye.

Joshua Collinson. Picture: Facebook.

In a victim impact statement she said she didn’t defend herself because she didn’t want to make Collinson angrier.

“The safest thing for me to do in that moment was to lie down and take it. It would just be worse if I fought back,” she said.

“It felt like a lifetime lying on the kitchen floor.

“I just had to hope he didn’t go for knives.”

Collinson pulled the victim's head back by her hair and screamed in her face

The victim said she had been traumatised by the vicious attack, which had stained how she saw men in general and affected her ability to maintain relationships with her family and friends.

Collinson, who had spent 107 days remanded in custody before making bail ahead of his hearing, claimed he had acted in self defence.

The woman basher alleged the victim “whacked him in the head”, called him “every name under the sun” and kneed him in the groin before running towards a knife block.

He alleged he threw her on the ground out of self defence, before she went into the bathroom and repeatedly hit her head on the edge of the bathtub, causing brutal injuries to her face herself to “set him up”.

Collinson hospitalised the woman battered, bruised and bleeding.

He further alleged she got the bruises all over her body while she was “blackout drunk” in a Bendigo Club toilet cubicle.

However, a doctor gave evidence in court that the victim’s injuries were unlikely to have been self-inflicted and were most likely from an assault.

Magistrate Sharon McRae rejected Collinson’s claims, convicting and jailing him to nine months in prison for the “shocking and harrowing” attack.

Ms McRae said Collinson had a history of violence against women, and had shown no remorse for his “prolonged and disgusting assault”.

Ms McRae said it was “lucky no one was killed” and if Collinson didn’t change his behaviour, he would “risk” eventually killing someone.

“Your behaviour must change. If your behaviour does not change … you will just continue to spend longer and longer times in custody.”