Man has finger cut off by David Lewis Jones

A text message war of words has seen a man chop off his lover's ex-partner’s finger during a spontaneous violent attack.

A TEXT message war of words spurred a man to chop off the finger of his partner’s ex-lover during a spontaneous violent attack, which has landed him behind bars.

David Lewis Jones, 49, was drinking at his home in Ayr on October 18 last year when his partner received an abusive text message from her ex-partner.

The Townsville District Court heard Jones’ partner responded “f--k off d*ck” before the man replied, “love you babe, bring it on”.

Jones told his partner that “he was going to sort it out” and armed himself with a knife and 30cm axe, the court heard.

He drove to the man’s house where he attempted to climb the fence holding both the knife and the axe.

The court heard the man hit Jones in the head three times with a plank of wood before Jones swung the axe at the man’s right hand.

Crown prosecutor Andrew Walklate said the man suffered “significant” injuries and required surgery where his finger was amputated.

“The complainant saw that his right index finger was hanging off his hand and he held up his hand and said, ‘look what you’ve done’,” he said.

“He had a large wound ­extending from the base of the second finger across to his fourth finger. The wound on the second finger had cut through the bone, tendons and nerves,” Mr Walklate said.

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Mr Walklate presented Judge John Coker photographs of the man’s injuries and a victim impact statement written by the man detailing his fear of going out and having bad dreams about knives.

The court heard when Jones returned to his house, his chest was covered in blood and told his partner, “I think I chopped his finger off” while laughing as he recounted what had happened.

Jones pleaded guilty to malicious acts with intent.

Defence barrister Wayne Pennell said his client did not have a violent criminal history.

“It was a spontaneous reaction to a text message … that escalated to the point where he caused that injury,” he said.

Judge Coker told Jones his crime was “unjustified”, “unacceptable” and “extremely serious”.

“It could have led to the most dreadful of consequences … I must say the photographs of the injuries to his hand are stomach-churning,” he said.

Declaring the 112 days spent in pre-sentence custody as time already served, Judge Coker sentenced Jones to seven years’ jail.

A parole eligibility date was set at October 26, 2022.

Originally published as Man has finger cut off by David Lewis Jones