North Queensland man accused of torture, throwing baby

A woman who claimed her ex beat her for hours and threw her baby told the court why she kept some details from police. See day two of the trial.

North Queensland man accused of torture, throwing baby. Picture: generic

An alleged torture victim who claimed her ex beat her for hours, told a court new information she hadn’t included in her police statement.

On day two of a trial where a man has pleaded not guilty to torture, common assault, assault occasioning bodily harm and strangulation, the woman who made the allegations has taken the stand.

In Townsville District Court, the 20-year-old woman was asked by defence barrister Kellie Mythen why she only recently revealed the man allegedly stomped on her head.

“You accept the first time you told anyone about it was yesterday?” the barrister asked.

“Yes because that’s when I remembered,” the woman replied.

“As I was giving my statement to the police I told them I could not remember parts of the things he’s done to me and they said ‘it will come flashing back in your future’ and it has.”

Ms Mythen reminded the woman that earlier she claimed she intentionally left that detail out because she was still in love with the man, to which she replied “yeah I was”.

“I left it out of my statement because I still loved him and I didn’t want him to get into that much trouble because what he done to me and my kid was…” she said.

Ms Mythen suggested that the man never stomped on the woman’s head, to which she disagreed.

During her evidence she also claimed the man dragged her by the hair down the hallway and smashed her phone which Ms Mythen argued was never said to police in the original statement.

“There’s so many times that he’s bashed me and it’s all coming back to me,” the woman said.

Earlier in the woman’s evidence she was asked by the barrister if she and her ex used drugs which she confirmed to having “six to seven pipes” of ice on one day, before the alleged torture but said she didn’t smoke on the actual day.

Crown prosecutor Rana Aldas showed images that depicted the woman’s injuries and included a bruised, swollen eye and cheek, bruises below her chin and on her neck and cuts behind ear and a busted lip, which the alleged victim claimed was at the hand of the man.

The trial is expected to continue Wednesday.

DAY ONE OF TRIAL

A man who is accused of subjecting a woman to hours-long torture and throwing a baby has pleaded not guilty to the charges on day one of the trial.

The North Queensland man, who can’t be named to protect the child’s identity, appeared before a jury in Townsville District Court on Monday after he was charged with a range of domestic violence offences.

He pleaded not guilty to torture, common assault, assault occasioning bodily harm and strangulation but pleaded guilty to two counts of assault occasioning bodily harm and two counts of common assault before the jury.

Crown prosecutor Rana Aldas told the court he was alleged to have picked up his girlfriend’s two-month old baby and thrown her.

She said he has also been accused of stomping on the 20-year-old woman’s head as she laid on the ground in the yard.

The alleged torture was said to have occurred on April 13 last year, when the prosecution claim the man accused a woman of being unfaithful and then across several hours, “repeatedly assaulted her”, “controlled her movements” and “tried to hang himself”.

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“(The woman) will describe how she was repeatedly punched, stomped on, had items thrown at her and strangled to name a few,” Ms Aldas said.

“Throughout the ordeal he had implements, at one point he had a knife and had thrown various objects that had struck her.

“She will tell you that both herself and the defendant consumed drugs throughout this period.”

Ms Aldas showed the jury of five females and seven males, pictures of bruises on the woman’s leg, arm and face during her opening address.

She said they would hear evidence from arresting officers and medical experts throughout the trial who examined the alleged victim for injury.

“At around 4pm after witnessing the defendant try to hang himself, the (woman) ran out of the home with her daughter and sought assistance from a neighbour,” the crown said.

When examined, the doctors did not find the baby to have injuries but found bruises, swelling and abrasion to the woman, the crown said.

The trial which is expected to go for three days will be held before Judge John Coker and is expected to resume on Tuesday morning.

Originally published as North Queensland man accused of torture, throwing baby