Maurice John O’Neill fractures police officer’s nose after drunken nuisance

A man who fractured a police officer’s nose while drunk and threatened staff at a Townsville Hungry Jacks has lashed out after being sentenced for his crimes.

Maurice John O’Neill has been sentenced after fracturing a police officers nose while drunk and threatening staff at a Townsville Hungry Jacks

A man who fractured a police officer’s nose while drunk and threatened staff at a Townsville Hungry Jacks has lashed out after being sentenced for his crimes.

Maurice John O’Neill appeared in Townsville magistrates court on Tuesday morning via videolink, whacking his name placard off the desk and storming out of the room when he was sentenced to 18 months in jail.

The court heard that on the afternoon of December 18 last year, the 47-year-old entered Mundingburra Hungry Jacks drunk and began demanding food, throwing chairs and breaking a charity coin box on the counter before telling an employee “if you don’t give me my order I’ll smack you”.

Police were called to the fast food restaurant and arrested O’Neill but when they asked for his name and address he replied “shove it up your a**”.

A month later, an intoxicated O’Neill entered a business on Charters Towers Rd causing a disturbance.

After being detained by police, he attempted to walk away when an officer instructed him not to leave and grabbed O’Neill by the arm and shirt to restrain him.

O’Neill pulled his arm free and punched the officer in the face, fracturing his nose, before being restrained on the floor.

Defence lawyer, Tracy Brown instructed by Resolute Legal, said that O’Neill had struggled with drug and alcohol abuse at the time of his offending which had contributed to his actions but had since sobered up during his 151 days in pre-sentence custody.

Acting magistrate Carol Lee told O’Neill that if alcohol was making him behave this way then obviously it was time to try and give it up, which she explained was often easier said than done.

“People are just going about their business, working at their workplace and you’ve gone in and been a total pest,” she said.

“I appreciate you might be frustrated but that is absolutely no excuse. The officers are there doing their job and it ends up with an officer having a fractured nose.

“It is not only the injury but no doubt time off work, having to go to the hospital after this has occurred. Must be very traumatic.”

O’Neill pleaded guilty to all 11 charges which included committing public nuisance, common assault, serious assault of a police officer causing bodily harm, wilful damage and possessing a pipe.

Magistrate Lee sentenced O’Neill to 18 months imprisonment, taking into account the 151 days he had already spent in custody, with a parole release date of July 19 2024

Originally published as Maurice John O’Neill fractures police officer’s nose after drunken nuisance