Jake Lachlan Lennis, 27, jailed for brutal, degrading, 18-hour attack on woman at Surfers Paradise

A young Gold Coast labourer detained a woman for 18 hours in her bedroom, during which he brutalised her in a series of degrading ways, before abducting her dog, a court has heard.

Surfers Paradise man Jake Lachlan Lennis, 27, appeared in Southport District Court on April 9, 2025. Picture: NewsWire / Richard Gosling

A young Gold Coast labourer detained a woman for 18 hours in her bedroom, during which he brutalised her in a series of degrading ways, before abducting her dog, a court has heard.

Surfers Paradise man Jake Lachlan Lennis, 27, appeared via audiovisual link in Southport District Court, having previously pleaded guilty to a 13-count indictment.

At the start of the hearing, he also pleaded guilty to a summary charge of animal cruelty.

His charges included four counts each of assault occasioning bodily harm and common assault, two accounts of assault occasioning bodily harm while armed, and one count each of deprivation of liberty, threatening violence, and threats.

Lennis met his 22-year-old victim at a friend’s party on June 14, 2020, when he was aged 23.

The following night she stayed at his Surfers Paradise unit where they had consensual sex.

When she tried to leave the following morning, his demeanour changed: he called her a sl-t, crash tackled her to the floor, punched her, tried to smother her face into the carpet, then grabbed her dog and dangled it over the balcony, before throwing it to the ground with such force the animal defecated.

Judge Katarina Prskalo KC. Picture: Legal Aid Queensland

Police were called by a neighbour, but Lennis told them he and his victim had been having rough sex, the court heard.

About a week later, the woman contacted Lennis to buy some cannabis from him.

At lunch, the defendant was profusely apologetic, claiming he was on benzodiazepines.

On July 6, Lennis arrived at the woman’s Surfers Paradise unit unannounced, telling her he had been kicked out of his place, and he dropped several bags off, returning the following day, July 7.

On his return, he refused to leave after being asked to, accusing the 22-year-old woman of cheating on him, before detaining her in her room for 18 hours, during which he engaged in an appalling spree of violence.

Crown prosecutor Amalia Baker-Smith told the court he smashed a container of food into her face, punched her repeatedly, jabbed and sliced her with a pocket knife, strangled her until she passed out and wet herself, hogtied her with bedsheets, filmed her while threatening her against being a “narc”, and attacked her dog again by grabbing it by its head and body and twisting.

The court heard he then bundled the small canine into a plastic bag and fled (it was eventually returned to its owner).

The court was told Lennis’ victim had since left the Gold Coast, bore deep psychological wounds, and was still in therapy.

Defence counsel Sean Franklin. Picture: Aspect Chambers

Defence counsel Sean Franklin told the court that in the almost five years since the degrading attack, Lennis had spent just shy of four years in custody serving out a variety of pre-existing sentences in both NSW and Queensland, as well as about 10 months on remand for the current offending.

Most seriously, in mid-2022, Lennis was sentenced in the District Court of New South Wales to 42 months imprisonment, with parole after serving 27 months, for offences of assault occasioning bodily harm, unlawful stalking, and sexual intercourse without consent, all committed in mid-2019.

Mr Franklin told the court his client was on a cocktail of prescription medication, alcohol, and cannabis when he committed the protracted attack on July 7–8, 2020, and didn’t remember it.

He said his client had a prejudicial upbringing marred by his domestically violent, unemployed father introducing him to methamphetamine at an early age.

Judge Katarina Prskalo KC sentenced Lennis to four years’ imprisonment, with parole eligibility as at July 9, 2025.

The sentence took into account time already served.

Originally published as Jake Lachlan Lennis, 27, jailed for brutal, degrading, 18-hour attack on woman at Surfers Paradise