James Desmond Murphy: Repeat offender pleads guilty to violent grog-fuelled assault

A Southport merchant seaman’s inability to control his temper has seen him before the courts yet again, this time for a pair of gratuitous, grog-fuelled assaults. Here’s why he will remain in the community.

James Desmond Murphy pleaded guilty to 12 offences including assault occasioning bodily harm, common assault, breach of bail, public nuisance, unlawful use of a motor vehicle, and wilful damage at Southport Magistrates Court on March 28. Picture: Facebook.

A Gold Coast thug with a history of violence launched a savage attack on a woman after she found him sitting in her drivers’ seat and offered to help him find his car, a court has heard.

And, in a separate violent incident months earlier, Southport man James Desmond Murphy, 43, strangled a man until they lost consciousness in an outburst following a verbal confrontation.

Murphy appeared in Southport Magistrates Court on March 28 where he pleaded guilty to 12 offences including assault occasioning bodily harm, common assault, breach of bail, public nuisance, unlawful use of a motor vehicle, and wilful damage.

The court heard Murphy was in an “intoxicated state” and “not in the right state of mind” on December 18, 2022 when he assaulted a young woman at Coolangatta after she found the defendant sitting in her car.

The woman observed Murphy in her drivers’ seat when she was walking back to her car with a friend.

The woman then asked Murphy to get out several times, and offered to help him find his own vehicle, thinking he was lost, the court heard.

Mr Murphy then “became agitated” and proceeded to call the woman a “c--t” and a “b---h” before asking for her keys.

When she began calling police, Murphy charged towards her and punched her in the bridge of her nose.

Southport Court. Photo: Scott Fletcher

The woman retaliated in self-defence before Murphy pulled her hair and punched her until she fell to the ground.

The court was told the woman remained on the ground “out of fear the defendant would punch her again,” while the defendant stomped on her iPhone

In a separate incident a couple of months earlier, Mr Murphy had a drunken conversation with a man at Mudgeeraba which took an aggressive turn.

The court heard on August 26, 2022 Mr Murphy lunged at the man, pushed him against a fence and choked him until he lost consciousness.

Defence lawyer Danielle Heablenoted Mr Murphy struggled with addiction and several mental health problems such as anxiety and depression.

She told the court her client, who works as a merchant seaman and also undertakes youth and community work, suffered from a series of emotional events at the time of the offending, including his partner’s miscarriage, which led him to “spiral” leading up to the incidents.

Ms Heable conceded his history of violence was “concerning”.

Murphy was previously sentenced in the District Court on February 4, 2025 in relation to five charges including an assault occasioning bodily harm and was sentenced to two years imprisonment, wholly suspended for three years.

In regards to all the offending, Murphy served 199 days in pre-sentence custody.

Magistrate Michelle Dooley said Murphy had engaged in a “high level” of violence, and was minded to place him on parole with all the obligations that entailed, but was ultimately talked into a lesser sentence by Ms Heable, who said he would be unable to work as a seaman on parole.

Mr Murphy was sentenced to 15 months in prison, wholly suspended for 19 months, and ordered to pay $1,000 compensation to the female victim.

He must also serve 80 hours of community service.

Originally published as James Desmond Murphy: Repeat offender pleads guilty to violent grog-fuelled assault