Gary Lee Burgess jailed for violent abuse

Despite broken bones, infected internal abscesses and cauliflower ears from repeated bashings, a teenage girl managed to trick her monster boyfriend and escape after six months. Here is how:

Gary Lee Burgess isolated his teenage girlfriend for months while absuing her.

A man who bashed and terrorised his teenage girlfriend for months in an isolated rural donga, threatening to slit her throat and kill her parents, also mocked her for the broken bones he left her with.

Gary Lee Burgess, 21, was sentenced in Bundaberg District Court on Wednesday to seven years jail for the 11 violent crimes committed over 11 months between December 2021 and November 2022, and for seriously assaulting a police officer at the Bundaberg watch-house.

He was convicted of five counts of assault occasioning bodily harm while armed and in company, all domestic violence offences, serious assault police officer causing bodily harm, common assault (domestic violence offence), wilful damage (domestic violence offence), two counts of grievous bodily harm (domestic violence offence), choking, suffocation, strangulation (domestic violence offence), and assault while armed.

Gary Lee Burgess, 21, was sentenced in Bundaberg District Court on Wednesday to seven years jail for the 11 crimes committed over 11 months between December 2021 and November 2022, and for seriously assaulting a police officer at the Bundaberg watch-house.

Crown prosecutor Ken Spinaze told the court the horror began to unfold for Burgess’s 19-year-old victim before she moved into a donga with him on a friend’s property near Bundaberg in April 2022.

They pair had been dating since they were both 16, and Burgess had been abusive towards her before, but things escalated once they moved in together.

The court heard that for six months after the move, the victim did not leave the donga and was repeatedly abused by Burgess.

He would blame her for his actions, claiming he had schizophrenia and PTSD; he threatened to kill her and her parents and to burn down her parents’ home.

“She lived in constant fear,” Mr Spinaze said.

District Court Judge Jeffrey Clarke.

In one incident, at a separate household, Burgess punched a hole in a bathroom door, grabbed the victim by the throat, pinned her to the ground, sat on her and then apologised.

A few weeks after moving in together, following an argument, he took her mobile phone, threw it to the ground, and stomped on it until it was inoperable.

He applied force to her ribcage, causing a fracture that led to trauma and a liver abscess that became infected, the court heard.

He struck her legs with a metal pole, fracturing a bone that disfigured her leg and impaired her ability to walk.

He also strangled her until she couldn’t breathe and slapped her face, pushing her onto concrete and choking her until she blacked out.

About four months after moving into the donga, Burgess pushed her to the ground, kicked her in the ribs and punched her multiple times, resulting in her ear swelling and eventually developing cauliflower ear.

He pushed on her ribcage until it cracked, taunting her about the pain, asking “how long does it take ribs to heal?”

He threatened to slit her throat with a pair of scissors, pressing them to her neck until she bled. He also performed a fly kick to her face, pressing her back against a broken door handle.

On November 10, 2022, the victim asked to use his phone to play a game and instead called her mother who called the police.
After being arrested Mr Burgess got into an altercation with a police officer at the Bundaberg watchhouse, he kicked an officer in the forehead, grabbed his collar and scratched him, causing him to bleed.

Burgess was arrested two days later and has been in custody since, a total of 626 days at the time of his sentencing.

Judge Jeffrey Clarke criticised Burgess’ claim that the violence was “mutual”.

“The way you’ve been conducting yourself in court does not speak of any sorrow or regret, quite the opposite in fact,” Judge Clarke said.

While discussing Burgess’s lack of remorse, Burgess interrupted Judge Clarke, asking to speak. His request was denied.

Burgess was sentenced to seven years in prison, with the 626 days already served taken into account.

There were no orders for parole.

Originally published as Gary Lee Burgess jailed for violent abuse