Andrew-Keith Robert Lloyd pleads guilty to choking in Bundaberg district court

A Bundaberg fisherman, who was stranded in Queensland amid the COVID-19 pandemic, has been sentenced for a horrifying attack on his partner.

A Bundaberg commercial fisherman, who had been skippering a Scottish fishing vessel before the Covid-19 outbreak, has fronted court for a horrifying attack on his “terrified” partner.

Andrew-Keith Robert Lloyd pleaded guilty in the District Court at Bundaberg to assault occasioning bodily harm and choking in a domestic setting.

The court heard Lloyd was 29 at the time of the April offending.

An argument with his partner broke out during which he threw her against a glass door, scratched her face, threw her to the ground and then choked her until her vision started to fade.

He was too heavily intoxicated to be interviewed when police were called.

Lloyd , with tidy facial hair and glasses, sat in the dock as the facts of the case were read out by Judge Martin Moynihan.

“You manhandled her, throwing her around, you threw her against a glass door, you scratched her face and eyes,” he said.

“You threw her to the ground and straddled her, grabbed her by the neck with both hands and choked her.

Bundaberg Court House.

“She was unable to breathe and swallow for a time and her vision went blurry.

“You threatened to continue this behaviour until you got up and let her go.”

The 25-year-old victim suffered multiple injuries.

In putting forward a submission that Lloyd be jailed for two-and-a-half to three years, Crown Prosecutor Alexandra Baker noted the recognition of the seriousness of choking as an offence and a “predicted indicator” of further violent offending.

Ms Baker tendered photos to the court detailing the victim’s visible injuries and it was heard that Lloyd had been previously sentenced for punching a man he’d been drinking with at a holiday resort.

Barrister Nick Larter agreed with the submission on sentencing and put forward letters from Bridges drug and alcohol service and Alcoholics Anonymous regarding Lloyd ’s efforts to rehabilitate from issues with drinking.

Mr Later told the court Lloyd had been a commercial fisherman most of his working life, in a role that took him all over Australia and to different parts of the world.

Lloyd ’s father died while he was skippering a fishing vessel in Scotland and, after returning home for the funeral, he was not able to return to his job due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Lloyd received a head sentence of two-and-a-half years, with 183 days in custody counted as time already served.

He will be eligible for parole on February 13, 2022.

Originally published as Andrew-Keith Robert Lloyd pleads guilty to choking in Bundaberg district court