Bundaberg mother Melita Sheree Hart found guilty of violent robbery

A 39-year-old woman is the last of three offenders to be sentenced over a brutal robbery which left a woman seriously injured.

Melita Sheree Hart was sentenced on Monday after a short trial determined she was guilty of participating in a violent robbery in 2021, which left one woman injured.

A Bundaberg mother-of-four was sentenced to three years jail this week for her part in a violent robbery which left a woman seriously injured.

The Bundaberg District Court heard that on July 17, 2021, Melita Sheree Hart went with two other people - Frances Irene Rewald and D’Khoada Walton - to violently rob a woman known to them.

Hart, who was 35 years old at the time, kicked, punched and pulled the hair of the woman in order to get her to drop her bag, which contained $3000 in cash, the court was told.

Judge Nicholas Andreatidis said it was not clear which of the three offenders took the bag, but the ordeal lasted about 10 minutes, and left the woman with significant physical and psychological injuries.

In talks with police, Hart denied any involvement in the violent attack, and opted to go to trial; a guilty verdict was reached on Thursday, April 24, 2025, one day after the trial began.

Melita Sharee Hart appeared before Bundaberg District Court on Monday. Her daughter and sisters were among the family members who showed up in support of the 39-year-old mother.

The 39-year-old mother was sentenced in Bundaberg District court on Monday, after a jury found her guilty of one count of robbery with violence and in company, and one count of burglary and stealing.

Solicitor Axel Beard said Hart’s eight page criminal history, while “unenviable” was not reflective of a broader pattern of violence like one of her co-offenders, Walton, who was sentenced to four years in prison for the brutal attack back in 2022.

A significant entry on Hart’s criminal history related to an incident in 2017, when she broke into the home of another woman and stabbed her.

The court heard Hart had learned the woman was in a relationship with her then husband.

Mr Beard said the charge, while serious, was somewhat dated, and Hart’s offending in the past eight years has been limited to property and drug related offences, which he said showed hope for rehabilitation.

Judge Andreatidis said the 2017 offence appeared to trigger a re-introduction into drugs, which Hart had struggled with since her introduction to methamphetamine and marijuana as a teenager.

Mr Beard told the court she had endured years of violent domestic abuse which included strangulation and an attempt to run her over with a car while her children were in the car with her former husband.

In handing down his sentence, Judge Andreatidis said the abuse Hart had suffered at the hands of her former partner was appalling, but unlike Frances Rewald’s case, which ruled she was partially coerced to participate, Hart voluntarily chose to violently rob the woman for money.

Judge Andreatidis referred to a number of character reference statements from Hart’s family, some of whom appeared in the back of the courtroom.

He told the court two of Hart’s four children remained in her care.

“You can cry now and be upset about it now,” he said as Hart broke down.

But the time to be worried about that was before this.

“You don’t put their needs before their own.”

Hart was sentenced to three years in prison with four days of pre-sentence custody declared.

She will be eligible for parole on April 28, 2026.

She was remanded in custody before saying a teary goodbye to her family.

Originally published as Bundaberg mother Melita Sheree Hart found guilty of violent robbery