Man smashed with piece of concrete, punched repeatedly in brutal robbery

A dad that was jailed for assault and armed robbery has blamed a bad childhood and drug use for his violent crimes. He’s been warned that things could have ended much worse.

Johns used a piece of concrete to hit the victim twice before punching him multiple times.

A man is behind bars after he left a man he barely knew “battered and bruised” in a violent attack.

Desmond Johns, 27, pleaded guilty in the Bundaberg District Court on Wednesday to one count of armed robbery with personal violence and common assault.

The court heard there had been an ongoing dispute between the victim and Johns’ then partner.

On September 20 in 2019 Johns and his then partner approached the victim at a supermarket.

The victim was physically assaulted and pressured to hand over a phone, which had been subject to the ongoing dispute.

Later in the day Johns and his partner attended a home the victim was visiting where Johns picked up a piece of concrete and demanded the victim hand over the phone before hitting him twice in the forehead.

Johns then dropped the piece of concrete and began punching the victim multiple times.

The victim sustained a number of bruises as a result of the attack and handed over his phone to the pair.

When police arrived everyone was still at the scene.

Johns told police that he’d “lost his cool” at the supermarket but that the victim was the aggressor in the second assault.

Crown prosecutor Carla Ahern told the court Johns had appeared in the Ipswich District Court in 2012 for an attempted armed robbery.

Johns’ barrister Nick Larter told the court his client suffered an “unhappy” childhood and that his stepfather was not a good role model to him growing up.

Mr Larter told the court while the matter took a while to get to sentence, his client never indicated he was contesting the matter.

He said Johns had not committed any further offences while on bail and had also stopped using drugs after the offence.

Mr Later said Johns’ offending was “largely a result of drug use”.

Before sentencing, Johns told Judge Leanne Clare that he was “very remorseful” for what he did and that his childhood had impacted his adult life.

He said he was now seeking help by talking to a psychologist and wanted to be a better person for his children.

Judge Clare told Johns that his words were encouraging to hear and warned him of how much worse the situation could have been.

“Your behaviour on this day was alarming,” she said.

“I shouldn’t have to tell you that it could have been worse for him, hitting someone in the head is very dangerous.

“A blow to the head can kill people and it does, we see that in court. One punch does kill, so you are lucky in this sense that you are not on a murder charge.”

Judge Clare told Johns that she would be sending him to jail for the offence.

“You can’t commit and offence like this and not go to jail, armed robbery is very serious and it carries a maximum of life imprisonment,” she said.

Johns was sentenced to three years imprisonment and will be released on parole in June next year.

He also received a three month jail term for the common assault charge.

Originally published as Man smashed with piece of concrete, punched repeatedly in brutal robbery