Man pleads guilty to dangerous operation of a motor vehicle at Riverview

A Ipswich court has heard a man with an appalling criminal history suffered PTSD as a result of repeated abuse and neglect as a child.

A man facing sentence for dangerous driving had suffered an abusive childhood at the hands of his mother and her partners, a court has heard.

The horrific childhood of a man charged with dangerous driving has been detailed in an Ipswich court, with the man’s lawyer saying it was one of the worst stories of suffering he had ever seen.

The man’s defence barrister read onto the court record the awful circumstances of the man’s suffering at the hands of his own family that included being injected with ice by his drug addicted mother, while also being subjected to sexual abuse after being taken into care and placed into detention centres.

Ipswich Magistrate David Shepherd said if the report on the defendant was accurate, he had been subject to appalling trauma as a boy and teenager.

Defence barrister Kevin Rose said the document was prepared for a royal commission investigation into child abuse in detention centres.

The man agreed that some details could be revealed before the Ipswich Magistrates Court on Friday to assist putting in context his issues and growing history of criminality.

The 37-year-old man pleaded guilty dangerous operation of motor vehicle at Riverview on March 29; being a driver in charge of a motor vehicle failed to stop for police; and driving on the Warrego highway when unlicensed due to demerit points.

He appeared before the court from jail via video-link where he was serving an existing sentence.

Prosecutor Senior Constable Bernard Elmore said the man had 12 pages of criminal history.

Sen. Const. Elmore said the man was a serious offender and the charges involved him driving at a speed of 135km/h.

He said the man had a female passenger and only stopped because he crashed.

Mr Rose explained that he was born to an Aboriginal mother in central Queensland and is the father of two teenage children.

He did not have a close connection to his indigenous culture and worked as a trades assistant.

As a child he had a severely disadvantaged background: “One of the worst I’ve seen,” Mr Rose said.

“At the age of nine he was injected with amphetamine by his mother,” he said.

He suffered violence at the hands of his mother’s various partners including one who tried to drown him in a bath, and an incident where his hand was held on a hot stove, the court was told.

Mr Rose said the man spoke of being wounded when aged 12, suffering skull fractures, and one of his mother’s partners beat him with a hockey stick while tied to a chair.

There had been alleged sexual assaults and rapes committed against him when in youth detention centres, he’d been threatened to be killed by one perpetrator, and alleges sexual abuse by a priest.

With regard to the driving charges, Mr Rose said the man instructed him he had been suffering panic attacks on the day, “flashbacks and suicidal ideation”.

“He suffers mental health challenges as a result of the trauma in his background,” Mr Rose said.

“He was using ice at nine and his mother was an addict nearly her whole life.”

The man then told the court of his remorse.

“I’d like the community to know how very sorry I am for my stupidity, bad behaviour, my PTSD has been playing up,” the man told the court.

“I am not making any excuses, deeply sorry.

“My life has been wasted in jail and I want to do the right thing.”

Mr Shepherd said his driving offences were serious and put people at risk.

He said that when detained police felt it necessary to use a taser to restrain him, and there had been a self-inflicted injury.

He said the woman in the car had called police and clearly been in the car against her will which was seen swerving between lanes, travelling at speeds up to 135km/h.

Mr Shepherd said he continued to drive at speed despite a tyre deflation device being used and stopped only when the car crashed.

He noted that his criminal history includes burglary, robbery, drugs, and a charge for deprivation of liberty, and he’d received a nine-year sentence for manslaughter.

“If the reported history (in report) is anywhere near accurate you have been subject to the most appalling trauma that I have had the misfortune to see,” Mr Shepherd said.

“No doubt someone who had to deal with these atrocities if correct, including your own mother injecting you when aged nine, you present with some difficulties.

The man was sentenced to an 18-month jail order for the dangerous driving and convicted of the other two offences. He was disqualified from driving for 25 months.

He is eligible to begin his application for parole next March.

Originally published as Man pleads guilty to dangerous operation of a motor vehicle at Riverview