Capella attempted murder victim impact statement

A Central Queensland grandmother permanently scarred after she was viciously stabbed 13 times has spoken to The Morning Bulletin after the man wielding the knife was sentenced on Wednesday.

Damon William Green jailed for the attempted murder of Capella grandmother Karen O'Donnell on May 27, 2021, after storming her house with brother Jason Andrew Smith pleaded guilty to one count of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

“I was only looking in his eyes.”

Through tears, a Central Queensland grandmother who was the victim of a vicious attack that left her permanently scarred has told The Morning Bulletin about the incident, as a man stabbed her 13 times while she was on her bed.

Although the pain from the severed nerves of the stab wounds are constant reminders to Karen O’Donnell of the brutal attack in her own home in Capella, 250km west of Rockhampton, she said she felt nothing at the time.

Instead, she simply looked into the eyes of the man wielding the knife, Damon William Green.

Damon William Green

The 32-year-old was sentenced to 10 years jail after pleading guilty to attempted murder, and his brother Jason Andrew Smith, 42, received three years jail after pleading guilty to wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

The brothers had shared a bottle of Jim Beam that day.

The pair barged into Ms O’Donnell’s residence, which she shared with five family members, on May 27, 2021, and Green stabbed her while Smith waved his knife at others.

The assault on Ms O’Donnell only stopped when the accused men’s sister, Emma Green, intervened and threw a chair at Green. Ms Green is not accused of any wrongdoing.

Green apologised at the scene before he and Smith drove off. Their car then crashed and Green’s blood-alcohol content reading was 0.16.

Green’s defence barrister Phil Hardcastle said his client’s father was a member of the Nomads motorcycle club in South Australia, adding Damon’s name was Nomads spelt backwards and he grew up believing he would take over his father’s role one day.

He said Green’s mother took his client away from his father on one occasion with the help of police.

Mr Hardcastle said Green’s father died two years ago and his mother has lung cancer.

The court heard Green had a “severely compromised childhood” involving polysubstance abuse disorder from experimenting with a wide range of drugs and abusing alcohol, along with low intellect, childhood abuse and neglect.

Smith’s defence barrister Laura Reece said her client, a New Zealand citizen facing deportation, was placed on a disability pension in 2017 due to post-traumatic stress disorder “arising from a very violent incident in 2014” where his ex-wife stabbed him in the stomach as he slept.

Justice Graeme Crow said psychiatric and psychological reports were provided to the court in relation to Smith, outlining that he has “significant cognitive deficits”, has an “extremely low intellectual impairment”, is illiterate, “vulnerable” and is “very easily led”.

Ms Reece said Smith made “candid and frank” admissions to carrying a knife in public for protection since the 2014 attack.

“That’s what troubles me,” Justice Crow said.

“It’s ironic and most people of average intelligence will find that ridiculous that someone that is so damaged by a knife would engage themselves in a knife attack.”

He described Smith, due to his long-term meth addiction, mental health problems and knife admission, as a “loose cannon”.

The court heard both Green and Smith had been abusing illicit drugs and alcohol most of their lives with Smith’s criminal record scattered with possession of meth convictions for the past 20 years.

Green was jailed in 2014 for a 2012 broad daylight assault in the middle of the road in Nambour with an older co-offender who punched the 41-year-old victim in the back of the head as he laid face down in the gutter being knocked out by Green’s initial punches.

He had also carried out an armed robbery of a Sunshine Coast bottleshop while armed with a fishing knife in 2013.

Justice Crow said he gave Smith a three-year prison term because he was not the main offender in the attack and he had already served “10 days short of 2.5 years” in presentence custody, declaring that time already served on a five-year prison term, which he deemed suitable, and setting immediate parole eligibility.

Justice Crow took into account the 2.5 years already served when he ordered Smith to a three-year prison term with immediate parole.

Ms O’Donnell said her eldest son had dated Ms Green and they had a child together.

The court heard the neighbours’ relationship turned hostile after that relationship ended.

Ms O’Donnell recalls what happened

Ms O’Donnell said she was sitting on the back steps of her smoking on the afternoon of May 27, 2021, and observed Green in the park “right next door”, talking on a phone while walking back and forth.

She said she initially thought it was a parent talking on the phone while their children played.

Ms O’Donnell said she overheard Green say “the fat c--- is still there watching me”.

She claims she also heard Green say “if this goes down, make sure you take care of my girls’.

Ms O’Donnell said she saw him in the laneway to the back of their houses and heard a gate being shut “forcibly”.

She said she went down to the corner of her yard and saw Green walking back to his house as Smith ran after him.

Ms O’Donnell, in an exclusive interview with Rockhampton Morning Bulletin, said she had an odd feeling about Green’s behaviour.

“I knew something was going to happen but I didn’t realise it was going to happen to me,” she said.

Ms O’Donnell said she went back into her house, locking the back screen door.

She was laying on her bed at the other end of the house when she heard one of her family members call out “what the f--- are you doing in my house?” and then, after looking down the hallway towards the back door, she saw two of her family members tackle Smith as Green headed towards her.

Ms O’Donnell said she saw Green raise a knife and she thought “no way”.

Green repeatedly stabbed Ms O’Donnell in the inner left arm and both legs while she lay on the bed, kicking out at him.

Ms O’Donnell told The Morning Bulletin she did not feel any of the cuts as she was being stabbed.

“I didn’t feel any knife wounds,” she said.

“I did not feel one of them.

“I still to this day don’t know how that happened.”

She sustained five stab wounds to her upper body and eight to her lower body, ranging from three to eight centimetres deep and requiring staples and stitches.

“Chillingly, as (Green) is doing all of this damage with the knife, Karen heard him say, ‘I will do 10 years for you. It will be worth it; killing you’,” Mr Phillips said.

Ms O’Donnell gave the same evidence, through sobs and tears, and told the court she also heard him say he was going to return “to finish it” when he got out of jail.

Mr Phillips said the assault on Ms O’Donnell only stopped when the accused men’s sister, Emma Green, intervened and threw a chair at Green. Ms Green is not accused of any wrongdoing.

After the sentencing, Ms O’Donnell said: “That’s what he kept saying to me: 10 years. And he got 10 years.”

Karen’s impact statement:

“I am in constant pain.

The pain in my leg never goes away.

Capella grandmother Karen O’Donnell.

I have been told that this will not go away.

The pain is so constant that I cannot sleep.

It is so exhausting not being able to sleep as this then affects every part of my life.

The fear that I feel is constant and exists to this day.

I am constantly looking over my shoulder and am always looking around to see who is around even if I am at the shops.

I no longer feel safe in my own home.

I have to lock all doors and windows which I never even used to lock my doors living in our small town.

It feels like the days of feeling safe in my town are long gone.

The flashbacks are frequent and I am on medication to try and stop them.

I have constant anxiety and panic attacks whenever I see a white ute.

I can be in a different town and see a white ute and I can’t help but feel anxious and my flight or fight response kicks in.

It is exhausting having to live like this.

Every day I am reminded of what happened to me and I must have to re-live this everyday.

Originally published as Capella attempted murder victim impact statement