Accused DV offender was “going crazy, asking the woman to be his girlfriend and to go to Bundaberg with him over and over again”

A trip to buy nappies for a baby turned into a saga that involved a woman allegedly being driven at while holding a baby and dragged by her arm along the ground.

A man accused of trying to force a woman and her child to relocate from a small Central Queensland town to a beachside town, after driving the woman around the region on the initial pretence of grocery shopping, has been denied bail after “annihilating” his accuser’s credibility.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, made a bail application in Rockhampton Magistrates Court this week after being charged with two counts of breaching a domestic violence order.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Kevin Ongheen said the alleged victim agreed to go with the defendant to Emerald on January 1 at 8.30am to get groceries as she needed nappies for her baby.

He said the defendant started driving towards Emerald from Springsure but then turned towards Blackwater, which is 70kms from Emerald and 140km total from Springsure, saying he wanted to go to the Bedford Weir.

Sergeant Ongheen said the woman asked the defendant to take her back to Emerald but he refused and continued to drive towards Blackwater.

He said the woman asked to be taken home several times.

Sergeant Ongheen said after being at the weir, they drove back to Emerald and then onto the dam, and on the way back to Springsure, stopped at a house.

He said the defendant wanted the woman to get out of the car and go inside.

Sergeant Ongheen said she was scared as she didn’t know the people and asked to be taken home.

“The defendant has dragged her out of the car by the arm, hurting her wrist, dragging her along the ground, grazing and bruising her shin,” he said.

“(She) went and stood in front of the door so the defendant couldn’t get the child out of the car.

“The defendant then pushed the woman, by the throat, up against the car.

“(She) then got the baby out of the car and ran towards a house, yelling for help, asking them to call police.

“The defendant then got in the car and started driving at the woman while she was holding baby.

“The woman was running around, hiding behind a pole as the defendant kept doing circles in the car, close to hitting her.

“(She) then agreed to go in the house … for the protection of herself and the child.”

Sergeant Ongheen said they waited for another man to turn up who the defendant said was going to bring them fuel and then he (the defendant) was going to take them to Bundaberg.

He said the woman then asked to go back to Springsure to get things for the baby and the defendant agreed and was “going crazy, asking the woman to be his girlfriend and to go to Bundaberg with him over and over again”.

Sergeant Ongheen said the woman went along with the defendant just so she could get to Springsure and escape.

“The defendant at one point thought he saw a police car and turned around and returned back (to the unknown residence),” he said.

Sergeant Ongheen said the defendant asked the man with the fuel if they could drive the woman to Springsure to collect items and bring her back.

He said the man drove the woman straight to the Springsure police station.

Sergeant Ongheen said the situation involved the threat of violence, the use of violence and attempted use of violence.

He said the defendant was located by police hiding in the rear of the unknown residence.

Defence lawyer Lauren Townsend said her client would be contesting the breach of domestic violence order charge linked to the driving matter, but would likely plead guilty to the breach on December 31.

She said the defendant had been at the woman’s address since Christmas Eve, which the defendant says was at the woman’s invitation.

Ms Townsend said the defendant instructed it was a consensual plan to drive to the weir.

She said the driving matter prosecution’s case was “largely” relying on the “credibility” of the alleged victim.

Ms Townsend said it was ‘strange’ there were no records of the alleged injuries, nor photographs.

She said they would have been very evident to the officer at the police station.

“The fact that they are absent does affect her credibility,” Ms Townsend said.

“She’s voluntarily chosen to spend time with him at the weir, back to Emerald, and then gone to the dam and then headed back to Springsure via a (residential address).

“If she was so desperate to get away… were she strongly credible … she had ample opportunities at the weir which would have been busy, full of families … at Emerald, at the dam.”

Sergeant Ongheen responded to Ms Townsend’s comments, saying: “it’s a tragically unfortunate circumstance of domestic violence that in the defendant … annihilate and destroy the version of the aggrieved and to portray her as some sort of complicit person in the offence by going for a ride in the car”.

The court heard the defendant had been seen by the court’s mental health liaison and a referral to the prison’s mental health team was written to address concerns while he was remanded in custody.

The defendant was denied bail, remanded in custody and his matters are set to be mentioned at the Emerald Magistrates Court on March 8.

Originally published as Accused DV offender was “going crazy, asking the woman to be his girlfriend and to go to Bundaberg with him over and over again”