David Scott Corey Wagstaff cops jail term for punching wife in face and throwing TV remote at her

The 36-year-old struck his wife with the TV remote after she threw his hat onto the bed while cleaning house.

A 36-year-old Toowoomba man had punched his de facto wife in the face because she had woken him up for dinner, the city’s District Court has been told.

Crown prosecutor Emily Coley told the Toowoomba court David Scott Corey Wagstaff had become angry when his then 30-year-old de facto partner woke him for dinner on July 12, 2022.

He rose with his fist raised and approached her before punching the woman to the left eye, causing significant bruising, she said.

When the woman asked him to leave her home, Wagstaff said “Why don’t you f*** off” and she left the house to go to a friend’s place, Ms Coley said.

The court heard the house was rented by the woman from her parents who owned the residence.

Just over a month later on August 22, 2022, the woman had been vacuuming when she picked up Wagstaff’s hat from the floor and threw it onto the bed where he was laying watching TV, Ms Coley said.

Toowoomba Courthouse, Police Station and Watch House in Hume St, Toowoomba City.

When the hat landed on his foot, Wagstaff had thrown the TV remote at his partner which struck her in the mouth and she again had asked him to leave, she said.

Though he had acted as if nothing was wrong, the woman packed up his clothes the next day prompting him to yell at her again, the court heard.

Wagstaff, now 38, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm arising from the first incident and common assault from the second.

Judge Anthony Rafter SC, referring to photographs tended to the court of the woman’s eye injury from the first incident noted the blow had caused “significant bruising” and to which, the court heard, the woman had to apply extra makeup to hide it from her eight-year-old daughter.

Ms Coley said Wagstaff’s criminal history mainly involved drug offending and he had no previous offences of domestic violence.

Defence barrister Dan Boddice told the court his client had spent three days in custody after his arrest and he had not reoffended in the 17 months since.

Wagstaff no longer used drugs as was a condition of living with his parents, who were in court supporting him, and he had his own auto mechanical business.

Judge Rafter sentenced Wagstaff to six months in jail but, declaring the three days in custody as time served, ordered he be released on parole forthwith.