Charters Towers man, Stewart David Powell sentenced in Townsville Magistrates Court for stalking and disturbing homemade bombs

A man told the woman he was stalking he would ‘go out with a bang’ when he showed her a homemade bomb which triggered a Police Tactical Group to respond.

Stewart David Powell, 33, was sentenced in Townsville Magistrates Court on January 20, 2025 after making home-made pipe bombs and threatening to detonate them. Picture: Facebook

A woman who now suffers “nightmares and flashbacks” was stalked by a man who was “obsessed with guns and bombs” and was found to be in possession of multiple homemade pipe bombs after the Special Emergency Response Team were called to his house.

Stewart David Powell appeared in Townsville Magistrates Court on Monday via video link after he was arrested for his disturbing tirade on a woman.

The court was told in August last year, the 33-year-old man who lived in Charters Towers sent his ex-girlfriend 50 to 100 messages a day.

Police prosecutor Georgie Kiloh read a victim impact statement from the woman who expressed she still suffered psychological distress.

Her Honour who highlighted some of the facts of Powell’s offending in court, said the woman sought help from a community group to which one of the employees told the man of the woman’s whereabouts.

By mid-August the man told the woman he acquired an unregistered gun and called her on FaceTime to show her a pipe bomb he made, telling her he would set it off if police came near him, the court was told.

He also sent the woman a Snapchat holding the homemade bomb with the message “I’m going out with a bang” and “All I have to do is light it”, the magistrate noted.

She said SERT from Cairns were called to the man’s property where they safely detonated the bomb, as well as a second homemade pipe bomb they found in his shed which had a sparkler attached to it.

Her Honour said police found 141 live bullets in the shed, a large container of bullets cut open with the gunpowder removed which they believed was used to create the bombs and two containers with brown material, believed to be a type of explosive.

“These are really serious ones, you obviously had not gone by halves to create bombs,” Magistrate McLennan said.

Defence lawyer Tracy Brown from Resolute Legal argued the man had not threatened the woman but himself when sending photos of the homemade bomb to which the magistrate disagreed.

“He shows he’s making a pipe bomb to set off when police come near him, she knows he’s obsessed with guns and bombs. I think anyone hearing that and seeing that would have extreme fear,” Her Honour said.

Ms Brown told the court her client who worked in concreting and building sheds also spent time in Roma working on gas fields, and said despite there being no formal diagnosis he claims to have depression.

Her Honour said she was “limited” to sentencing orders after calling the prosecution’s submission of nine to 12 months behind bars as “light”.

Powell pleaded guilty to possessing unauthorised explosives, threatening violence by discharge of firearms, unlawful dealing with explosives, stalking and possessing weapons.

He was sentenced to 15 months jail with an immediate parole release date, as Her Honour declared the 151 days he spent in pre-sentence custody as time already served.

Originally published as Charters Towers man, Stewart David Powell sentenced in Townsville Magistrates Court for stalking and disturbing homemade bombs