Queensland woman jailed for sick, years-long domestic violence abuse

A woman who dangled her four-month-old baby over a second-storey stairwell railing threatening to drop the child in a bid to scare her partner has been jailed after years of horrific abuse. Warning: distressing.

The DV offender dangled a baby over a stairwell to strike fear in her partner.

A woman who dangled a four-month-old baby over the railing of a second-storey stairwell to strike fear in her partner has been jailed after inflicting years of targeted mental, physical and emotional abuse on her family.

Court documents reveal the years of abuse the 39-year-old woman inflicted, with Judge Philip McCarthy KC sentencing her in Townsville District Court earlier this year, including biting, choking and punching her girlfriend.

To protect child victims, the perpetrator will be referred to as ‘T’ and her partner, who she was in a five-year relationship with, as ‘J’.

During one of T’s outbursts, J began recording.

“You chased her, demanding she hand over the SD card upon which the recording had been made,” Judge McCarthy said.

“You bit her on the cheek, you bit her on the hand, you bit her on the ear. You then pushed her to the ground, got on top of her, grabbed her by the neck and squeezed.”

J ran upstairs with the children, with T continually demanding the SD card.

“And then in an extraordinary event, in my view, you picked up your baby who is only four months old, and you held her over the stairwell railing threatening to drop your child from the second story of a home if J did not comply with your request to hand over the SD card,” His Honour said.

What occurred over the next couple of years included T bashing J over the head with a vacuum pole, hitting her head against a toilet bowl, controlling her social media and strangling her to the point where had to fake passing out just for her to stop.

In a particular instance, T would wait for J to regain consciousness after passing out from strangulation, and then choke her again.

The woman, J, told her parents who went to police and Child Safety became involved.

After the couple returned from an appointment with Child Safety, T made sexual advances towards J which she naturally rejected – what came next was degrading and vile.

“ … you grabbed a banana from the counter top. You placed it to your crotch. It was intended to simulate a penis. You then forced the banana into J’s mouth, thrusting it back and forth repeatedly telling her to suck it,” the judge said.

“The peel eventually split to the banana and banana then became smeared all over her mouth and face.”

His Honour said it was “extraordinarily humiliating, degrading and demeaning”.

In a bid to escape the woman, J called a domestic violence service provider which set her up in a hotel to get away from T, however the clerk at the desk of the accommodation was unaware of the circumstances and gave T the woman’s room number.

After the pair separated, T let herself into J’s house where she was staying and told her “I’ve stalked the house, and I’ve recorded you”.

In later offending the women and the kids were driving in the car when T became angry and tried to hit one of the children, in which J interfered trying to protect the child.

“You then drove erratically, and intentionally swerved all over the road,” His Honour said.

“You reported to the occupants of the car that you were going to kill everyone. You then pulled over in the car and told everyone to stay in the car or you would kill them. It was hot inside the car. The windows were up, and the airconditioning was off.

“You stood in the middle of the road. You, under the pretence, were waiting for traffic to come so that you could kill yourself.”

The woman had children together through IVF. Picture: iStock

Over the course of their relationship the women still discussed having another baby together through IVF but when T learnt that J was going to use one of her own eggs, she threatened to harm them all.

“You threatened the life of the unborn child in your rage that you would not want it, and if she had any f--king kid that was not in part genetically yours, you were going to ‘f--king murder it’,” the judge said.

The woman, J, still tried to escape T and moved to Brisbane, however, T learnt of where she was living and had a friend take a photo of the house.

“You sent the photograph to J. You then sent a message to her, ‘There’s a reason why you were there? But it’s okay, I’ll find out’ and of course J felt intimidated,” His Honour said.

During the sentence Judge McCarthy highlighted J’s strength after having read her victim impact statement.

“She still has guilt because you are separated from your daughter,” he said.

“I find that remarkable, remarkably mature because I do not know whether others would be so forgiving in the circumstances and feel that pain and guilty of separation.

“J has a commendable spirit that others do not.”

She acknowledged not only the emotional and mental trauma that the woman now suffers from but the physical damage due to concussive episodes from all of the abuse.

Additionally the woman was to be sentenced for fraudulent activity she committed while working for a mine site in which she were to be paid $23,800 over a sixteen and a half month period for living within a certain radius.

She forged tenancy agreements as evidence of renting a property within that physical location claim the payments, and it unravelled when the person who actually lived at that address reported it.

The woman’s motivation for the outrageous offences against her partner were to “demean, control, on occasions humiliate” and “diminish (the victim’s) self-worth”.

“You were completely remorseless in the manner in which you behaved towards (her) and your behaviour towards her clearly demonstrates your own self-interests above any other interest in your life.”

The woman pleaded guilty to 47 charges which included choking and strangulation, assault occasioning bodily harm, sexual assault, dangerous operation of a vehicle, robbery, common assault, attempted to enter dwelling and wilful damage.

She was sentenced to nine years’ jail, with a parole eligibility date of August 15, as His Honour declared the 926 days she spent in pre-sentence custody as time already served.

Originally published as Queensland woman jailed for sick, years-long domestic violence abuse