17-year-old Toowoomba girl pleads guilty to vicious cafe attack

Clocking into her first shift at her after school job, a young girl never imagined facing the loss of her vision thanks to one person’s callous and violent outburst.

On Monday March 31, 2025, an 18-year-old pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm of the young child and two counts of assault occasioning bodily harm regarding two other victims in Toowoomba District Court. Picture: File

A young girl faced going blind after she was made victim of a vicious attack only an hour into her first shift at an after school job.

Her attacker was a child on the cusp of adulthood; the young victim was also a child, looking forward to using her new found financial freedom.

On Monday March 31, 2025, the now 18-year-old pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm of the young child and two counts of assault occasioning bodily harm regarding two other victims.

She cannot be named as she was a child at the time of her offending.

Crown prosecutor Perian Cardiff told the court the teenage offender entered a Toowoomba cafe with a group of young people, looking to fight another coffee shop worker.

“When the fight didn’t occur, the defendant became impatient; she approached the worker and smashed a ceramic coffee mug over her head,” Ms Cardiff said.

“The defendant threw mugs at the three workers at the cafe and shards of ceramic from one of the smashed mugs flew into the eye of the (young girl).”

Two workers, including the intended fight victim, and the freshly hired young girl were injured in the attack.

In a statement to the court, the girl described feeling scared and confused in the immediate aftermath.

“It all happened very fast and was very unexpected,” she wrote.

“I remember sitting down and wondering how this had happened, I just kept asking: ‘what is wrong with my eye, I don’t want to be blind, am I going to be blind?’.”

The young girl was flown to Queensland Children’s Hospital in Brisbane for specialist care where it was determined she had suffered a dangerously deep laceration to her eye, requiring multiple surgeries to repair and months of recovery.

“I could not even lay down to sleep because I had a blood clot in my eye,” the young girl said.

“I couldn’t go to school … even sneezing was risky.

“I’ve had daily constant headaches since the incident happened.

“I was tired all the time and couldn’t do much before feeling sick and really fatigued.”

Her doctor advised it was unlikely they would be able to save her eye and she could even lose vision in both eyes as a result of the attack; incredibly, the girl’s vision was restored, but she was told it would never be the same again.

“Everything is just harder now,” the young girl said.

“I feel like people are looking at my eye instead of looking at me … it makes me feel uncomfortable, angry and annoyed.

“I just want to go back to how my life was before.

“This has changed my life forever and I feel really sad and angry about it.

“I’ve always tried to be a really good person, kind and caring to people – I try hard at school and have goals for what I want to achieve in my life.

“I was just at work, trying to learn new skills and earn some money to go shopping and have fun with my friends.

“I don’t deserve this.”

Defence barrister Jess Goldie said the teenage offender had struggled with a traumatic upbringing and had since engaged counselling and other rehabilitation programs.

“She had conflict in the home, particularly with her parent’s drinking, and there were occasions of excessive physical discipline,” Ms Goldie said.

“She was scarcely home at the time of this offence … it seems she was dealing with undiagnosed unmediated post-traumatic stress disorder.”

Ms Goldie also highlighted the offender’s genuine remorse for the pain she caused.

“It’s evident that she is remorseful for this offence,” she said.

“You can see her visibly breaking down (in the police interview) and she is sobbing when she is told about those injuries.

The offender wrote personal apology letters to all three of her victims and expressed a new-found understanding of how her actions can hurt innocent people.

Judge Suzanne Sheridan sentenced the teenage offender to 18 months detention, to serve 50 per cent, after already serving 226 of pre-sentence custody.

“There is no doubt … that you now realise, not only do you feel remorse and shame, but you also seem to have developed insight into the consequences your offending can have on the victims

Convictions were recorded.