Jason Cullen jailed for vile domestic violence attack in Toowoomba

When a woman managed to escape her violent partner’s attack, fleeing her home on foot, a court was told the Toowoomba man hunted her down and continued to degrade her.

Jason John Cullen.

A Toowoomba magistrate told a recidivist domestic violence offender to stop using his trauma as a cop-out and to take responsibility for his actions when he was jailed for subjecting another partner to physical and mental abuse.

The 35-year-old Toowoomba man, Jason John Cullen, was sentenced in Toowoomba Magistrates Court on Thursday, May 2 to two and a half years behind bars.

The court was told the father of two’s criminal history was littered with violent crimes which included domestic violence offences relating to two different victims.

He was also convicted of trafficking methylamphetamine.

Jason John Cullen.

“Terrifying” and degrading assault

Crown prosecutor Nicole Friedewald said Cullen berated, abused, and beat his ex-partner at her Toowoomba home on August 10, 2023.

She said the pair had known each other for years, however they had only been in an intimate relationship for a matter of months before Cullen attacked her.

The court was told that after a paranoid and jealous Cullen arrived at the woman’s home he frantically began searching it for a man while verbally abusing her, calling her a slut, wh-re, and a liar.

She was then dragged into her bedroom by the arm and Cullen landed multiple “solid” punches to her face and head.

The court was told he then began strangling the woman.

Ms Friedewald said while Cullen choked the woman he spat in her face and again called her a liar.

The woman then called her former partner for help, before Cullen attacked her again.

Despite the woman managing to escape the house, fleeing on foot, the court was told Cullen hunted her down at her place of refuge and tried to get into the room she was hiding in.

The Toowoomba Court House. Toowoomba City police station watch-house. Picture: Peta McEachern

Childhood sexual abuse

Cullen was on a parole order and suspended sentence at the time, and an unsatisfactory report from the parole board showed he refused to engage with services to address his behaviour and drug addiction.

Defence barrister Scott Lynch said Cullen wanted to do better and feared he was becoming institutionalised, noting his new partner had a “good head on her shoulders” as she recently spoke and advocated for the decriminalisation of sex workers at Queensland Parliament House.

In March 2024, when Cullen was sentenced to a nine-month jail term for a raft of drug and property offences, the court was told his new partner would foot the bill for his future stay in a drug rehabilitation facility.

Mr Lynch said the genesis of Cullen’s 10-page criminal history stemmed from significant trauma he experienced as a child which included sexual assault, noting he also dropped out of school to help his mother raise his siblings.

Judgment

Judge Deborah Richards said a number of people who filter through the courts suffered through a traumatic childhood and it did not excuse his actions.

“You’re 35, you’ve got to take personal responsibility, you can’t just say I had a terrible childhood and not do anything about it,” she said.

“You have to get some counselling or you’re just going to get out and something will happen and you’re going to start using drugs again and then this whole cycle will start (again).

“Nobody is going around punching up women, calling them names, and strangling them, that doesn’t have some kind of mental health issue.”

Judge Richards told Cullen the assault on the woman was incredibly serious.

“It would have been terrifying for this woman, you didn’t stop,” she said.

“You were probably high as a kite, I don’t know.”

Cullen pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm, common assault, and strangulation, and was sentenced to a two year and six month jail term.

He will be eligible to apply for parole on November 2, 2024.