Man sentenced in Toowoomba Supreme Court over fatal attack on 75-year-old Robert Brown

A court has been told that one of the attackers involved in the manslaughter of Toowoomba man Robert Brown had been using up to a 1g of meth and had not slept in four days before causing the photographer’s death outside Grand Central.

A young man has been jailed for his role in the manslaughter of 75-year-old Toowoomba man Robert Brown.

The 18-year-old had pleaded guilty to the offence on April 8, with Justice Martin Burns adjourning the sentencing until Monday, May 27.

The man, who cannot be named because he was 17 at the time of the offence, also pleaded guilty to robbery with personal violence, and the unlawful use of a car to commit an indictable offence.

The court was told that on February 6, 2023 the man went to Grand Central Shopping Centre in the company of two others and was captured on CCTV pacing back and forth behind Mr Brown.

After several minutes he walked up behind Mr Brown and pushed him, before grabbing his backpack and fleeing with his associates.

Among other things, the backpack contained a Valentine’s Day gift that Mr Brown had purchased that afternoon for his sweetheart.

Photographer Robert Brown died after he was pushed down in an attempted robbery outside Grand Central Shopping Centre in Toowoomba. Picture: Nev Madsen.

Mr Brown fell forward, off the sidewalk and on the bitumen, suffering a critical neck and head injury. An off-duty nurse rushed to his aid and emergency services were called, but there was little they could do.

Mr Brown died a week later.

In Toowoomba Supreme Court on Monday Justice Burns sentenced the man to seven years behind bars, to serve 50 per cent of the sentence.

A total of 474 days of pre-sentence custody was declared as time served.

Justice Burns noted the man was “the product of a highly dysfunctional family” and that the man’s childhood home was scarred by repeated acts of domestic violence perpetrated by his father.

Justice Burns said while the man’s mother loved him dearly, she faced her own battles with substance abuse and experienced significant grief and loss within her wider family.

The crime scene after Toowoomba man Robert Brown was pushed and killed while waiting for a taxi at Grand Central Shopping Center in February 2023. Picture: Peta McEachern

“This impacted her ability to protect you from emotional and physical harm and led at times to a lack of food within the home, poor school attendance and you being left unattended in the community,” Justice Burns said.

The court heard that the man started experimenting with drugs and alcohol as a nine-year-old and progressed to abusing meth, MDMA and prescription drugs.

He was placed in care of the Department of Child Safety on two occasions, with Justice Burns noting neither were positive experiences.

“The second of which, by your account at least, featured maltreatment with you at times having to resort to scavenging from rubbish bins to feed yourself,” he said.

“In the end you self-placed back with your mother in the middle of 2020.”

Toowoomba man Robert Brown has died a week after he was attacked in the Toowoomba CBD on February 6. Picture: Toowoomba Photographic Society

The court was told the man was diagnosed with a severe speech and language disorder, a suspected intellectual disability, a hearing impairment, anxiety, depression and attachment-based trauma.

Despite these disadvantages, Justice Burns noted that the man’s life was relatively stable until late January 2023 when the man’s abusive father returned to the family home.

Domestic violence and alcohol abuse resumed.

“As a result you fled the home, being fearful of living in that environment,” Judge Burns said.

“You again turned to drugs and alcohol and temporarily residing with so-called peers in the Toowoomba area.”

The court was told that in the lead up to the offending, the man had not slept for four days, and was consuming about 1g of meth and 14gs of cannabis each day.

In sentencing Justice Burns noted that the man had significant insight into his offending and, importantly, remorse and immense feelings of guilt.

The court heard that the man thinks about what he has done every day.

“When you first learnt that Mr Brown was seriously injured, you broke down and cried for several hours,” Justice Burns said.

“Then, when your solicitor delivered the news to you in the watch-house that Mr Brown had died you were simply inconsolable.

“She described your sadness and regret as palpable.”

The court was told that the man had engage with counselling services while in pre-sentence custody

Further to this, Justice Burns said the man deserves credit for his early plea and his full co-operation with investigators which led the matter being finalised well ahead of the cases against his alleged co-accused.

“There can be no doubting the seriousness of your offending,” Justice Burns said.

“Regardless of how much you were affected by substance abuse and sleep deprivation, you targeted a defenceless, elderly man in a public place in the speculative hope there may be something of value in his backpack.

“Your offending was opportunistic in the sense that he was spotted by you and your co-offenders standing alone at a deserted taxi ran and although you were (allegedly) egged on by at least one of your (alleged) co-offenders, you acted with a degree of deliberation while you stalked Mr Brown for some time before pushing him from behind.

“You fled with his backpack, seemingly without a moment’s thought for the harm you may have caused.

“Community protection is therefore a prominent sentencing consideration in a case such as this.”

The man is expected to be eligible for parole in July 2026.