Primary school child desperately battles to save mother from violent father

As her father choked her mother on the driveway, a little girl begged passer-bys for help – no one came – forcing her to stand alone.

Picture: iStock

To save her mother, a young girl bravely fought off her father – a man whose terrifying violence she had witnessed time over.

The 37-year-old father, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his daughter, pleaded guilty before Toowoomba Magistrates Court on Tuesday October 28 to two counts of contravening a domestic violence order and one count of common assault against his young child.

Police prosecutor Senior Constable Kingsley Weir said the man began choking his wife on the driveway as his eight-year-old daughter watched on.

The young girl raced for help, calling to drivers in nearby traffic, but no one answered her pleas.

“The child started waving down traffic in an effort to help,” Constable Weir said.

“When this failed, the child opened the car door and started hitting the defendant so he would let go of the aggrieved.

“The defendant pushed the child backwards and told her to ‘get the f*** off’ him, and subsequently kicked her behind the ear.”

Constable Weir said the woman was “extremely fearful” of his abuse and refused to speak with police.

“(The woman) was unwilling to co-operate with police at that time,” she said.

She suggested this was likely the reason the man was charged with a lesser contravention offence and not a more serious violent offence.

Months later, in August of 2025, police received a tip the woman was trapped in a parked car with the man.

The court heard the woman had attempted to end the relationship before the man punched her over and over in the face.

“He threatened to drive himself off a cliff in an attempt to kill himself while she was in the car,” Constable Weir said.

“He has also threatened to stab her with a knife if she called police.”

When police attended, they found the man asleep with a 10cm long knife in his possession.

Constable Weir said, while very short, the man’s criminal history showed a pattern of abuse.

In 2023, he was fined after causing minor cuts to her hand and in 2024, he was imprisoned for choking her in a park in full view of his then-seven-year-old daughter and the public.

“It is quite reprehensible (behaviour) in my submission,” Constable Weir said.

“It is unknown what sort of ongoing trauma that child is going to sustain having witnessed these things.”

The man’s solicitor Charles Lumsden said a workplace head injury, which forced the man off work for 12 months, had left him with severe and debilitating migraines.

Mr Lumsden alleged the mother and target of the man’s abuse became addicted to painkillers after injuring her back at work, which had sparked arguments between the pair.

“Their problems were magnifying,” he said.

“(My client) says he hasn’t been himself since his head injury; he has suffered extreme pain, they’ve had financial difficulties and then his partner was in a situation where she became addicted to prescribed medication.

“He is not telling this to try and minimise his own involvement in this most unfortunate situation.

“He is saying it is a situation that has spiralled out of control, and but for his head injury, he believes none of this would have occurred.”

Magistrate Michelle Dooley admonished the man for exposing his daughter to extreme violence.

“She was there front and centre watching it all,” she said.

“I hear that you have issues and that your wife has issues but can I say that they will be nothing compared to the issues your daughter’s going to have.

“Here she is trying to stop traffic … she couldn’t because people are just not that interested are they, and instead she resorts to hitting you with the car door.

“How many eight-year-olds would have the presence of mind to know to do that except one who has been living in an extremely domestically violent home.

“She knows that it is survival and that is what she is trying to do.”

“Your wife, whatever issues she may have, I’m sure they’ve been compounded with what is going on with you.

“If you’re having extreme migraines, if you are having trouble keeping yourself under control you seek out some assistance for that.

“You’ve got to put this little girl front and foremost – she deserves it.”

The man was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment with a parole release date after serving one third of his sentence.

Having spent 89 days in custody already, he will be released on January 28, 2026.

He will then be under the supervision of parole for 12 months.