Stoney Izak Allen Graves pleads guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm and is released from jail

Upset over an allegation that he had been reported to police, the 24-year-old threw the 73-year-old man off his metre high veranda, with witness statements describing the victim somersaulting through the air.

A 24-year-old man who had spent 174 days in jail for the assault of a 73-year-old man has been released from custody after pleading guilty to a reduced charge.

Stoney Izak Allen Graves had initially been charged with causing grievous bodily harm to the 73-year-old man who he had thrown off a one metre high veranda at the man’s home in the Murphys Creek area on March 22.

The victim sustained a number of injuries, Toowoomba Magistrates Court was told.

Magistrate Kyna Morice noted witness statements told of the man being seen to somersault through the air after being thrown by Graves who had been angry with him over an allegation the older man had reported Graves to police.

Stoney Izak Allen Graves.

Ms Morice noted Graves’ 80-year-old father had written a letter of support for his son who also had a list of references in which people spoke well of him.

“I’m sure if someone assaulted your father, you would be very upset,” she told Graves who appeared via video link from Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre to plead guilty to the reduced charge of assault occasioning bodily harm.

Referring to his letter of apology, Ms Morice said she accepted Graves was remorseful and noted he had no previous criminal history at all and had a good education and good work record.

Declaring the 174 days of presentence custody as time served, Ms Morice sentenced Graves to 10 months in jail and suspended the remaining four months’ jail forthwith, releasing him from prison immediately but with the four-month term to hang over his head for 18 months.