Toowoomba’s reported assault offences rise over past 12 months according to Queensland Police data
Police have dealt with a rising number of assaults across the Toowoomba and Darling Downs-Maranoa regions, with cases involving weapons, even a mailbox, and ending in serious injury. SEE THE LIST OF OFFENDERS:
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Reported assault offences have risen in Toowoomba, with Queensland Police putting the increase down to one main reason.
A total of 821 assaults were recorded in Toowoomba over the 2020-21 financial year, an increase of 16.8 per cent on the previous year. Reported assaults increased 12.2 per cent in the past nine years.
In the broader Darling Downs-Maranoa region, reported assaults rose 25.4 per cent from the 2019-20 to 2020-21 financial year, and 18.8 per cent over the past nine years.
Across the state police recorded a total of 39,300 offences of assault last year, an increase of almost 50 per cent on 2020 numbers.
According to the Queensland Government Statistician’s Office report on crime in Queensland, assault offences accounted for 69.5 per cent of reported victims of offences against the person in Queensland in 2020–21.
“Assault is the direct (and immediate/confrontational) infliction of force, injury or violence upon a person or persons, or the direct (and immediate/confrontational) threat of force, injury or violence where there is an apprehension that the threat could be enacted,” the report stated.
“Assault accounted for a considerably greater proportion of male victims than female victims (81.3 per cent and 59.6 per cent respectively).
“This offence type is further disaggregated on the basis of whether or not the assault involved injury, or other aggravating circumstances. In 2020–21, the two most prevalent types of assault experienced by victims in Queensland were serious assault and common assault (43.5 per cent and 38.8 per cent respectively of total assault).”
A Queensland Police spokesperson said the increase in reported assault offences was driven by a change in their reporting method for domestic and family violence.
In July last year QPS modified how criminal offences associated with DFV investigations were recorded within their internal database.
“When responding to and investigating a DFV occurrence, police are now consistently recording all offences identified in the same incident,” the spokesperson said.
CONVICTIONS RECORDED
Robert Norman Kelly
A 32-year-old man found guilty of breaking into a 75-year-old neighbour’s home and bashing him while he was on a Triple-0 call has been jailed for two years and 10 months.
Robert Norman Kelly had pleaded not guilty to charges of burglary and serious assault of a person over 60 at his Toowoomba District Court trial this week.
Kelly tried to claim his de facto partner Carissa Campbell had in fact assaulted the victim, William Blake.
She also gave evidence at the trial that it had in fact been her.
However, Crown prosecutor Emily Coley said the jury by its verdict had “clearly rejected” that version of events.
Judge Katherine McGuinness sentenced Kelly to two years and 10 months in jail but ordered he be released on parole as of October 4, 2023, after he had served 17 months.
Leroy Barry John Brown
While a patient at Baillie Henderson Hospital, the 30-year-old punched a security officer in the face, causing a significant eye injury, after responding to a fight.
Toowoomba District Court in May 2022 heard Brown had history of assaulting nurses, officers or fellow patients at hospitals.
Brown pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm, and was sentenced to 2.5 years in jail. Judge Craig Chowdhury declared 330 days of pre-sentence custody as time served, and he was immediately released on parole.
Kara Jade Weribone
The Toowoomba woman broke into the house of another woman and repeatedly beat her, with the pair engaged in a love triangle that turned violent.
Kara Jade Weribone appeared in Toowoomba Magistrates Court in April 2022 where she pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm while in company and enter dwelling with intent by break in company, as well as a raft of property offences.
The 24-year-old and a second woman broke into the victim’s home, where Weribone violently assaulted her multiple times.
Weribone’s solicitor Ryan McCullough told the court his client was a mother of two, and was pregnant with her third child.
Magistrate Howard Osborne convicted Weribone and sentenced her to 15 months jail, with a non-parole period of five months. He ordered the remaining jail term be suspended for 12 months.
Colin John Mitchell
An argument between cousins escalated into an assault so violent man suffered a caved in skull that required four metal screws, a court has been told.
Colin John Mitchell pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm in Toowoomba District Court in September 2021.
The court was told that on February 13 of that year Mitchell was at his cousin’s house in Cunnamulla when at about midday the pair got into an argument, and Mitchell was told to leave.
The 26-year-old retaliated with violence, punching his cousin before kneeing him in the head, resulting in a depressed skull fracture which required a metal plate and four screws in the victim’s skull.
Mitchell was convicted and sentenced to a two year, six month jail term, with a non parole period of 10 months. With time served he was eligible for release on January 11, 2022.
Lili Ann Johnston
The 21-year-old woman pleaded guilty to two separate assaults on men was placed on probation so she could get help with anger management.
Toowoomba Magistrates Court in February 2022 was told Johnston had become involved in an argument with an Uber driver who had picked her up and an older woman from a Drayton residence about 3.20pm, June 15, 2021.
The second assault took place on November 14 when Johnston struck a man who was grocery shopping with his two young daughters.
The Uber driver had agreed to drive them to the South Toowoomba McDonalds and back but when they arrived at the restaurant’s drive through an argument broke out initially with McDonald’s staff and then the Uber driver.
After the Uber driver asked the two women to get out of the car, Johnston had struck him to the neck and side of the head.
Magistrate Howard Osborne placed Johnston on 18 months probation.
“Sickening” DV offender
A Toowoomba man who over a four-month period repeatedly and brutally beat, strangled and demeaned his girlfriend has been jailed for five years.
The 45-year-old man, who cannot be named due to domestic violence orders, pleaded guilty before Toowoomba District Court to 17 offences against the then 39-year-old woman which included five counts of assault occasioning bodily harm, three of assault occasioning bodily harm while armed and four of strangulation in a domestic setting.
The court was told the man had regularly punched her in the face, kicked her leaving her with broken ribs, choked her to the point she couldn’t breathe and spat in her face.
In what was considered the most serious of his heinous acts, the man had kicked the woman in the back and then dragged her out of a room and threw her onto the floor.
After pinning her to the floor with his knees on her chest, he strangled her until she lost consciousness.
Declaring the 258 days pre-sentence custody as time served under the sentence, Judge Ian Dearden sentenced the man to five years in jail but ordered the term be suspended after 20 months for five years and that he be released on parole as of March 13, 2023.
Anne-Marie Taylor
Armed and with backup, Taylor attempted to collect items from her ex-partner’s house, but the errand descended into a chaotic melee.
The 21-year-old faced Toowoomba Magistrates Court in November 2021 where she pleaded guilty to one count of assault occasioning bodily harm while armed and in company.
During the fracas, which saw two co-offenders armed with knives, Taylor repeatedly struck the victim’s back with a wooden baton.
Taylor was sentenced to three months in jail, suspended for nine months.
Calum Williams, Bradley Thomas Brown
The two men pleaded guilty to the assault of a drunk man in a Toowoomba Hungry Jacks drive-through in the early hours of June 27, 2020.
Callum Williams, 24, of Goondiwindi, and co-offender Bradley Thomas Brown, 24, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm in company in Toowoomba District Court in August 2021.
The court was told the victim man, of similar age, had wandered drunk into Hungry Jacks only to find the cafe closed but the drive-through in operation.
However, because customers had to be in a vehicle to be served, the man had asked to get into the Uber which Williams and Brown had hired to take them on a burger run.
After some verbal back and forth, the pair had alighted from the vehicle and assaulted the victim who was thrown to the ground.
The pair were both sentenced to nine months in jail, but were immediately released on parole.
Reece McDermott
The 21-year-old Toowoomba man who briefly held a policeman in a choker hold while being arrested during a drunken tirade on a Newtown street has narrowly avoided actual jail time.
McDermott blew a breath/alcohol reading of 0.205 when taken to the watch house after the incident on the night of July 26 2021, Toowoomba Magistrates Court heard in October of that year.
Police were called after the then 20-year-old went on a drunken tirade, smashing a wall, two windows and a mailbox with a cricket bat.
Calling police “f---ing dogs”, McDermott told police “you’ll have to lock me up”, leading to a violent struggle on the street.
During the struggle, McDermott had grabbed a constable around the neck with his arm for about five seconds, and when that officer broke free, McDermott had spat at another policeman, narrowly missing him.
McDermott pleaded guilty to two counts of serious assault of police in a public place while adversely affected, public nuisance, obstructing police in a public place while adversely affected, wilful damage and assaulting, obstructing police.
Magistrate Graham Lee sentenced McDermott to 12 months in jail but suspended the term for two years, ordered he do 140 hours community service and placed him on two years probation.
Samantha Toni Rae Kaarsberg, Amy Jean Breeze
The two mothers went to the home of the victim about 12.40pm on January 29, 2021, and proceeded to take part in a violent home invasion.
Toowoomba District Court was told in March 2022 that Kaarsberg punched the victim a number of times while demanding property.
Kaarsberg and Breeze pleaded guilty to demanding property by menace, assault occasioning bodily harm in company and unlawful use of a motor vehicle.
Judge Ian Dearden sentenced Kaarsberg to 15 months in jail with 41 days custody declared served and suspended after 41 days for 18 months.
She was also placed on 18 months probation to include random drug testing.
Breeze was sentenced to six months in jail, fully suspended for 18 months, with 18 months probation to include random drug testing.
Erin Briley Snowden
The 21-year-old woman was “off her face” on heroin when she jumped the dock of a Toowoomba court and then bit a police woman trying to apprehend her.
Erin Briley Snowden had been arrested on a warrant and brought before the Toowoomba District Court on November 23, 2021, the same court heard in March 2022.
Given a cup of water on her request, she threw the water over one police officer before yelling “get f---ed”, climbing onto the seat in the dock and launching herself over the low glass wall of the dock, the court was told.
When the two officers guarding her went to stop Snowden, she kicked out at them, then, when a policewoman tried to put handcuffs on her, turned her head and bit the senior constable on the upper right arm.
After Snowden was eventually returned to the watch house, the senior constable noticed her arm was bleeding from the bite.
Snowden pleaded guilty to attempting to escape lawful custody, serious assault of police, and serious assault of police causing bodily harm.
Snowden was sentenced to 18 months in jail but with 120 days spent in custody declared as time served, she was eligible to apply for release on parole immediately.
CONVICTIONS NOT RECORDED
Ty Beckhouse
A Newtown resident woke in the middle of the night to find a group of young people damaging his property but when he went to investigate he was punched and struck with his own mailbox.
One of those four young people, Ty Beckhouse, appeared before Toowoomba District Court in March 2022 to plead guilty to his role in the assault and damage which occurred about 12.30am, January 14, 2021.
Beckhouse, 20, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm while armed and in company and to three counts of wilful damage.
Describing Beckhouse’s behaviour as “very poor”, Judge Ian Dearden placed him on two years probation and ordered he do 60 hours community service with no convictions recorded.
Dylan James Ryan
Unresolved anger issues stemming from a rare medical condition and subsequent complications ended in a Toowoomba teenager facing a charge of grievous bodily harm after a one punch attack that left another teenager with serious facial injuries.
Toowoomba District Court heard the 17-year-old victim and his brother were walking into Bunnings Toowoomba West on January 30, 2021, when they bumped into Ryan.
When they returned to their car, Ryan was waiting for them and invited the victim to fight but he had turned away.
As he went to get into his car, Ryan threw an uppercut which struck the victim’s face and he dropped to the ground as Ryan walked off.
The victim teenager sustained a fracture to the nose/cheek area which required surgery during which a titanium pin was implanted
After pleading guilty to causing grievous bodily harm Judge Ian Dearden ordered the conviction not be recorded and placed Ryan on three years probation, ordered he do 240 hours community service and pay $5000 compensation to his victim.
Isaiah David Forden
Tensions between two housemates had been simmering for some time, a court was told, and an argument over mince was the final straw when a Toowoomba teenager violently bashed his 40-year-old housemate.
Isaiah David Forden had only two more days on his five-month lease when on July 21, 2021, an argument boiled over into violence.
In Toowoomba Magistrates Court in September 2021 the 18-year-old pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm and wilful damage.
Magistrate Kay Ryan said the assault was “concerning”, but his young age and lack of criminal history were mitigating factors in the sentencing exercise, where she used her discretion to not record a conviction, and ultimately fine Forden $800.
Owen Keith Somerton
The 28-year-old man was so drunk at a Wyreema wedding that he had no memory of punching another guest and then causing $3700 damage to the police car he was placed into.
But Owen Keith Somerton accepted the accounts of the events from his wife and other witnesses, pleading guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm in a public place while adversely affected by liquor, committing a public nuisance within licensed premises, obstructing police in a public place while adversely affected, and wilful damage of police property.
Somerton was fined $1250, ordered to do 40 hours community service and pay compensation of $3694 for damage to the police car.
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