Ty Beckhouse and mates caused street damage before getting into fight with resident

The then 19-year-old was drunk when he and mates damaged a fence and street sign and then assaulted a man as he went to see what they were doing.

Ty Beckhouse was placed on probation and ordered to do community service after pleading guilty to assault and wilful damage charges.

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 on Wednesday to plead guilty to his role in the assault and damage which occurred about 12.30am, January 14, 2021.

The incident started after the group had ripped a street sign from the footpath and dragged it across the street, Crown prosecutor Erin Kelly told the court.

The complainant man was asleep but woke to the sound of his fence being torn apart and he had risen from his bed and gone to investigate.

Finding two metres of his paling fence on the ground, he told the group to move on only for Beckhouse to punch him in the face, she said.

After Beckhouse tackled the man to the ground, a 24-year-old co-offender stepped in and kicked the felled man in the ear, the court heard.

The complainant waved a shovel at the group to try and scare them off but one of Beckhouse’s co-offender’s ripped the mailbox out of the ground and struck the man with the metal pole attached to it, Ms Kelly said.

Ky Beckhouse leaves Toowoomba Courthouse after being sentenced for an assault on a Newtown resident.

A young girl with the group threw a bottle at the man but all had run off when a neighbour arrived to help the complainant, she said.

The victim was taken by ambulance to Toowoomba Hospital where he was treated for cuts and bruises.

Ms Kelly said Beckhouse’s co-offender had been sentenced to nine months in jail, with immediate parole, but conceded that man’s criminal history was a lot worse than the defendant’s.

Beckhouse, 20, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm while armed and in company and to three counts of wilful damage.

His barrister Wes Seewald told the court Beckhouse was just 19 and very drunk at the time.

His client lived in Warwick and was unemployed but he hoped to regain work with the local abattoir in the near future, he said.

His client had written a letter of apology to the complainant which was before the court, he said.

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.