Lucas Graham Oakley jailed for assaulting NT bus driver, Rockhampton fast food employee

An armed man terrorised and assaulted a young Queensland fast-food worker before his “truly sickening” attack of a frail Northern Territory bus driver at a Bruce Hwy stop was captured on camera.

Sarina's Lucas Graham Oakley has been jailed for assaulting Northern Territory Greyhound bus driver, Rockhampton fast food employee on Bruce Highway at Allenstown in March 2023.

A horror broad daylight attack on a small built, cancer battling bus driver at a Central Queensland stop was captured on CCTV and later described by a judge as “truly sickening”.

Northern Territory-based Greyhound driver Trevor Beutel, 69, was simply going about his job, preparing the bus for its next journey north when the “very big, heavily built” Lucas Graham Oakley, 44, attacked him after being refused immediate transit to Sarina, Rockhampton District Court heard.

Minutes before the attack on the driver, across the road from the service station situated along the Bruce Highway and near the Rockhampton southside KFC, Oakley had walked into Carl’s Jr. Rockhampton where a young mother was working the morning shift alone.

He told her “I don’t want to hurt but I kill”, Crown prosecutor Ken Spinaze said, also telling the court Oakley was armed with a piece of concrete, 20cm in length, when he demanded the worker make him a vanilla milkshake at 8.50am on March 21, 2023.

Mr Spinaze said while the victim moved quickly, it wasn’t as quick as Oakley, who clenched his right fist which was holding the piece of concrete, wanted.

The victim, 29, took a step back and placed her hands on her chest as Oakley yelled “you are taking forever” and took a step towards her.

“The defendant lunged at her and pushed her with force in the chest with his elbow and forearm,” Mr Spinaze said.

The victim was pushed back into a wall, hitting the middle of her spine and caused her pain.

Oakley helped himself to syrup and yelled he would throw the concrete at the victim if she left.

Sarina's Lucas Graham Oakley has been jailed for assaulting Northern Territory bus driver, Rockhampton fast food employee on Bruce Highway at Allenstown in March 2023.

The victim escaped and hid behind two men nearby with one of them confronting Oakley before he moved across the road to the service station.

Mr Spinaze said Oakley approached the bus driver at 9.05am.

Judge Jeff Clarke described the NT bus driver as “diminutive bespeckeled little man” of only 157.48cm tall and weighing 60kg.

The court heard Mr Beutel had only just returned to work after taking months off while receiving treatment for cancer and he suffered an eye disorder called macular degeneration.

CCTV from the service station and inside the bus, totalling four minutes and 40 seconds, showed Oakley demanded the bus driver take him to Sarina and when Mr Beutel replied, “not right now, later”, Oakley became visibly angry.

Oakley walked around the bus and climbed into the driver’s seat, trying to start it.

Mr Beutel stood outside as he called emergency services and watched Oakley who continued to scream out “I want to go home "and other abuse at the driver.

Moments later, Oakley exited the bus holding his arms out to the side and told the driver, who was still on the phone, he wasn’t a threat.

He then ran at Mr Beutel “and using a combination of both fists, struck him at least once in the face”, Judge Clarke said.

Mr Beutel immediately collapsed and his head hit the concrete car park.

Oakley, who came to a stop metres away, watched the victim attempt to get up “obviously dazed and injured”.

He ran at the victim again, this time kicking him in the head so hard the victim, who had been struggling to get to his knees facing down, flew backwards from the force and hit his head again on the concrete.

“The sound of the impacts captured by the CCTV from in the coach is truly sickening to hear,” Judge Clarke said.

He said Mr Beutel was “left completely motionless and most probably unconscious”.

Oakley “callously” rolled the victim over, took items from him and yelled for him to be quiet and not ring the police before he walked off.

Nearby witnesses then went to the victim’s aid.

The court heard Mr Beutel suffered a subdural brain hemorrhage along with fractures to his nose and eye sockets and other injuries.

The female fast food worker “still suffers from phantom pain,” Mr Spinaze said.

Mr Beutel spent months unable to work and away from family recovering in Rockhampton while the female victim returned to work for two days until a customer became unruly towards a coworker.

They both have symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety.

Neither provided an impact statement to the court, however, the female victim bravely sat in the back of the court during Oakley’s sentencing proceedings which took place on two separate days.

Oakley not only had a serious 17-page criminal record with a “prominence of violent offending” and drugs, including a grievous bodily harm conviction in 2013 for an assault against a nurse and threatening to stab a security guard with a syringe, but he had been released on bail the day before these attacks.

The court heard Oakley had a history of abusing drugs - marijuana, amphetamines, methamphetamines, heroin and ecstasy - and leading a transient lifestyle and had previous issues with drug-induced paranoid schizophrenia, depression and borderline anti-personality traits.

Defence barrister Jordan Ahlstrand said Oakley had spent some weeks in Rockhampton prior to these attacks and had “befriended a group of vagrants or street people”.

He said Oakley had planned to purchase a bus ticket to get home to Sarina where his sister and father lived, but one of the vagrants stole his wallet, mobile phone and medication.

Mr Ahlstrand said his client admitted to drug use days prior to the attack but was not under the influence at the time of the attack.

“He was dehydrated, thirsty and was having an episode,” he said.

Oakley pleaded guilty on February 21 to one count of armed robbery with personal violence and one of serious assault of a person aged over 60.

Judge Clarke sentenced him two days later to a head sentence of 6.5 years prison, declared 339 days presentence custody as time served and parole eligibility on March 21, 2025.

Originally published as Lucas Graham Oakley jailed for assaulting NT bus driver, Rockhampton fast food employee