Anthony Lawrence Edward Priestley sexually assaulted four females

“Are you sure you don’t want some of this?”, a Qld creep said in one of four frightening ambushes where multiple women were sexually assaulted in public places.

Rockhampton Base Hospital's Emergency Department file image.

Horrifying details of a persistent predator’s sexual assaults against four females were revealed in court this week, including how he brazenly groped a woman after she was discharged from hospital while waiting for a taxi.

Anthony Lawrence Edward Priestley, 29, carried out the sexual assaults against three women and a teenage mother, the Rockhampton District Court heard on Monday.

He also stalked the teen mum for weeks three weeks, bailing her up at a McDonald’s restaurant while she was with her siblings, causing her to lock them all in toilets to escape his persistent sexual harassment.

Crown prosecutor Cassandra Nitz said all victims were strangers to Priestley and were conducting everyday activities when he approached them and “assaulted or otherwise exposed to them (his) crude and unsolicited conduct”.

She described this conduct as “brazen, somewhat predatory and persistent”.

Judge Jeff Clarke, who described Priestley’s conduct as “unwanted creepy and weird sexual approaches” said one of the victims was sitting on a chair outside the Rockhampton Hospital Emergency Department after being discharged, at 1.40am, when Priestley sat next to her and asked if she wanted to be kissed.

He said the victim, 23, told him she was shy and “didn’t want to do that sort of thing”.

“(Priestley) moved closer to her, and then, without warning, wrapped one hand around the back of her neck and pulled her face into (his),” Judge Clarke said.

Priestley kissed the victim while pulling her hair, fondled her breasts and moved his hand down to her groin on the outside of her clothing.

“She froze and felt unable to move,” Judge Clarke said.

Priestley asked the victim if she wanted to walk around the corner, telling her it “would be fun” but she declined.

He grabbed her hand and forced it beneath his underwear and around his penis.

Judge Clarke said someone neared them and the victim managed to remove her hand.

“She was still otherwise frozen and afraid,” he said.

“She texted her partner, then received a call from her partner while she was waiting for a cab to arrive.”

When the taxi arrived, Priestley insisted on getting in it with her and he asked to be taken to the Allenstown Hotel.

He again grabbed the victim’s hand and placed it on his groin while he rubbed her body outside her clothing and kissed her.

Driving the trip, Priestley repeatedly asked the woman to get out so he could walk her home, but she declined.

As he left the taxi, he told her he wanted to “f*** her” and she left in the taxi.

“She was very nervous that she might see you around again,” Judge Clarke said.

Priestley went on to stalk the 17-year-old after encountering her at a children’s park in North Rockhampton while she was with her one-year-old child and her siblings.

He first started by staring at her at the park, then approached her and told her she had pretty eyes.

Judge Clarke said Priestley repeatedly leant into her, moving closer to her, as he spoke with her, asking her for a hug.

“She was so scared she eventually let (him) do that,” he said.

“As she did that, he grabbed her bottom, and she pushed him away.”

Priestley grabbed both of her hands and told her he wasn’t going to do anything.

She said she needed to go home but as she went to walk away, Priestley grabbed her wrist and squeezed.

He asked her to come back to the park at night.

Her siblings saw she needed help, and they all left and made a complaint.

On another day, the victim took the children to McDonalds and as they arrived, Priestley called her “baby girl” and told her he had been looking for her, had been back to the park and waited for her.

He again asked her for a hug, and again out of fear, she allowed it.

“He grabbed her by her face, squeezed it, before turning her head to one of the children and saying, ‘doesn’t she look cute today?’,” Judge Clarke said.

“She was crying while (Priestley) hugged her and (was) kissing her onto her head.”

He tried to coax her into the bathroom for sexual conduct to which she refused, and the group got a McDonalds employee to tell Priestley to leave which he also refused.

The victim and her entourage ended up locking themselves in a toilet inside McDonalds with Priestley banging on the door, yelling for the victim to “get the f*** out here”.

He eventually left but turned up at her grandmother’s house days later, talking to the grandmother in the front yard, asking who lived there and asking for cigarettes and money.

Another sexual assault victim was at the Discovery Holiday Park at Norman Gardens with her children when Priestley approached her.

Judge Clarke said Priestley stared at the woman, 37, while she was at the water park, and then approached her and asked if she was on holiday which she confirmed.

He said Priestley continued staring at the victim and talk to her, making her feel uncomfortable,

“She was trying to fob (him) off, saying she needed to supervise her children,” Judge Clarke said.

Priestley ran his land along the side of her body and he offered to carry her belongings with the woman immediately moving away from him.

He continued to stare at her as she told him she had a husband, and he asked if she’d ever “played up” and if “she wanted to play up”.

The victim told him no to both and that she felt uncomfortable and other people were coming.

The last victim was walking to her car from a hotel on Victoria Parade about 8.15pm one evening.

Judge Clarke said as she got to her car, Priestley came up behind her and started talking to her, shook her hand and asked her if she was interested in him.

He said the victim replied that she wasn’t, but Priestley persisted, asking her to go with him, making sexual advances, making her feel uncomfortable and asking for “sexual pleasures”.

Judge Clarke said while he had both of his hands down his pants, he asked her “are you sure you don’t want some of this”.

The woman told him to leave, but he didn’t, so she eventually walked away from her car and Priestley left the area.

Defence barrister Sheridan Shaw said her client, who had an eight-year-old son, had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and was not compliant with his medication during this period.

She said he had worked in hospitality after finishing high school, and worked in landscaping, mustering and other types of employment.

The court heard Priestley had been remanded in custody for these offences after he was arrested on June 1, 2024, but he was released on bail on January 8, 2025.

His freedom only lasted a few months as his bail was revoked on May 5 after he reoffended.

The court heard his one-page criminal recorded included unlike offending but did include a conviction for assaulting a 67-year-old female at a Rockhampton service station in March 2024 when he grabbed her purse and knocked her in the chest area.

Priestley pleaded guilty to five counts of sexual assault, one of stalking and one of indecent act in any place with intent to insult or offend any person.

He was sentenced to 2.5 years prison with 264 days presentence custody declared as time served and immediate parole eligibility.

Priestley was also slapped with a restraining order for one of his victims.

Originally published as Anthony Lawrence Edward Priestley sexually assaulted four females