Dane Burns: Launceston drunk’s ‘shocking’ assault on woman

A Tasmanian man, enraged that a woman took too long to return from a grog run, launched a ‘shocking’ assault on her, striking her face and ripping clumps of hair out.

A northern Tasmanian drunk pulled “several fistfuls of hair” from a woman’s scalp before striking her left eye, leaving “substantial bruising and swelling” to her face and “bald patches” on her head.

And why did Norwood man Dane Mervyn Burns, 32, fly into such a cowardly, violent rage on the evening of April 2 last year?

His victim took too long to return to Lulworth from Bridport, where the woman had been dispatched with another friend on a grog run, Launceston Magistrates Court heard.

Burns previously pleaded guilty to 15 offences, most seriously the assault on the woman but also a series of drug, traffic and nuisance-type offending.

His offences were committed between April 2020 – June 2021, the court heard.

Aside from the assault, on November 25, 2020, Tasmania Police were called to a disturbance at a residence at Quarantine Rd, Kings Meadows about 10.50pm.

There, they discovered Burns “stumbling” on and off the footpath and onto the roadway while “yelling and screaming”.

The officers asked him to stop but he continued to walk down the road before collapsing into a gutter where he continued to “yell and scream”.

Breaking News Breaking News Norwood man Dane Mervyn Burns, 32. Picture: Facebook

Burns was “heavily intoxicated” by either drugs or alcohol, the court heard, and he was charged with disorderly conduct.

Seven months later, on June 30 last year, Burns crashed into a parked car at Lanena while driving with methamphetamine in his system and in possession of cannabis and a glass smoking pipe, the court heard.

His vehicle was also unregistered.

It was submitted on Burns’ behalf the memory of his assault on the woman was “upsetting” to him.

The court heard it was his first offence of violence against a woman but his second overall, with a previous sentence of 126 hours’ community service in 2016 for another common assault.

Burns had recently obtained work on a cargo ship, drugs were no longer an issue and he only drank occasionally and not to excess after formerly being a “heavy drinker for a long time”, his lawyer said.

Magistrate Sharon Cure described Burns’ assault on the woman as “shocking”.

“He should be deeply ashamed of himself,” she told the court.

However, Ms Cure noted with approval Burns had behaved himself in the seven months since his last offending.

She sentenced him to four months’ imprisonment, wholly suspended for an operational period of 18 months conditional on him completing a 12-month Community Correction Order.

Burns was also disqualified from driving for six months and ordered to pay costs of $260.