Appearing in Mount Isa Magistrates Court on Wednesday, October 4, the 32-year-old plead guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm and to breaching a domestic violence order.

Magistrate James Morton called the defendant’s actions ‘cowardly’ and ‘a dog act’.

“You’ve done this to a defenceless woman, the woman who gave you three children. Drinking is no excuse. It was unprovoked. You ought to be very, very ashamed of yourself. This is very high on the scale of DV offences,” Mr Morton said.

“Now every time you raise a fist to a woman and you are convicted, you can expect terms of imprisonment.”

The court heard that on June 22, 2017, at 6.45pm, police attended a noise complaint at the defendant’s address where multiple people, including the victim and defendant, had been drinking. 

When police arrived, the victim was on the ground.

Police said the defendant walked outside and punched the victim’s face multiple times, causing her to fall. He then dragged the victim down the stairs causing multiple injuries, dragged her down the driveway, then kicked her multiple times in the stomach. People tried to intervene, Police said.

Queensland Ambulance Service attended as the victim screamed in pain. She was transferred to Mount Isa Hospital where police took a statement. 

The defendant was served with a domestic violence order on July 5, which he went on to breach.

The court heard that on September 12, 2017, the defendant and the aggrieved had been drinking since before noon. The victim asked the defendant to go to sleep, but he wanted to keep drinking and argued.

The defendant punched the victim once on the left side of her head, causing laceration to her eye socket. The victim took one of her three children and escaped. 

Having already served 21 days in pre-sentence custody, the man will be released on parole on March 13, 2018.

This is the seventh domestic violence offence the man has appeared in court for, many of those against the same female victim.