Appeal win for basher

A MAN who bashed his terminally ill lover, who was later found with her bowel protruding from her hysterectomy wound, has won a bid to quash his jail sentence.

In November last year, Leigh John Parker was sentenced to four years and three months in jail for bashing his 53-year-old girlfriend, before telling the neighbour her “guts were hanging out”.

Parker, 54, pleaded guilty to two counts of assault, with one of the charges downgraded from causing grievous bodily harm in a plea deal, and was ordered to serve at least two years and nine months before becoming eligible for parole.

But last week he successfully argued in the Tasmanian Court of Appeal that he was not given a chance to dispute the facts before being jailed by Chief Justice Alan Blow, adding his sentence was “manifestly excessive”.

Parker is still being held in custody while he awaits a date to be re-sentenced.

The pair were in a relationship for about five years and lived at Murdunna when Parker attacked her in September 2017.

In May that year, the woman was diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer and had a hysterectomy in July, before undergoing chemotherapy while Parker was in jail for driving offences. Upon release, Parker cared for the woman, who was in hospital again weeks before the attack.

After a “prolonged argument”, Parker hit the woman over the head with her mother’s teapot. He pushed her over and she struck her head on a piece of furniture. As a result of the fall, the woman’s surgical wound ruptured, causing her bowel to protrude and leading to “extreme pain”.

Parker called triple-0 and walked to the neighbour’s house, asking for a cigarette and saying the woman’s “guts were hanging out”.

She had surgery to repair her bowel and head wound. She moved interstate soon afterwards, claiming it was “the only way to protect myself”.

When interviewed, Parker told police: “I pushed her arse over tit in the bedroom” because she’d bitten his ear.

Parker appealed his sentence, claiming Justice Blow had not taken on board his version of facts. He said before the attack, the woman said she was moving interstate to join her ex-boyfriend, that she’d started breaking his ex-girlfriend’s items before he grabbed her mother’s teapot, and that he’d pushed her after she’d bitten his ear. He also claimed he’d tried to help the woman and brought her a pillow and blanket to comfort her.

Before Parker was sentenced, his lawyer didn’t challenge the Crown’s version of events, Justice Robert Pearce said.

Justices Pearce and Gregory Geason, with Acting Justice Shane Marshall, quashed Parker’s sentence last week, deeming a “legal error” had been made.