Violent crime against friend

TWO decades of friendship didn’t stop a father of 13 from going along on a violent home invasion.

Michael John Adams shook the front door of a woman’s home at White Rock while another man Justine Richard Ansey forced his way into the house through a side door.

Once inside Ansey ripped the phone from her hand as she was calling police.

“He then grabbed the back of her neck and forced her to the floor slamming her head on the tiled floor … he demanded drugs and money,” Cairns District Court Judge Dean Morzone QC said. “And only easing force after seeing blood coming from her head.”

In her victim impact statement the woman expressed devastation over Adams’s involvement because he had been friends with her family for about 20 years and saw it as a betrayal by a family friend.

“How could someone so close to my family do this?,” she wrote.

She had been holding a garage sale when Adams, Ansey and two others arrived.

Sensing trouble, she had locked herself inside and asked them to leave.

Adams told the woman she owed him money, but Judge Morzone said he “let someone else do the heavy lifting”.

Ansey also stole $450, which were the proceeds of her sale. Adams, 49, and Ansey both pleaded guilty yesterday to charges of burglary by break, assault occasioning bodily harm and stealing on April 8 last year. However matters for Ansey were adjourned to a later date to be finalised.

It was recognised that, while Adams didn’t go inside the home, partake in the assault or steal money, he did involve himself in a violent offence and was charged as being a party to the offending.

The court was told that the victim has recently moved and Adams had been the only one of the three who knew her new address.

The father of 13 worked as a painter, cray diver and fisherman. He helped support his children, aged 16 to 30, and had bought a house for his mother and grandmother. He had already spent 370 days in custody in relation to other charges.

He was jailed for three years with an immediate parole release, but will not walk free because he is behind bars on other matters.

A no contact order was also made against Adams.

HE THEN GRABBED THE BACK OF HER NECK AND FORCED HER TO THE FLOOR SLAMMING HER HEAD ON THE TILED FLOOR … HE DEMANDED DRUGS AND MONEY