Probation for attack on in-laws

Man avoids jail after guilty plea

A TOOWOOMBA man has been given two years probation after assaulting his elderly inlaws in a heated domestic dispute.

The city’s Magistrates Court heard the details of how the enraged 41-year-old threw his mother-in-law into a garden bed after coming home one day earlier this year.

The man, who cannot be named, pleaded guilty to two counts of domestic violence offences of assaulting someone over the age of 60.

Police prosecutor Natalie Bugden told the court the man came home and spotted his expartner and her parents on the verandah and in the front doorway of the home.

It was at that point that he walked into the doorway, grabbed the elderly woman with both hands by the shirt and threw her from the front of the house into a nearby garden bed.

The court heard the wom- an’s husband, the accused man’s father-in-law, punched him in the face after he threatened to throw a child’s bike in his direction.

The incident played out on a suburban street in broad daylight.

Sergeant Bugden said the two men then scuffled in the front yard, where the father-inlaw was bitten on the forearm by the man after attempting to restrain him in the wake of the melee.

The man’s lawyer told the court the incident came as a result of a marriage breakdown and the defendant thought he could forcibly remove them from the home because he was the owner of the property.

He was sentenced yesterday by Magistrate Catherine Pirie to two years probation and ordered to undertake any anger management or domestic violence programs deemed appropriate by authorities.

Magistrate Pirie also ordered that a conviction be recorded against the man, despite his lawyer’s objection to one.