Man’s bail refused

A 43-YEAR-OLD man accused of assaulting and raping his ex-wife at her home has been refused bail and remanded in custody.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared before Toowoomba Magistrates Court on Tuesday after he was arrested at the weekend.

Police claim the man had gone to the woman’s Lockyer Valley home in breach of a domestic violence protection order and assaulted her allegedly in front of their children.

Objecting to the man’s application for bail, police prosecutor Rohan Brewster-Webb told the court it was alleged the man had held a butcher’s knife to the woman’s throat and choked her to the point she lost consciousness.

Police claimed the man had punched the woman a number of times before dragging her into a bedroom where he held her against her will and allegedly raped her, the court heard.

It was also alleged the man had taken the woman’s phone and other items of hers and drove off in her car the next morning, Mr Brewster-Webb said.

The man’s solicitor Claire Graham, of Skuse Graham Lawyers, told the court her client denied all allegations and instructed he had not gone to his ex-wife’s home at all.

Her client instructed that his ex-wife had become aware that he had been speaking with another woman, Ms Graham said.

The man had in the past been found not guilty of a number of charges arising from the same woman though Ms Graham conceded he had been found guilty of the assault occasioning bodily harm of the woman in the past in New South Wales.

Her client, who listened to the court proceedings through an interpreter, had arrived in Australia in 2013 and was working on a farm in the Gatton area where he would reside if granted bail, she said.

The 43-year-old accused was an insulin dependent diabetic who didn’t drink alcohol, and he could report to Gatton police daily while on bail, Ms Graham submitted.

The accused man was not required to enter any pleas to the charges which included assault occasioning bodily harm, choking suffocation strangulation, deprivation of liberty, rape, stealing and unlawful use of a motor vehicle – all charges carrying the circumstance of aggravation in being a domestic violence offence.

However, Magistrate Kay Philipson said, in her view, the crown case was a strong one.

She refused bail and remanded the man in custody.

She also adjourned the case to March 15.