‘I’ll bury you on the hill’

Violent ice addict’s kill threat to Coast campers

AN idyllic Gympie camping adventure turned into a nightmare for two Gold Coasters when a syringe-wielding drug addict threatened to kill the pair and bury their bodies.

Gympie resident Luke Raymond Watts yesterday pleaded guilty to 25 charges including deprivation of liberty and robbery with violence.

Most of the charges related to the 32-year-old’s drugfuelled attack on two strangers enjoying a relaxing break at the Glastonbury Creek camping ground in the Brooyar State Forest on July 18, 2016.

Brisbane District Court Judge Alexander HornemanWren sentenced Watts to three years in jail with parole eligibility in March, 2018.

Crown prosecutor Ron Swanwick told the court the victims were relaxing at the camp spot when a woman in the neighbouring tent began swearing and calling for help.

As the men decided whether or not to call the police, the accused came flying out of the woman’s tent and yelled at the men not to intervene, Mr Swanwick said.

Watts then lambasted them for being “cowards” and not doing anything to save the woman. Watts became more erratic, before attacking them with a syringe.

He yelled “I will kill you” and smacked one of them in the face, Mr Swanwick said.

“I’ll put you in pine boxes and bury you on the hill,” Watts told them.

Watts used the syringe to inject ice, before forcing the men to lay face down in the dirt. He told the woman: “I can’t let them go, they’ll go to the police. I will bury them in the forest.”

When Watts was distracted the men fled, racing to a nearby farmhouse to seek help. Finding no one home they ran to a road and hid in the bushes until a car came and they flagged it down.

By the time police officers arrived, Watts had taken the campers’ car and gear and fled the scene. He was eventually arrested and charged.

Watts’ defence barrister Simone Bain told the court her client had a serious ice addiction and had spent so much time in jail that he was now “institutionalised”. Ms Bain said Watts tended to “black out” when committing crimes and often “doesn’t remember what happened”.

“Sadly he’s become used to jail life,” she said. “When he is in jail and unable to use drugs he is a more loving, caring, gentle person to deal with.”

In sentencing, Judge Horneman-Wren noted the accused’s 15-year criminal history.

“Ultimately the best protection for the community is for you to be rehabilitated and stop offending,” he said.