Tragic loss of bash accused
NICHOLAS MCELROY, GREG STOLZ AND JACOB MILEY
A GOLD Coast man accused of being part of a group that bashed Brock Prime and left him on the side of the M1 appealed for courts to get tougher on violent offences last year following the shocking death of his young daughter.
A year to the day of Mr Prime’s alleged assault, Jonathan Lawrence stood on the steps of a Victorian court and told of his “disgust” at the nine-and-a-half-year sentence given to the killer of this three-year-old girl, Bella.
“I feel that today’s sentence will never be enough to put my family at peace with what has happened,” Lawrence said outside the Victorian Supreme Court in Melbourne in February 2017.
“My daughter never made it to his minimum term, which just makes me sick.
“We will never see her face again, never hear her voice again, he took my daughter who I always knew was an angel in disguise.”
Harley Woodford, then 22, admitted to killing the toddler by stepping on her in fit of rage in September 2015.
The 100kg man tripped over Bella on the floor, lost his temper and stood on her stomach in September 2015. He then sent to her bed and told the girl not to tell her mother.
Bella was taken to hospital a day later after falling ill.
Lawrence, 26, of Surfers Paradise, and Ormeau man Jordan Baklas, 27, have been charged with grievous bodily harm over Mr Prime’s assault.
They are expected to appear in Beenleigh Magistrates Court today after their matters were adjourned in the same court yesterday.
Police last night also charged a 28-year-old Upper Coomera man with one count of grievous bodily harm.
Police are seeking to question up to 13 people involved in the incident.
Mr Prime remains in a coma in the intensive care unit at the Gold Coast University Hospital.
The 29-year-old concreter – who moved in with his mother five weeks ago and was working 10-hour days to stop the family from losing their home following the sudden death of father – was attacked with a metal bar, believed to be a tyre iron or crowbar, by a group of people who were travelling in a white van at Yatala about 9.30pm on Saturday.
Mr Prime’s black Subaru almost collided with the van about 14km earlier at Coomera and police said the vehicles played cat and mouse, swerving in and out of traffic.
Police yesterday released a video of Mr Prime’s car pulling over on the M1. A second car pulled up soon after.
The passenger in Mr Prime’s car got away largely unscathed and was interviewed by police on Saturday night.
Mr Prime suffered a badly broken leg and serious fractures to his skull. Police believe it was a random attack.