Sick threat to kill children

A TOWNSVILLE man threatened to deliberately crash his car with two children inside after finding out one of the kids was not biologically his.

Townsville District Court heard this week that on August 25 last year the 30- year- old man, who cannot be named, was driving to drop off his children, aged 6 and 7, to their mother in Emerald.

The court heard there was a “back and forth” of text messages and the woman revealed the man was not the father of one of the children.

Crown prosecutor Dane Marley said the woman saw her ex- partner at a carpark in Emerald but, instead of stopping, he sped away. The woman followed and he did a U- turn and burnout, almost hitting the car she was in.

Mr Marley said at 7.36pm, the man sent his former partner a text message.

“( It read) ‘ I’m not stopping, I’d rather die than lose my family. Make sure they know, first car head on soon as I see a light’,” Mr Marley said.

“The text message is quite disgusting, it suggested to ( the woman) that the defendant was going to kill their children in a car crash.”

The court heard the man drove to Gin Gin, stayed overnight and was seen by police the next day in Gympie.

He sped away, driving through a red light into heavy traffic.

The man was arrested later that day and told police the texts were lies and that he would never kill the children as they were his “life”.

Defence barrister Travis Schmitt said the children were not in distress and slept through most of the driving.

“The news that one of his children was not biologically his had a serious impact on him,” he said.

The court also heard that on November 5 last year, during an “alcoholic bender”, the man approached a woman driving along Herveys Range Rd.

The woman stopped and the man opened the door, pulled her out on to the gutter and robbed her of the car.

He drove off erratically, overtaking vehicles, and crashed into another car after going through a red light.

The man pleaded guilty on Thursday to 16 offences in- cluding three counts of dangerous driving, robbery with violence, driving without a licence, and possessing a knife in public.

Judge Paul Smith said as the man was a New Zealand citizen who had moved to Australia aged 3, he may be deported after his release from jail.

The man was sentenced to five years in jail. He had already served 376 days in custody and will be eligible for parole on July 4 next year.