Prisoner was a real mug: Court

SMASHING a breakfast mug was enough to get a prisoner another week in jail after he appeared in Toowoomba Magistrates Court.

Scott Noel Robert Shillingsworth, 45, had been sentenced to 12 months in jail, with a parole release date in June, and was in the Toowoomba Watchhouse on Friday when he was given weetbix in a mug for breakfast, the court heard.

After he complained that he wanted Nutri-grain, he was told he couldn’t as he had been diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes.

Yelling “I don’t give a f***, I’m not eating this sh**”, he hurled the mug into the cell wall, breaking the mug, police prosecutor Sergeant Natalie Bugden said.

He was brought back into court yesterday morning to plead guilty to wilfully destroying police property.

His solicitor Claire Graham said her client had had a good work record until turning to illicit drugs about six years ago.

Magistrate Viviana Keegan said the damaged goods might only have been a mug but the circumstances surrounding the incident were serious. She fined Shillingsworth $600 but gave him no time to pay and instead imposed another seven days in jail.