Jail for assault of 75-y-o

A 32-YEAR-OLD man found guilty of breaking into a 75year-old neighbour’s home and bashing him while he was on a Triple-0 call has been jailed for two years and 10 months.

Robert Norman Kelly had pleaded not guilty to charges of burglary and serious assault of a person over 60 at his Toowoomba District Court trial this week.

Kelly tried to claim his defacto partner Carissa Campbell had in fact assaulted the victim, William Blake.

She also gave evidence at the trial that it had in fact been her.

However, Crown prosecutor Emily Coley said the jury by its verdict had “clearly rejected” that version of events.

After a two-day trial, the jury took just over an hour to return verdicts of guilty.

The Toowoomba District Court heard Mr Blake and Kelly and his girlfriend had been neighbours in the same Wilsonton unit complex and there had been bad blood between them in the months leading up to the incident on October 15, 2020.

When Mr Blake saw Kelly approaching his unit that day he had locked his front door and called Triple-0.

In the recording of that call played to the court, Mr Blake is heard yelling “he’s busted the door open” which was followed by his screams as he was being assaulted.

Mr Blake was treated at hospital for a cut lip, a cut above his right eye, bruising and swelling, the district court heard.

Ms Coley said Kelly had a “significant, lengthy and serious criminal history” which included numerous previous offences of violence for which he been given periods of imprisonment.

Kelly’s barrister Wes Seewald told the court his client had since moved to the Sunshine Coast with his partner and six-month-old child, and he had been working.

His client had been diagnosed with bipolar at 17 and about 12 months ago was diagnosed with epilepsy, he said.

Kelly was on the methadone program for past opioid addiction, Mr Seewald said.

Judge Katherine McGuinness noted Kelly’s criminal history included the assault occasioning bodily harm of a 55year-old man who he had pushed over and assaulted, similar to this matter.

“There is a pattern there, it’s clear you have an anger management problem,” she told Kelly.

Judge McGuinness sentenced Kelly to two years and 10 months in jail but ordered he be released on parole as of October 4, 2023, after he had served 17 months.