Grandma’s violent attack
Woman holding child main victim
A 59-year-old woman who bashed a mother holding a child inside a busy Toowoomba shopping centre, and then assaulted others who intervened, has been handed a 12month jail term.
Janice Margaret Weatherall was grieving the death of her 14-year-old grandson who was killed in an horrific car crash on the Carnarvon Highway near Surat in August 2020 when she heard the driver of that car, Chloe Lee Cubby, was shopping at Grand Central on September 23, 2021.
Ms Cubby, then 31, pleaded guilty to driving without due care causing death when she appeared in Toowoomba Magistrates Court in June 2021 and was sentenced to seven months’ jail which was wholly suspended for two years.
After that sentence, Ms Weatherall and other family members expressed disgust in what they saw as a lenient sentence when spoken to by The
Chronicle outside court that day.
Ms Weatherall was in Grand Central when she received a call from another person who became her co-offender that Ms Cubby was at a mobile phone store near Big W, Toowoomba District Court was told on Tuesday, May 9.
Crown prosecutor Abby Kong told the court Ms Weatherall approached Ms Cubby and began assaulting her, eventually pulling her to the ground.
While on the ground Ms Cubby was further assaulted by Ms Weatherall and the cooffender, Ms Kong said.
When a police liaison officer known to them went to intervene she too was assaulted, as were three other people who stepped in to stop the assaults including a security guard who Ms Weatherall kicked in the genitals, causing him immediate pain and bleeding beneath the skin, the court was told.
That security guard was taken by ambulance to hospital where he spent the night, Ms Kong said.
Ms Weatherall was arrested and taken to the watch house and granted bail.
Now 62, she pleaded guilty on Thursday to five counts of assault occasioning bodily harm in company and two of common assault.
Ms Cubby sustained bruising, swelling and scratches, Ms Kong told the court.
Ms Kong said Ms Weatherall had criminal history in Queensland and NSW which included previous offences of violence.
Defence barrister Steve Kissick said he accepted the incident was a serious example of public violence but his client had been on bail since which included weekly reporting to police and she hadn’t breached the orders.
He said Ms Weatherall was a mother of five and grandmother to 24 including her deceased grandson and she had acted out of grief but she had since been drinking less alcohol and had attended four counselling sessions.
Judge Brad Farr SC told Ms Weatherall that to attack a woman with a young child in her arms out of grief for the loss of her own grandchild was “extraordinary in its hypocrisy”.
Judge Farr sentenced Ms Weatherall to 12 months in jail but ordered she be released on parole immediately.