A Townsville man heavily intoxicated after a night out celebrating his birthday and watching Queensland win the 2020 State of Origin series has appeared in court for his role in a bizarre incident at a petrol station.
Appearing in the Ingham Magistrates Court last Thursday, Judd William McDonald, 29, pleaded guilty to one charge of obstructing police in relation to the incident at BP Ingham on Townsville Road at 2.30am on November 19.
Police prosecutor Senior Constable Erin Collis said a passing Ingham Police patrol “when their attention was drawn to a man (not the defendant) urinating at the BP service station.”
“As they were speaking to him, their attention was drawn to the defendant who was observed … grabbing the keys, turning off the lights of a motor vehicle that was parked in front of (the service station).”
She said McDonald then walked toward the police and his two friends.
“Police asked ‘who drove to that location?’ to which a male nominated the defendant as the driver, the defendant was then detained for a breath test, the defendant refused stating that he had nothing to do with it, he’s then run off.”
Senior Constable Erin Collis said McDonald was warned he was resisting arrest, “however, the defendant continued to run”.
He was located and arrested later that morning at the Herbert Valley Motel.
“He stated that he had little recollection of the incident other than he was inside the BP Service Station grabbing a bottle of water, saw the police speaking to another person who was urinating in the garden,” she said.
“He said he shut the doors to the car and brought the keys over to the police … he said ‘whatever mate, I’m not getting arrested and had no recollection of being detained at the scene’.”
Defence lawyer Sarah Belford said alcohol had played a major part in the incident, describing her client as “quite inebriated” at the time of the offending after his birthday and State of Origin celebrations.
She said McDonald was not the public urinator, nor the driver but had taken the keys from the vehicle to hand to police.
“For some reason, the other people who were assisting police started running and my client joined in and run as well.”
She confirmed her client had no recollection of the event and had asked the arresting officers later that morning to see the body camera footage to jog his memory.
“I’m instructed that the following morning he did apologise to police for his behaviour.”
Acting Magistrate Scott Luxton said if McDonald had simply obeyed police instructions he would not be appearing in court.
McDonald admitted it was a “poor decision”.
He was fined $400 and no conviction was recorded.
Extracted from Townsville Bulletin