A man previously convicted of manslaughter has pleaded guilty to attacking his partner with two spears while chasing her along the Stuart Highway north of Alice Springs.
Joshua Buzzacott, 34, appeared at the Northern Territory Supreme Court in Alice Springs on Tuesday, facing a string of charges including aggravated assault, reckless endanger serious harm, choking, and breaching a domestic violence order.
The court heard it was not Buzzacott's first offence. In 2010, he was sentenced to eight years in prison for killing a man near Port Augusta in South Australia.
The charges related to two separate incidents involving his partner, who has not been named to protect her privacy.
In her victim impact statement to police, she wrote she believed Buzzacott was going to kill her and that she worried for her safety.
Armed with spears
In June last year, Buzzacott had been drinking with his partner and another person in the Charles Creek area north of Alice Springs, in breach of a domestic violence order (DVO) issued in 2020.
The court hear that following an argument, Buzzacott punched his partner in the face, leaving her bruised and bleeding from her lip.
Later that day, the woman was seen by a patrolling police officer “in a state of distress” running past an abandoned tyre shop and onto the Stuart Highway.
The court heard the officer then saw Buzzacott chasing after the victim with a spear in each hand, before he launched the weapons in quick succession, narrowly missing the woman in both instances.
Crown Prosecutor Simon Lapinksi told the court that if not for the victim’s "evasive action", the force of the spears could have seriously injured or killed her.
"In this particular attack … he used what can appropriately be described as 'deadly weapons', and he’s used not one, but two spears, and he’s used them in a seriously violent manner," he said.
When police came to the aid of the woman, she told them she believed Buzzacott, who had since left the area, was trying to "shoot" and "kill" her with the spears.
Addressing the court, Mr Lapinski said that despite the woman avoiding serious injury on this occasion, Buzzacott had caused the woman significant psychological trauma from what she believed was an attempt to kill her.
'Thick' stick and 'large' rock used in attack
The court heard less than three months later, Buzzacott approached his partner while she was drinking with her cousin near Larapinta Valley town camp, west of Alice Springs.
Later that night, on September 13, Buzzacott again approached the woman while she was walking towards a relative’s house across town.
He became aggressive towards her, which the court heard had stemmed from his jealousy of other men.
The woman fell to the ground after Buzzacott struck her in the head with a "thick" stick at least three times.
The court heard that while the victim lay defenceless on the ground, Buzzacott continued to strike and stab at her with the stick, before assaulting her with a rock so large it required him to carry it with two hands.
He also pleaded guilty to choking and kicking her before the woman managed to break free and run away.
She was later picked up by a bystander and taken to the Alice Springs Hospital.
An assessment uncovered nine injuries suffered by the woman, including lacerations, incisions, and bruising across her body.
In her victim impact statement she made the following day, the woman said she was “really scared” of Buzzacott.
“I thought he was going to kill me last night when he was choking me,” she wrote.
She wrote she wanted him imprisoned "for at least five years" so she could "feel safe from him”.
Mr Lapinksi said Buzzacott’s outbursts around the woman could be characterised as an “escalation of violence”.
“The accused has blatantly disregarded [the domestic violence order] and he’s continued to violently attack the victim on multiple occasions,” he said.
“It’s difficult to see how in the course of these proceedings he’s had a metamorphosis as such and now possesses insight and remorse.”
The matter will return to court for sentencing in June.
