Will You Go to Jail for Assault in Queensland?
Assault — 2026-04-09 — by Sacha Sarah Smith, Civic Law
Will you go to jail for assault in Queensland? The types of assault charges, likely penalties, and defence options.
The Range of Assault Offences in Queensland
Not all assault charges are the same. Queensland law draws clear distinctions between them, and those distinctions determine which court deals with the charge and the maximum penalty the court can impose.
Common assault under s 335 of the Criminal Code 1899 (Qld) is dealt with in the <a href="/cairns-magistrates-court">Magistrates Court</a>. The maximum penalty is three years imprisonment. It covers a wide range of conduct — from a shove or a punch with no lasting injury through to more serious altercations that do not cause bodily harm.
Assault occasioning bodily harm (AOBH) under s 339 carries a maximum of seven years imprisonment, increasing to ten years if the offence is aggravated — for example, if the offender was armed, acted in company, or the victim was a vulnerable person. AOBH requires proof that the assault caused bodily harm: an injury that is more than transient or trifling.
Grievous bodily harm (GBH) involves serious permanent injury or disfigurement and carries a maximum of 14 years imprisonment. GBH charges are dealt with in the District Court.
Serious assault under s 340 of the Criminal Code covers a specific category of assaults — including assaults against police officers, corrective services officers, and other protected categories. The serious assault provisions carry higher maximum penalties and are treated by courts with corresponding weight.
The charge ultimately laid will depend on the nature of the conduct, the extent of any injury, and the presence of aggravating features. In practice, the same altercation can attract different charges depending on how the prosecution characterises what occurred.
The Sentencing Framework for Violent Offences
There is a common misconception that imprisonment is always a last resort in Queensland <a href="/sentencing-explained">sentencing</a>. That is not correct — and for assault charges, the position is quite different.
Section 9(2)(a) of the Penalties and Sentences Act 1992 (Qld) does state that imprisonment should be a last resort and that a community-based sentence is preferable. But s 9(2A) then also expressly excludes this principle where the offence involves violence or results in physical harm. Assault charges, almost by definition, therefore fall outside the "last resort" principle.
Where that principle does not apply, the court must instead have primary regard to the factors set out in s 9(3) of the PSA: the risk of harm to the community, the need to protect the community, the circumstances of the victim, the nature and extent of the violence used, the offender's past record, and any remorse shown. These factors collectively shift the court's focus toward community protection rather than the preference for non-custodial outcomes that applies in other contexts.
This does not mean jail is inevitable for every assault charge. It means the court approaches the sentencing task differently than it would for a non-violent offence, and that a non-custodial outcome requires positive justification — not simply an absence of reasons to imprison.
Factors That Affect the Outcome
Within that framework, a range of factors will bear on what sentence is actually imposed.
Aggravating factors include the severity of the injury, the use of a weapon, an offender's prior criminal history, and whether the offence was committed in company. Where the assault occurred in a domestic violence context, s 9(10A) of the PSA also requires the court to treat that as an aggravating factor. There is no discretion about this: if the offence is a domestic violence offence, the court must give that weight in sentencing.