Timothy Leonard Gordon Farmer: Albany man with long criminal history jailed for assaulting disabled adult son

An Albany man has been sentenced to 11 months in prison for repeatedly hitting his disabled adult son with a metal walking stick because he believed he had been seeing underage girls. Timothy Leonard Gordon Farmer, 45, appeared in Albany Magistrates Court via video link last Thursday, pleading guilty to breaching a police order and aggravated unlawful assault causing bodily harm. Police prosecutor Sgt Peter Yuswak told the court on the night of April 13 Farmer and his adult son were staying at a home in Spencer Park and Farmer’s son had tried to block the door of his bedroom so that Farmer could not enter because he was concerned about his behaviour. The court was told the son, who has a developmental disability, was woken during the night by Farmer moving his bed after he had got into the bedroom. Farmer then struck him six times with a metal walking stick on his right arm and head causing his skin to split and bruise. Defence lawyer Georgia Herford told the court Farmer had become “upset” because his son was “bringing underage girls” to the house. She said Farmer was raised in a “hostile” home environment which had led to periods of homelessness. Ms Herford told the court Farmer felt like he was “on his last leg” and facing his “absolute last chance in life”. The court heard Farmer had an extensive criminal history, including two charges of common assault from 2021. In March 2022, he was disqualified from driving for 26 months and fined $1800 for drink-driving weeks after he was released from a stint in prison. In 2008, Farmer was sentenced to 10 years in jail for beating a three-year-old boy to death in Albany in October 2006. During the sentencing for that charge, it was revealed Farmer had more than 150 convictions on his record. Magistrate Dianne Scaddan said the assault on his son was “very serious” and had involved “quite a loss of control” from Farmer. She said his son’s disability “put him at a distinct disadvantage”, and he had “essentially barricaded himself in the bedroom” to protect himself from Farmer. Ms Scaddan told Farmer he “had no right” to strike his son, even if he suspected he was involved with underage girls. The magistrate acknowledged Farmer had been remorseful over the incident and had “suffered” as a child. “(You are) very much repeating a cycle of violence that has been perpetrated towards you — that doesn’t make it right,” Ms Scaddan said. “I understand that,” Farmer responded. She sentenced Farmer to 11 months in prison, backdated to May 1. Farmer was also sentenced to a one-month concurrent prison term for breaching a police order on April 30.