A WOMAN who mounted a one-person crusade against parking near Brisbane`s Gabba by hurling rocks and assaulting people has said she will fight her conviction in the Supreme Court.
Rhonda Elizabeth Rissanen said the incident erupted when she tried to stop football fans parking on an empty block of land, which she said was a health hazard.
"I deny that I assaulted anybody," she said. "I was the victim that day and am still suffering from injuries suffered that day."
Mrs Rissanen recently lost an appeal against her convictions - on three charges of assault and one of damaging property - in the District Court in Brisbane, where she represented herself.
The court heard Rissanen and her husband lived beside a vacant block of land on Vulture St, owned by Philip Usher Constructions, which had allowed the Sunnybank Football Club to use it as a fundraising car park at Lions AFL games.
The court heard the Rissanens objected to the lot being used for parking cars and, on the day in question, Rissanen became involved in a heated argument with members of the football club when she tried to stop parking on the lot.
The court heard a "distressed and emotional" Rissanen pushed one woman, threw a rock or small piece of concrete which hit another person on the shin, kicked a third on the knee, and also threw a rock or concrete which hit a car.
The site has since been declared unsafe by Queensland Health but the company which owns the land claimed no knowledge of the health risks Mrs Rissanen said she knew about in 2005.
Philip Usher Construction development manager Glenn Frew said the company was alerted to hazards on the site by Queensland Health on January 23 this year, when it told them to stop the parking on the site.
"We hadn`t been contacted by any government authority advising there was an issue. We were only made aware of that this year," Mr Frew said.
"Apparently it`s not an approved site. We were advised there could be a potential health risk."
He refused to comment on the specific health risk that had forced the company to fence off the site.
Mrs Rissanen claimed the health risk was from asbestos.
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