A terminally ill man who captured hearts after ‘bravely’ choosing to die via euthanasia was a career criminal who spent years locked up in jail over a series of brutal attacks – including hogtying one victim and holding another up at knife point.
Scott Hollingshed, 58, from Newcastle, made national headlines this week after choosing to end his own life under NSW’s new assisted dying laws.
He was given a lethal injection on Friday after spending the past two months documenting his battle with stage four lung cancer on Facebook, urging Aussies in a touching final video to ‘just love each other and be there for each other.’
His plight tugged at the heartstrings of followers who dubbed him ‘courageous’ and ‘inspiring’, with Aussies forking out more than $6,000 to support his cause.
But while Hollingshed may be seen as ‘inspiring’ to some, Daily Mail Australia can reveal that, to others, he was a violent thug who committed shocking attacks that left his victims scarred for years.
Over the past four decades, he was constantly in and out of prison after racking up convictions for weapons, drugs, assaults, robberies, burglaries and driving offences.
In 1993, he was sentenced to six years in jail – with a minimum term of four and a half years – after committing two armed burglary offences in Canberra, which were described by the judge as being of the ‘utmost seriousness’.
His first victim *George was watching television in his Braddon home when Hollingshed, along with two other men, broke in on the evening of January 15.
Scott Hollingshed, 58, (pictured) died on Friday under NSW’s new assisted dying laws
The group, disguised in balaclavas, hog-tied him and stole his wallet before using his card to withdraw $200 from an ATM to buy cannabis and amphetamines.
‘It was awful. They gagged me with a sarong and tied my hands and legs behind my back with rope,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.
‘They threatened to cut off my fingers. I was in there [like that] for an hour.’
George said the group appeared to be high on drugs at the time and bizarrely ripped his two telephones from the wall and put them in the oven before turning it on.
After they fled the scene with his belongings, he managed to spit out the gag and scream for help – alerting neighbours who rushed to his aid.
While he remained largely physically unharmed (suffering just bruises around the neck and head), George said the attack left him traumatised for years.
‘For a while afterwards, I couldn’t go use public transport. I was nervous walking everywhere. I didn’t feel safe,’ he said.
Two days later, Hollingshed and another associate were looking for fresh victims in Glebe Park when they spotted 18-year-old law student Danyel Kynaston sitting on a bench with his girlfriend during the early morning hours of January 17.
Hollingshed approached Mr Kynaston with a knife, held the weapon to his throat, and demanded he hand over his wallet, which contained his bank cards and drivers license – including personal details such as his home address.
‘They took my debit card and said “we have your address and we will come back and find you if you don’t give us the correct pin”,’ Mr Kynaston told Daily Mail Australia.
‘I gave them a fake pin number and the ATM swallowed my card and police were able to get their fingerprints from the ATM and they were arrested.’
On the night of the attack, Mr Kynaston was on his first date with his wife, who he remains with to this day.
Danyel Kynaston is pictured with his wife in the 1990s, around the time they were attacked by Hollingshed
The couple were in Glebe Park, Canberra, when they were approached by Hollingshed and another male
Hollingshed spent his adult life in and out of jail for a range of offences
Luckily, the couple were not physically harmed or traumatised by the attack.
‘Fortunately for us, it hasn’t impacted us psychologically,’ he said.
‘We were young and we didn’t realise how much danger we were in. It made an interesting first date story though. Thirty one years later, and we are still married.’
Several months after the mugging, Hollingshed – who was on parole at the time of the attacks – pleaded guilty to burglary, robbery and making a demand with a threat to inflict grievous bodily harm and was sentenced to prison.
During the Supreme Court proceedings, Chief Justice Jeffrey Miles noted that Hollingshed had previous convictions dating back to 1984 for two burglaries, two assaults, and stealing.
He said Hollingshed had only been released from Cooma jail in July 1992 and moved in with a married couple, but had to relocate to ACT for parole purposes after having an illicit relationship with the woman.
He also noted that Hollingshed – who had struggled with drug addiction since leaving school – had ‘numerous opportunities to respond positively to counselling and treatment over a number of years, but so far has been unable to do so’.
After his release from jail in the late 90s, Hollingshed continued to spiral further down a nefarious path.
In 2010, former police officer Darren Pickavance made a workers compensation claim against the NSW government after developing PTSD while on duty – including a run-in with Hollingshed among the list of traumatic experiences that contributed to his condition.
In the lodgement, Pickavance described Hollingshed as a ‘standover man and drug dealer’ who ‘liked firearms’ and had many prior convictions for the possession of and use of guns to commit violent crimes.
He said he was left traumatised after he was involved in the tracking then arrest of Hollingshed in 2003, who was wanted after placing a sawn-off shotgun to someone’s head and making threats.
‘All cars in the area were on the lookout for him. I had informed the radio that I knew the offender and that he would shoot to avoid apprehension,’ the claim reads.
‘Whilst driving through Cardiff South I saw Hollingshed in a phone box outside of the butchers.
‘I knew he was armed. He hadn’t seen me, so I drove on, informed the radio and started to set up a perimeter, keeping the offender in view.
‘It was then that I saw a police vehicle skid to a holt outside of the phone box jump from the car and run 10 metres to arrest Hollingshed.
‘They were the longest 10 metres in history. I was too far away to assist. My anxiety levels during this entire incident were extreme. I had chest pains, quickened heart rate and began sweating.
‘This incident had a profound impact on me.’
Documenting his cancer journey online, Hollingshed said he hoped his story would be an inspiration to others to make live life to the fullest and turn negatives into positives
After spending decades in and out of jail, he had just bought a yacht with his partner when he began noticing chest pains that led to a lung cancer diagnosis
Further court records obtained by Daily Mail Australia reveal that Hollingshed continued to commit crime up until 2020, including being jailed for driving offences in 2016.
More recently, he had been living on a yacht with his partner Kat, before being diagnosed several months ago with cancer.
Since his death, hundreds of Aussies have flocked to his social media page to praise him for ‘courage’ and ‘bravery’.
‘Rest in peace to a brave man who began his new journey on his own terms,’ one person said.
Another wrote: ‘Rest in peace my brother going to miss your daily posts. Fly high bro your an inspiration.’
However, others who appeared to have known Hollingshed were unmoved by the story of his death, with one woman claiming he was a ‘woman basher’.
‘Karma came and got you finally,’ another woman wrote on Facebook.
‘You got everything you deserved.’
*Names have been changed to protect identity
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