STATE OF TASMANIA v GEOFFREY COLIN ABBOTT 10 JUNE 2020
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE PEARCE J
Geoffrey Abbott, you plead guilty to assault. The crime was committed in the early afternoon of Sunday 20 October 2019. You drove to the home of Edward Cashion in Branxholm. You had done some electrical work for Mr Cashion and intended to pick up some tools and present him with an account. There had been a dispute about the work and, when you handed over the bill, there was an argument. Mr Cashion asked you to leave, but you did not and a verbal confrontation commenced and escalated. He was holding a shovel. When you also grabbed the handle, a tussle followed, in the course of which you punched Mr Cashion once to the left side of his face. The force of the blow knocked him to the ground. It was immediately apparent to you and to Mr Cashion that he had been serious injured. He was taken by ambulance to hospital with a very badly swollen bruised left eye and a bloody nose. Medical investigations showed a fracture of the left orbital floor and a badly broken nose. He was kept in hospital overnight and, sometime later, surgery was required to repair the facial fractures. The advice of the eye surgeon is that no long term serious consequences are to be expected.
You are now aged 50. You live in the Scottsdale area. You are self-employed electrician although work is limited in the present circumstances. You have already been exposed to denigration in the community, some as a result of exaggerated rumour about the nature of this assault. Your wife has also been so affected. It is in your favour that you pleaded guilty at an early stage. You have no relevant prior convictions. I have references from a range of persons who hold you in high regard and describe your willingness to help out in your community. I accept that you acted in a way which is uncharacteristic and that you are sorry for what you did. The punch you threw was a single blow in the heat of the moment. However resort to violence in such circumstances is never acceptable. Courts and the community know that punches like the one you inflicted can have terrible consequences. The impact of the assault on Mr Cashion is an important sentencing consideration. The injuries he suffered were confronting and traumatic for him and his wife. It is worse because the assault was committed in the presence of Mr Cashion’s 15 year old son and was inevitably extremely upsetting for him. According to the opinion of the treating eye surgeon, expressed in medical terms in November 2019, there did not appear to be any long term major sequelae from the injury. However the victim impact statement describes the physical and psychological impact which Mr Cashion experiences. He faced an initial period of anxiety and uncertainty about the surgery required and whether there would be permanent damage to his eye. He was then laid low for weeks during which time he experienced pain and considerable discomfort. He is left with a plate near his eye and numbness in his face. His business was and remains affected by the physical and emotional affect this has had on him and a greater burden has been thrown on his wife. He now feels less able to do all the things he was used to doing and is apprehensive about the financial burden should further medical treatment be required.
Were you to act in this way again you would face actual imprisonment. In all the circumstances, in particular your early plea of guilty, your remorse and the absence of prior convictions, I have decided against such a course. In light of a recent back injury and some unresolved mental health issues you have been assessed as unsuitable for community service, even though you are willing to perform it. To make clear to you and others the consequences of acts of this nature, I will proceed by a combination of a suspended sentence, and fine. To reflect the seriousness of the assault the fine must be a substantial one.
Geoffrey Abbott, you are convicted. You are sentenced to a term of imprisonment of five months wholly suspended for 18 months from today. It is a condition of that order that while it is in force you do not commit any offence punishable by imprisonment. If you breach that condition then a court must order that you serve that term unless it is unjust. I also impose a fine of $3,000. I may only allow 28 days to pay that amount. If you require longer you may apply to enter into a repayment arrangement.