STATE OF TASMANIA v BAH 21 AUGUST 2026
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE PEARCE J
BAH, you plead guilty to aggravated armed robbery. You have also been committed to the Supreme Court and have pleaded guilty to charges of escape, stealing, committing an unlawful act intended to cause bodily harm, aiding escape from lawful custody and aggravated assault. These crimes were all committed on 18 December 2025, when you were 17 and while you were a detainee at the Ashley Youth Detention Centre. You are also charged with other offences arising from the same series of events. Those offences are motor vehicle stealing, and offences under the Youth Justice Act arising from your status as a detainee: behaving in a riotous manner, wilfully destroying property and two counts of assaulting another person. I will refer to the circumstances of those offences as part of the narration of events, but they must be dealt with in the Youth Justice Division of the Magistrates Court.
At about 6.45pm on 18 December 2025 you were with another detainee, who I will refer to as K, in a communal area at Ashley. K was 16. A staff member, Mohammed Abdul-Rehman, was in the kitchenette making drinks. You and K walked to the doorway of the kitchenette and asked to be let in. As Mr Abdul-Rehman opened the door, K pushed him back, produced a shiv from his pants and stabbed Mr Abdul-Rehman with it, striking his hand as he attempted to protect himself. The shiv was a whiteboard marker from which the felt tip had been removed and replaced with a sharp threaded screw. Another staff member, Lucy Martin, saw what was happening but you forcibly pushed her away to prevent her access. Mr Abdul-Rehman was wearing a set of detention centre keys on a lanyard around his neck. K began to attempt to take the keys. You picked up the shiv and stabbed Mr Abdul-Rehman to the back of his neck, near his carotid artery, and two further times to his back. You joined in the attempt to take the keys but you were pushed away. You removed the glass plate from the microwave with the intention of using it to strike Mr Abdul-Rehman. As you were about to do so, Ms Martin attempted to pull you away. You raised the plate as if to strike her with it. When she pleaded with you not to hurt her, you punched her to the right side of her face with a closed fist.
The struggle continued. As K held Mr Abdul-Rehman in a headlock, you repeatedly punched him in the stomach and then struck the back of his head with the glass plate. You attempted to strike him again but he was able to momentarily free himself. He tried to get to the door but you and K dragged him back. As you and K restrained him, you punched him a further five times to his face. At that stage, another male staff member approached to help. He distracted you enough to enable Mr Abdul-Rehman to get out of the room. As he left, you managed to remove the keys from him. Although the staff members attempted to confine you to that room, you used the keys to escape through a different door, taking the shiv with you. You then made your way to three other locked units in the detention centre and used the keys to release other youths from their respective cells. When a female staff member, Rene O’Neill, approached you and tried to persuade you not to release one of the other detainees, you turned to her and punched her in the face with a closed fist.
All the youths, having been released from their cells, joined you in engaging in riotous behaviour, fighting amongst themselves and destroying property of the detention centre including doors, fixtures, fencing, fire extinguishers and perspex screens. They armed themselves with fire extinguishers and refused to comply with the demands of the detention centre staff.
Using the stolen keys, you and others entered the staff area of the centre and stole the keys to a motor vehicle, a Subaru. Using the keys to access the entry area, you escaped the detention centre by kicking out the panel of the front door. You found the Subaru and, with six others, stole it. Another youth was the driver. More would have escaped had there been room to fit them in the car. From there, you drove to Penguin where, either that day or the following day, you stole a different vehicle, a Volkswagen Transporter.
On 19 December 20025, you presented yourself to the Glenorchy police station and told them that you had escaped from Ashley. You returned the keys to the Volkswagen and told them where it had been left, not far away. The stolen Subaru was recovered in Penguin. You were returned to custody and you have been in custody since then.
From this series of events, I am dealing with the charge under s 170 of the Code involving use of the shiv, the aggravated armed robbery of the detention centre keys, aiding other detainees to escape, escaping yourself, stealing the keys to the Subaru, and the aggravated assault of Ms O’Neill. The offences I am not dealing with are the assault of Mr Abdul-Rehmann consisting of the force other than the use of the shiv, the assault of Ms Martin, stealing the Subaru and the Volkswagen, behaving in a riotous manner and damaging the property at the detention centre. Although I am not to sentence you for those offences, they provide context and an indication of your attitude to authority.
You are a young man and the sentencing principles which apply to young offenders apply to you. Consistently with the broader goal of community protection, rehabilitation of a youthful offender is always an important, if not the dominant, consideration, and any sentence should place greater emphasis on the welfare of the youth. The application of these principles must be considered in light of the seriousness of your offending and your criminal record. Where the level of seriousness in the criminality increases, there will be a corresponding reduction in the mitigating effects of youth. Where deterrence, denunciation, protection of the community and appropriate punishment require more prominence, the weight to be attached to youth will correspondingly reduce.
Your record since 2023 is cause for great concern. In January 2023, you were released by the Youth Justice Court on condition of good behaviour after having committed a series of offences including dishonesty and destroying property. Six months later, you were sentenced again for offences including six counts of common assault, possessing dangerous articles, dishonesty and resisting police. You were ordered to perform community service. On 29 September 2023, you were sentenced by Justice Wood for an armed robbery and a separate aggravated armed robbery, both committed while you were subject to the good behaviour condition. You were 14 at the time of the first crime and 15 at the time of the second. On 15 February, you walked into a small store with part of your face covered. The owner was alone in the store. You threatened him with a knife. You made off with the cash register and a computer. For that crime, you were made subject to a wholly suspended six-month detention order. On 17 June, you went to the loading dock at a supermarket intending to steal. You were confronted by employees and during the robbery you struck and seriously injured one of them with an axe you had taken. For that crime, you were sentenced to detention for eight months. Following your release in October 2023, you continued to commit serious offences. On 28 May 2024, you were sentenced in the Youth Justice Division to detention for ten months from March, for a string of offences committed in late 2023 and early 2024 including assaults, dishonesty and destroying property. You were released in July 2024 but it was only about two months until, on 17 September 2024 you committed two separate burglaries and on 18 September 2024, you committed another aggravated armed robbery. You were then16. You broke into offices, a shopping centre, and a hotel and stole money from both premises. Even more seriously, on the following day you and two others robbed a service station. Two attendants were working and there were customers present. You and your co-offenders were all disguised. You were wearing a balaclava and were carrying a knife. One of your companions had a hammer. Cash and cigarettes were stolen. You breached a suspended detention order you were subject to. You were again sentenced again by Wood J. Her Honour debated whether you should be sentenced under the Sentencing Act. In the end, her Honour decided to sentence you under the Youth Justice Act so that the intense level of community support that she concluded you may benefit from, could be offered to you. You were sentenced to a total period of detention of 20 months, with an earliest release date of 14 July 2025.
The opportunity offered by her Honour was spurned. On 17 September 2025, two months after your release and when you were 17, you caused grievous bodily harm to a man by punching him and stomping on his head. You were taken into custody at Ashley. Then, on 25 October 2025, you committed two further assaults, including by striking one man and threatening another with a fire extinguisher. On 20 January 2026, you were sentenced by a magistrate in the Youth Justice Division for those and other offences. For causing grievous bodily harm, you were sentenced to detention for two years from 18 December 2025. For the other offences ,you were sentenced to detention for 12 months from 18 December 2026. There was also a further term for other offences of three months from 19 September 2025, which accounts for your presence in Ashley on 18 December 2025. Your effective earliest release date after those sentences will be in mid-2027. That is relevant to totality, although these crimes involve very serious and separate criminality.
Your plea of guilty is in your favour. You have taken considerable steps to facilitate justice by arranging for the matters to be dealt with as far as possible in this Court. Reference should be made to your personal circumstances. They are described in the sentencing comments made by Wood J. You come from circumstances of considerable deprivation and neglect. You were a victim of your father’s violence and witnessed violence in the family home. You have been diagnosed with ADHD, oppositional defiance disorder, complex trauma and a learning disability. No evidence that a mental health or cognitive impairment relevant to sentence in a Verdins sense, has been produced to me. From an early stage, you became entrenched in alcohol and drug abuse and a criminal lifestyle. Nevertheless, you have refused to engage with any of the services in the community which might have been available to you.
While you were 17 at the time of the crimes for which I am to sentence you, you are now 18. The result is that, because of administrative arrangements made within the various agencies, your detention is to be served in an adult prison facility. You are presently housed in the maximum security section of the Risdon prison. No rehabilitative services are available there. Prison conditions are extremely difficult. Frequent lockdowns mean that persons in custody spend prolonged periods in a cell. Like Wood J, I must consider whether to sentence you under the Youth Justice Act or under the Sentencing Act. The other factor relevant to my determination arises from the limitation on cumulative orders imposed by the Youth Justice Act, s 86. It provides that if cumulative terms of detention are imposed, the total time that a youth can be required to be detained in a detention centre must not exceed two years. The result of the sentences imposed on 20 January 2026 is already that you will be detained for 18 months. That leaves insufficient room for a sentence which reflects the gravity of your crimes on 18 December 2025. For an adult, the crime of committing an unlawful act intended to cause bodily harm, on its own, generally attracts a sentence of imprisonment of at least three years. That is because it involved, in your case, striking Mr Abdul-Rehmann with an offensive weapon with the specific intent of causing very serious injury. It was a vicious attack. You are criminally responsible for K’s blow with the shiv to his hand, but you then struck Mr Abdul-Rehmann to the back and to an extremely vulnerable part of his neck. The consequences could have been catastrophic. One of the charges against you is being a detainee assaulting Mr Abdul-Rehman. You will be sentenced by the Youth Justice Court for that aspect of his assault, which covers pushing and restraining him, your multiple punches to his head and body, and striking him with the microwave plate. It is fortunate that the physical injuries he suffered were relatively transient, including the injury to his neck. However, the psychological consequences have been profound. He has been highly traumatised. He is anxious and fearful, has nightmares, has been unable to pursue study he planned and has moved to another State.
The assault you committed against Ms O’Neill was also a serious one. It was aggravated by the circumstance that you were resisting her attempt to lawfully detain you. She was trying to reason with you. You responded by punching her. She suffered a swollen and split lip and one of her front teeth became loose. I have no victim impact statement from her.
You not only escaped yourself, but you were one of the two persons primarily responsible for the escape of the other detainees. You stole the keys which led to the theft of the Subaru. As I have already said, you are to be sentenced by another court for the other aspects of the assault of Mr Abdul-Rehman, your riotous behaviour, the damage to property and the assault of Ms Martin, and the theft of the two motor vehicles. It will be entirely a matter for the magistrate to determine the sentence, although, on the face of it, those offences add somewhat to your overall criminality.
K has been sentenced by Estcourt J and in the Youth Justice Court. He was sentenced as a youth. He was sentenced to a total period of detention of 40 months, although some of that term was suspended. The sentences imposed on him provide guidance to me, but I do not consider strict parity is required because of differences in the offences and the offender. In the circumstances I have explained I have determined that you should be sentenced under the Sentencing Act. The compensation orders which are sought concern offences I am not dealing with and so those must be left to a different court.
You are convicted on complaint 30344/26, counts 1, 2 and 4, on complaint 30343/26, counts 1 and 2, and on complaint 30345/26, count 2. I impose one sentence. You are sentenced to a term of imprisonment of three years to commence on the latest of the earliest release dates for the terms of detention you are currently serving. I order that you not be eligible for parole until you have served half the term I have just imposed.