STATE OF TASMANIA v REILLY CAID BENNETT 3 APRIL 2023
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE ESTCOURT J
The defendant, Reilly Caid Bennett, aged 21 has pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated assault. He has also pleaded guilty to summary matters relating to the same incident. .There are 19 counts including breaches of a family violence order, common assault, and breaches of bail and firearm offences. Pursuant to s385A of the Criminal Code I have agreed to deal with those matters simultaneously with the indictable offence
At the time of offending, the defendant and the complainant Briarna Jay Large, aged 21 who was 36 weeks pregnant at the time, had been in a relationship for approximately eight months. There was a Family Violence Order in force protecting the complainant from the defendant.
On 28 July 2021 the complainant was at her home in Bridgewater. A number of other people were also there including her brother Michael Large and his partner Lily Dillon. While at the house, Ms Dillon began criticising the complainant for trying to repair and continue her relationship with the defendant. The complainant became annoyed by this and contacted the defendant by phone and asked him to come over. The defendant arrived at the complainant’s home at around 12.00pm to 12.30pm that afternoon and a short time later the complainant and defendant were in the complainant’s bedroom talking about what Ms Dillon had said about them trying to repair their relationship.
The defendant became agitated and the pair began to argue and raise their voices at each other. During this argument, the defendant threatened to kill the complainant and burn her house down. He then pulled out an improvised homemade firearm covered in red, yellow and green electrical tape. At this point, the complainant was sitting on the end of her bed and the defendant was standing about three feet away facing towards her. They continued to argue and the complainant said she was going to call her child’s father, Dylan Hyland, what the defendant had told her about burning her house down. The defendant said that if she did that, she “was dead”. The complainant walked out of her bedroom to the carport of the house and spoke on the phone to Mr Hyland about what the defendant had said.
The defendant followed the complainant to the carport and slapped her to the left side of her face with an open hand. The complainant began to cry and the defendant apologised. The complainant returned to her bedroom and sat back on the end of the bed. The defendant followed and approached the complainant. The defendant then raised the firearm in his right hand and pointed it towards the back of the complainant’s head momentarily. The complainant felt scared as she did not know if the firearm was loaded. The defendant then lowered the firearm and pointed it towards the complainant’s stomach, again momentarily. The defendant did not speak. The complainant was crying and was scared as she did not know what the defendant was going to do.
The defendant then put the firearm in the complainant’s wardrobe under some clothing. The complainant said she was leaving and stood up and walked quickly out of the bedroom and into the lounge room where she told her brother and Ms Dillon what had occurred.
Police arrived shortly after and the firearm was located. No cartridge was inserted in the chamber and it was not currently in working order but it is still classified as a firearm under the Firearms Act. The defendant was arrested. He was charged, served with an application for a Family Violence Order and detained for court. He appeared before a Magistrate on 29 July 2021 where the Family Violence Order was made and he was remanded in custody until being granted bail on 26 October 2021.
At the time of offending, the defendant was not the holder of a firearms licence of any kind.
The defendant was born in Hobart and experienced an unfortunate childhood, witnessing and being the subject of family violence at the hands of his father. The violence was physical, verbal and emotional and inflicted on himself, his mother and his siblings. He has struggled with substance abuse from an early age. He commenced consuming alcohol with friends at 13 years of age. His consumption increased from social drinking to problematic drinking and he then moved onto drug use, commencing with cannabis and then methylamphetamine and ecstasy.
At the time of the offending the defendant was in a relationship with the complainant. The relationship was troubled and he instructs that at the time he was heavily consuming alcohol and illicit drugs. The defendant makes no excuses for the offending, his instructions are that he “does not remember all the details” but he has pleaded guilty and is very ashamed and horrified when hearing the statement of facts, regarding what occurred.
The parties have since separated and he deeply regrets the lasting impact his actions have had on the complainant. He has expressed remorse and pleaded guilty at a very early opportunity.
The defendant was remanded in custody from the date of the offending until 26 October 2021, which is 90 days and subsequently has spent 151 days in custody, which may be taken into account in sentencing today.
The defendant has relevant prior convictions which include assault and breaches of family violence orders in April 2020 and September 2021, however it would seem that they have only been sufficiently serious to have warranted undertakings to be of good behaviour and a community correction order.
The complainant has been impacted seriously by the defendant’s offending and is frightened to leave home.
The defendant has been assessed as unsuitable for home detention and has been assessed as unsuitable for community service.
Community Corrections has reported, however, that the defendant could benefit from the support and intervention offered by their service and therefore he is deemed suitable and a 12 month order is recommended, which would focus on addressing his links to offending including mental health, illicit substance use, family and personal relationships, anger management, prospective employment, pro-social contacts and consequential decision-making. Case planning to this end has been outlined to me by Community Corrections.
In all of these circumstances the defendant is convicted of all offences to which he has pleaded guilty and I impose a single sentence of 18 months’ imprisonment, backdated to 241 days from today, with the balance from today suspended on condition that the defendant commit no offence punishable by imprisonment for a period of two years.
In addition I make a Community Correction Order with an operational period of 12 months and containing a special condition that the defendant must, during the operational period of the order, submit to the supervision of a probation officer as required by the probation officer, and a further special condition that if directed by a probation officer, the defendant must attend, participate in, and complete the EQUIPS Addiction Program as directed.
Pursuant to s 149(2) of the Firearms Act I order the forfeiture of the firearm.
Pursuant to s 13A of the Family Violence Act 2004, the crime of aggravated assault is to be recorded as a family violence offence.