STATE OF TASMANIA v SHANE CHRISTOPHER BLAIR 15 APRIL 2021
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE BRETT J
Mr Blair, you have pleaded guilty to one count of assault.
The crime was committed by you on 26 December 2019. You and the complainant had known each other for some time before then and there was ongoing bad blood between you. I am told that you had been subjected to abusive and threatening behaviour by the complainant for some time, and shortly before this incident, you had made application for a restraint order against him. You had done this on the advice of the police. I infer that the application was still pending when this crime was committed.
The relevant events commenced when you were walking from the service area of a service station to your vehicle, which was parked in the parking area of that station. As you were doing so, the complainant drove past in his vehicle, saw you and immediately started to verbally abuse you from his car. This meeting was completely by chance. You had not anticipated seeing or having any contact with him. You continued and got into your vehicle. The complainant had stopped at an intersection when he saw you, but he immediately reversed his vehicle back along the street and parked his car opposite the service station. It is clear to me, after having viewed the CCTV footage of this incident, that he did this so that he could persist in his verbal abuse of you. In fact, after he parked his vehicle, he walked over to your vehicle, which was still in the service station grounds, and continued his verbal abuse of you through your front passenger window. He then walked around the back of your vehicle up to your front driver’s window and pulled on the window shield which broke off. He threatened you with this part but then threw it onto the back seat of your vehicle. You then drove off, turning left onto the street, intending to continue your journey to a supermarket. The complainant walked onto the middle of the street, and the impression I get from the CCTV footage is that he is continuing his verbal abuse of you. In fact, he starts to walk in the direction of your vehicle. Your counsel says, at this point, as you were driving away, you were flustered, irritated and angered by the complainant’s conduct. As a result, after having driven a very short distance, you decided to go home rather than to the supermarket. Accordingly, you performed a U-turn in order to drive in the direction of your home. This meant that you were travelling back towards the complainant and his parked vehicle. The complainant moved off the street over the kerb and onto a grassed area on the other side of his parked vehicle. You drove your vehicle onto this grassed area towards him and struck him with the bull bar of your vehicle. The impact threw him into the air and he landed on the bonnet of your vehicle before falling to the ground. You then drove off without stopping and returned to your home.
Although you told police that the collision was accidental, your counsel concedes that you drove off the road and onto the grassed area with the intention of causing fear to the complainant. Obviously, you did this deliberately. Further, you concede that when you were close to him, you made a spontaneous, but deliberate, decision to strike him with the vehicle. Accordingly, the application of force by striking him with your vehicle was intentional.
The complainant has not provided a victim impact statement. However, he suffered a number of injuries which included a fracture of his pelvis and a suspected un-displaced fracture of the pubic bone. He was taken to hospital by ambulance for treatment. He was treated with analgesia and required not to weight bear on his right leg for six weeks. By the time of a review on the 17 February 2020, he had returned to normal function.
You are 40 years of age. Your past convictions consist of traffic offending and some other very minor offences. You have no history of violent offending whatsoever. You have been having some counselling because of the ongoing psychological symptoms arising from the trauma of a workplace accident which occurred when you were 19 years of age. You have had a long-standing problem with the use of alcohol, which seems to have been related to the ongoing traumatic reaction. However, you are now in a stable relationship and hold a responsible position of employment.
There are certainly some very serious aspects to this offending. You used your moving motor vehicle as a weapon. Your actions, in fact, caused serious injury but the consequences could have been far worse. It is obvious that a moving motor vehicle has the potential to cause serious, even lethal injury. Further, you committed this offence in public. After committing the crime, you drove off leaving the complainant injured on the side of the road. These factors, and in particular the use of the motor vehicle as a weapon, in my view necessitate an emphasis on general deterrence in the sentence.
On the other hand, I accept that there are a number of mitigating factors. I am satisfied that the complainant was entirely responsible for the confrontation and its perpetuation. I accept that you were provoked by his actions. When the context of your relationship with him is taken into account, it is understandable that you were upset and flustered at the time of committing this crime. I accept that you acted spontaneously and that your judgment was affected by your emotional response to the complainant’s provocation. I accept that it was not your intention to cause him serious injury, and you were, at least initially, simply trying to frighten him. Although you did drive off after the collision, I acknowledge that you contacted the police as soon you arrived home. Further, it is clear and accepted by the prosecution that your conduct in this case was out of character. I accept that you are remorseful and acknowledge your relatively early plea of guilty as some evidence of that remorse.
The need for general deterrence requires the imposition of a sentence of imprisonment. However, having regard to the mitigating factors, it is appropriate, in my view, to wholly suspend that sentence. As I indicated during the course of submissions, I think it is also appropriate, given your criminal use of the motor vehicle, to impose a period of driving disqualification as part of the sentence. This will add to its punitive effect. I note that you will not lose your employment but I am sure that the disqualification will be particularly inconvenient for you, which is precisely what I intend.
Accordingly, the orders I make are as follows:
1 You are convicted of the crime to which you have pleaded guilty.
2 You are sentenced to a term of 12 months’ imprisonment. The whole of that sentence will be suspended for a period of 18 months from today on the condition that you are not to commit another offence punishable by imprisonment during that period.
3 You are disqualified from driving for a period of 18 months from today. I order that your driver’s licence be cancelled forthwith.