STATE OF TASMANIA v ALEX ALAN BRAID 26 NOVEMBER 2021
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE BLOW CJ
Alex Alan Braid, you have pleaded guilty to a charge of assault. The circumstances are unusual, and what you did was out of character.
In August 2019, over two years ago, you had gone out drinking, which was unusual for you. You encountered someone you knew who was giving people lifts home in the early hours of the morning. You travelled with him and some other people, from Devonport. The driver was dropping some people off in Forth. Near Lillico’s Road, two of the passengers asked to get out, and there was a fight. You did not know these passengers. They were hostile to you and the driver. They were left at a road junction – the junction of Forth Road and Lillico’s Road. You went with the driver who dropped another passenger in Forth. You and the driver were heading back towards Spreyton and you saw the two men who had been involved in the fight, and you decided to confront them. That was a bad decision.
I do not need to go into all the details, but you got into a situation where you caught up with the man who had started the violence, in a paddock, in the early hours of the morning, and got him in a headlock. You had two companions, and they punched and kicked him when he was down. He ended up with various bruises and abrasions, and an undisplaced fracture of one rib. It cannot be said that all of the injuries resulted from that episode because there had been an earlier fight. It seems that the man made a full recovery. He was fined for committing an assault earlier in this saga.
The driver, who is a little younger than you, was fined $5,000 and convicted and given a wholly suspended sentence of six months’ imprisonment. There is very little to differentiate that driver from you. He is a little younger. He had been in trouble once before. He been fined by a magistrate for an assault that involved throwing an egg from a moving car, hitting somebody to the left eye.
You have some minor prior convictions, but none involving violence. You are a very industrious young man. You have an excellent work record. What you did was out of character. You are now 21 years old and earning good money as a farm contractor, as well as working as a farm hand on your father’s farm. It is a great pity that you got involved in this. You are responsible for what your companions did when you were holding the man down.
I think the most appropriate course is for me to impose the same penalties as another judge imposed on the driver, whom I have referred to. I convict you and sentence you to six months’ imprisonment, wholly suspended on condition that you commit no offence punishable by imprisonment for a period of two years, and I also order you to pay a fine of $5,000 within 28 days.