STATE OF TASMANIA v C B 3 JUNE 2019
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE BLOW CJ
Mr B has pleaded guilty to four counts of assault and one count of aggravated burglary. All of the charges relate to events that occurred in Mowbray on the night of 3 January 2015.
On the night in question, Mr B and another young man went to a house where music was playing and the back door was open. They entered. There were six people inside the house. Mr B introduced himself and said that he and his friend were looking for a party. They asked whether the people in the house had any drugs or alcohol, but one of the people who lived there, Brett Lowe, said that they did not. That was not true. Mr B looked inside the refrigerator, saw alcohol, and became angry. There was further conversation, during which tensions escalated. Mr B began throwing punches. He punched Mr Lowe twice to the face. He punched another man who lived there, Joe Thomas, to the face as well. The first two assault charges relate to that episode.
There was further fighting between Mr B’s companion and others. That ended when Mr B and his companion left. Subsequently Mr B came back to the house with his original companion and a third man. They entered uninvited. Mr B has pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary, acknowledging that, at that stage, he entered the house as a trespasser with the intention of committing the crime of assault once he got inside. Mr B’s companions attacked some of the others in the house. At one stage Mr B and his two companions had armed themselves with motorcycle helmets – one each – and were hitting Mr Lowe and Mr Thomas with them. The final two counts of assault relate to the assaults on those two men with the motorcycle helmets. The incident came to an end as a result of the original occupants of the house running to places of safety and phoning the police.
Mr B and his two companions were all arrested and charged in relation to this incident. Each of his companions has absconded from bail. Warrants have been issued for their arrest.
Mr Thomas was taken to hospital by ambulance. He had a bruise to the left side of his forehead. No other injuries were recorded. Neither of the complainants has provided a victim impact statement.
Mr B was 17 years old on the night in question and is now 22. He has a bad criminal record, with multiple convictions for offences of dishonesty committed from the age of 14. Some six months after the night that I am concerned with, Mr B entered the home of a sleeping 76-year-old woman, violently raped her, and demanded money from her. A jury found him guilty of aggravated burglary, rape and demanding property with menaces. He was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment with effect from 2 October 2017. Subject to any sentence I impose, he will be eligible for parole in October 2021.
Mr B comes from a loving, hardworking and supportive Sudanese family. In his early teens he had a perception that he was being discriminated against because of his colour. He disengaged from education, and started committing offences and taking drugs at that stage. It counts in his favour that he was only 17 on the night in question, and that he pleaded guilty to these charges, though his plea was not an early plea. Before the night in question he had only two convictions for offences involving violence or the threat of violence. When he was 14 he attempted to commit an armed robbery, armed with a knife. Shortly after he turned 15, he committed an assault. Having regard to those circumstances, and to the fact that no one was seriously injured as a result of these crimes, it is clear that this case does not call for a heavy sentence. I have to take into account the fact that any sentence I impose will come on top of the eight-year sentence that Mr B is currently serving. In my view the most appropriate course is to impose a short cumulative sentence of imprisonment as an adult, with provision for parole after half of it has been served.
C B, I convict you and sentence you to six weeks’ imprisonment, cumulatively with your current sentence. You will not be eligible for parole until you have served three weeks of this sentence.