STATE OF TASMANIA v JORDAN MICHAEL CAUSON 21 MAY 2025
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE JAGO J
Mr Causon, you have pleaded guilty to one count of recklessly discharging a firearm. I am also dealing with your pleas of guilty to a number of related summary offences, being possess a firearm to which a firearm’s licence may not be issued, possess a firearm when not the holder of a firearm licence of the appropriate category, and two counts of breach of family violence order, one related to being within 100 metres of the protected person, and one related to your possession of the firearm.
On 13 July 2024, you were in a relationship with a Sophie Ballenden. You had been in that relationship for approximately four years and there was a child to the relationship. At the time of the offending, there was a family violence order in place, the conditions of which prevented you from being within 100 metres of her, and also prevented you from possessing any firearm.
Ms Ballenden had another child to a different relationship. The complainant in this matter is the grandmother of that child.
On 13 July, Ms Ballenden went to the complainant’s residence for the purpose of collecting her child, who was staying with the complainant. The child was 5 months old. She stopped outside the residence and apparently began to beep her horn. The complainant went outside to investigate. There was an altercation. The complainant refused to return the child to Ms Ballenden. Ms Ballenden reacted by saying “bring my son out now you fucking slut or I’ll fucking kill you”. The issue was not resolved. Ms Ballenden left and told the complainant she would be back later.
About five minutes later, she returned. You were with her. You got out of the vehicle and yelled for the complainant to bring the child outside. You then pointed a small homemade firearm towards the complainant, who was standing directly in front of her house and discharged it, causing a window, near to where the complainant was standing, to shatter. The window was to the child’s bedroom. Fortunately, he was not in the room at the time, but you did not know that and made no enquiries as to his whereabouts. Having allegedly gone there to support Ms Balleden in the retrieval of her child, you acted in a way that had capacity to cause the child great harm. After discharging the firearm, you got back into the vehicle, and you and Ms Ballenden left.
Police subsequently searched a residence connected to you. They found the homemade firearm., which appeared to be a 3D printed firearm with a short metallic barrel and trigger mechanism, designed to discharge .22 long rifle ammunition. They also found various pieces of 12 gauge ammunition, 4 x .22 calibre rounds of ammunition and several plastic and metal firearm parts.
You are now 25 years of age. You have a number of relevant prior convictions. You began offending in 2015 when you were only 15 years of age. Your offending has continued reasonably constantly since then. In the main, your prior convictions relate to matters of dishonesty, driving offences, offences against police and bail offences. Significantly, in November 2023, you were sentenced by this Court for the crime of recklessly discharge a firearm and a number of offences contrary to the Firearms Act. The circumstances of that offending are somewhat different. On that occasion, you were drunk and you became upset about issues pertaining to your relationship. You had possession of a firearm. You discharged it in circumstances where you were contemplating self-harm. It is noteworthy that on that occasion, your partner and child were in the residence when you discharged the firearm. For that matter, you were sentenced to 10 months’ imprisonment, backdated to 1 July 2023 with five months of that sentence suspended on condition you commit no offence punishable by imprisonment for a period of two years. Obviously, your commission of this crime has breached that period of suspended imprisonment. An application is made to activate that period of suspended imprisonment. I can identify no basis upon which I could reasonably conclude that it would be unjust to activate it, given the similarity in offending and the fact only eight months passed between the imposition of that sentence and the breaching offences. Sensibly, no submission is made to suggest otherwise.
I take into account the difficult circumstances of your upbringing. Your mother was addicted to illicit substances and had significant mental health difficulties. She was unable to raise you. You were brought up by your grandparents pursuant to a kinship arrangement following the intervention of Child Safety Services. You were diagnosed with ADHD as a child. You were medicated until you were about 18, but in more recent years, you have not been able to avail yourself of appropriate medication. School was a difficult experience for you. You have limited literacy and numeracy skills. In your later teenage years, you tried to repair your relationship with your mother. This was cut short when she passed away when you were aged 17. You found that a very difficult experience given you had only just reconnected with her. Around that time, you began to use drugs excessively. You have had difficulties with drug use ever since. You have also experienced some mental health difficulties.
You endured another family tragedy when you were aged 19. Your older brother was killed in a motor vehicle accident. Again, you found this a difficult time. You have maintained a good relationship with your grandmother and your remaining siblings, and you hope that upon your ultimate release from custody, you will relocate to live with your grandmother on the North West coast. She has been a constant source of support in your life and in the past, when you have been able to reside with her, there have been some periods of stability. It is your hope that upon your relocation to the North West coast, you may be able to obtain some work in the farming industry.
I am told that you now recognise that what you did was dangerous and wrong. At the time, you did not think about the dangers, but apparently reacted to information that had been given to you by Ms Ballenden which suggested the child was not being properly cared for. You took no time to reflect upon the likelihood of this information being true, or indeed, consider more appropriate ways to resolve any issues.
The risk you posed to the community, the complainant and other occupants of the house, including the five-month-old child, is obvious. You fired the shot in the direction of the complainant. It entered the residence via a bedroom window. There was a very real chance that the complainant, the child or somebody else in the house, may have been struck by the discharge if there was unexpected movement or a faulty aim, or if the bullet had been diverted from its path, for example, by ricocheting off an item. Any right-thinking member of the community would condemn the act of discharging a firearm at, or near, a house, particularly in circumstances where you were well aware it was occupied by, at least, the complainant and the child. Your willingness to possess and use firearms unlawfully is most concerning. Whilst you maintain this attitude, you are a risk to the public. The seriousness of simply possessing a firearm of this nature also should not be overlooked. You had no licence for it, you took it loaded into a public street and you used it without any regard for the safety of the occupants of the premises, or indeed, the community at large.
The prohibition on the unlicensed possession of firearms, particularly homemade firearms like this, which carry no safety features and are prone to malfunction, is a matter to be taken very seriously.
The complainant was significantly affected by your crime. I heard her victim impact statement. She was terrified at the time and continues to be scared and traumatised by your actions, to the extent that she has had to move out of the home where this occurred. She continues to experience nightmares and is hyper vigilant.
In my view, the only appropriate sentence is a significant term of imprisonment, given the need to recognise the sentence must reflect the need for community protection, punishment and general and personal deterrence. The sentence will be appropriately moderated to make allowance for totality given I will also be activating the 5-month period of suspended imprisonment.
I make the following orders. I activate the five-month period of suspended imprisonment imposed on 21 November 2023, and order that you now serve it. That sentence of imprisonment will commence on 14 July 2024. In respect to the remaining matters, I convict you of all matters to which you have pleaded guilty. I impose one sentence. You are sentenced to imprisonment for 15 months, cumulative to the period of imprisonment just activated. I order that you not be eligible for parole until you have served one half of those periods of imprisonment. I order that the firearm and ammunition be forfeited to the State of Tasmania.