STATE OF TASMANIA v RILEY JASON CAUSON 22 SEPTEMBER 2021
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE PEARCE J
Riley Causon you are to be sentenced having pleaded guilty to an assault and robbery committed at Wynyard on 9 December 2019, and to unlawfully setting fire to property when you were in prison on 5 May 2021.
I will deal with the Wynyard offences first. The complainant, a man aged 24, was waiting in the driver seat of his car outside the supermarket while his father was inside. You were unhappy with him for having, two years earlier, made a statement to the police about another matter you were involved with. You approached him and punched the right side of his face through the open car window. You then asked “what have you got in there that’s worth anything” and said you would hit him again unless he handed over the pouch of tobacco you spotted inside the car. Because he was afraid he gave it to you. You punched him again anyway and rode off on your bicycle. The victim suffered soreness and redness to the right side of his face, but he did not suffer any serious injury or seek or require any medical treatment. He did not make a victim impact statement but that does not mean that he was not frightened or upset by your violent, thuggish and intimidating behaviour.
At the time you were aged 19, almost 20. You were arrested nearly three weeks later. You did not co-operate with the police and did not plead guilty until now. You were bailed after you were charged on 27 December 2019. On 9 December 2019, the day of the assault and robbery, you were subject to three separate suspended sentences. A four month suspended sentence imposed by a magistrate on 27 August 2018 for a series of offences including destroying property, dishonesty, evading police and bail breaches. You continued to offend and, on 28 February 2019, a magistrate sentenced you to two cumulative six month terms. Three months of the total was suspended for two years. A breach application was made in respect to the first suspended sentence but no order was made. Then, on 29 November 2019 you were sentenced by Estcourt J for two aggravated armed robberies committed at the end of 2018. You were sentenced to imprisonment for 18 months from 11 July 2019, with the balance suspended for two years. His Honour also ordered that you perform community service.
The fact that you spent most of 2019 in custody did not deter you. The assault and robbery was committed only a few days after you were sentenced and released by Estcourt J. Not only that, you then made little attempt to perform the community service. As a result of the breach of the community service order, on 16 March 2021, 12 months of that suspended term was activated from 9 March 2021 with eligibility for parole after having served six months. On 3 May 2021 a magistrate added two months to the 12 month term mostly for breaches of bail but also for unlawfully setting fire to a 4WD utility on 17 January 2021.
The other crime for which I am to sentence you was committed on 5 May 2021, only two days after you had appeared in the Magistrates Court, and when you set fire to material in your cell at Risdon prison. You were housed in a medium security unit block which contained six cells and a common area with a kitchenette and bathroom. You were part of a coordinated series of fires lit by prisoners in protest about prison conditions. At about 8.00 pm, in the lead up, you set fire to rolled up toilet paper in a microwave which you then used to set fire to the contents of a rubbish bin. You manoeuvred the bin into a bathroom so that it could not be put out by Correctional Officers, but the fire was extinguished by another inmate before any damage was done.
About ten minutes later you gathered bedding, clothing and other material onto the bed in your cell and, using another toilet paper wick you lit in the microwave, you set fire to it and left the cell. A couple of minutes later you added a cushion from the couch in the common room. Within a minute or two it was well alight. Other inmates unsuccessfully tried to put the fire out with buckets and bins of water. It was necessary for the Tactical Response Group to be engaged to secure the unit. It is this fire, not the fire in the rubbish bin, which is the subject of the charge.
At the same time, fires were lit by others in two other units in the medium security section. You are not to be punished for the other fires but they demonstrate that what you did was planned and increased the overall level of danger to which the prison was exposed. The fire you lit caused damage to property in the cell, and smoke and fire damage to the cell and common room which cost $11,638.54 to repair or replace. There is not much chance that you will be able to repay that amount, at least for a long time, but I will make a compensation order. You pleaded guilty on your first appearance in the Magistrates Court on 15 July 2021 and you remain in custody.
You are now 21. Your parents separated when you were young. Your father played little role in your life and you were largely brought up by your grandparents, who have been very supportive and to whom you remain very close. Even so, you were badly affected by the death of your older brother and then your mother, who died in about 2017. You have had long standing issues with abuse of alcohol and illicit drugs. Material before the Court when you were sentenced on 29 November 2019 suggested that you have a mild intellectual disability and personality characteristics which meet the diagnostic criteria for antisocial personality disorder, and which may contribute to impulsivity, your ability to make rational decisions and lead to disinhibition. You told the Court and the author of a pre-sentence report at that time that you were motivated to behave yourself, lead a better life, avoid negative influences and spend more time with your family. However you then did absolutely nothing to indicate that you were serious about those good intentions. You continued your lawless behaviour. You assaulted and robbed the complainant only a few days later and when you did not take advantage of the community corrections order the inevitable result was that you were back in prison.
You still are a relatively young man, and so you have the opportunity to turn your life around. You lit this fire because you were unhappy with how you were being treated by the prison authorities, but ironically, it will mean that you will spend even longer in custody. It will likely reduce the chance that you will be granted parole for the sentences you were already serving. What you did not only damaged property and caused a lot of public expense and disruption, but put a lot of people at risk. Because it is a prison offence I have to make any term of imprisonment cumulative to your present terms unless there are exceptional circumstances. None have been claimed and none seem to exist. I take into account your early plea of guilty.
By committing the robbery on 9 December 2019 you breached a condition of three suspended sentences. The one imposed by Estcourt J has already been partially activated. However application is now made in respect of the other two: four months imposed 27 August 2018 and three months imposed on 28 February 2019. Those terms must now be activated unless that is unjust, and there is no proper basis on which I could come to that conclusion. However the terms must be served cumulatively unless I otherwise order. I consider that it is appropriate to make allowance for of the total effect of the terms you are already serving and the further terms I am about to impose by ordering some concurrence of terms and by allowing for parole. Of course, whether you are granted parole will be a matter for the authorities but hopefully the possibility of parole will be an incentive for good behaviour.
Riley Causon, the suspended four month term imposed on 27 August 2018 is activated. I order that you serve that term cumulatively to the term or terms you are currently serving. I order that you be eligible for parole after serving half of that term. The suspended three month term imposed on 28 February 2019 is activated. I order that that term be served concurrently with the four month term just activated. I order that you not be eligible for parole until you have served half of that term. You are convicted on both counts on the indictment dated 29 July 2021. On that indictment I impose one sentence. You are sentenced to imprisonment for four months. Two months of that term is to be served concurrently with the terms just activated and two months is to be cumulative. I order that you not be eligible for parole until having served half of that term. On complaint 52439/21 you are convicted. I make a compensation order in favour of Tasmanian Prison Service in the sum of $11,638.54. I may only give you 28 days to pay that sum but you may apply to enter into a repayment arrangement. On that complaint you are sentenced to imprisonment for six months, cumulative to the terms just imposed. I order that you not be eligible for parole until having served half of that sentence.
The result of the orders I have just made is that you will serve a total term of one year in addition to the terms you are currently serving, with eligibility for parole after having served half of that additional term.
Resentenced – 4 October 2021
To correct a mathematical error, and to ensure that the sentence results in the total sentence of imprisonment for 12 months with eligibility for parole after half of that term, I make an order correcting the sentence by substituting an order that in respect of the indictment on 29 July 2021, there be eligibility for parole after having completed three months of that sentence in substitution of the half of that term which was enunciated on 22 September. That three months will commence from the start of the four month term, two months which is concurrent with the earlier sentences.