STATE OF TASMANIA v DANE ANDREW CLARK 29 FEBRUARY 2024
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE PEARCE J
Dane Clark, you plead guilty to two counts of wounding and one count of unlawfully injuring property. I also agreed to deal with your plea of guilty to five summary charges: two counts of destroy property, two counts of trespass and one count of possessing cannabis. All of the offences were committed on 28 October 2021. At that time Shane Walker-Boulter lived with his partner Amy Tattersall and her two daughters in Warring Street, Ravenswood. Mr Walker-Boulter was aged 29. Elora Crawn, also 29, lived in the house as well with her son. All of the children were aged under six. You were not known to any of those people.
In the early hours of the morning Mr Walker-Boulter was disturbed by noise coming from next door and went to investigate. As he stood by the fence you approached him and, without warning, struck him to the face with a small hunting type knife you were holding. The knife pierced his cheek and caused a deep laceration. When he realised what had happened he retreated inside his home, closed the door, and called to Ms Crawn for help. You pursued him. You smashed the glass panel adjacent to the front door, entered the house and began to struggle with Mr Walker-Boulter in the hallway. Ms Crawn approached and as she attempted to get you away from Mr Walker-Boulter you stabbed her with the knife to her thigh and to her forehead. The blows with the knife to Mr Walker-Boulter and Ms Crawn could only have been accompanied by an intention to wound. They managed to get into the lounge room where Ms Tattersall and one of her daughters were present. Mr Walker-Boulter pleaded with you to leave but you followed and pulled a television onto the floor narrowly missing the child. Only then you left, going back out the front door. As you walked down the driveway you damaged Ms Tattersall’s car by stabbing it with the knife. You fled down Warring Street, jumped the fence into some neighbouring units where you smashed the front passenger window of another car parked in the driveway. You then climbed over the fence into the yard of another unit, damaging the fence as you did so.
The events outside the house were witnessed by a number of members of the public who were disturbed by what was happening. The police were called. You were found nearby, covered in blood, sweating profusely, with a cut on your hand and wearing a sheath for the hunting knife with which you stabbed Mr Walker-Boulter and Ms Crawn. The knife was found in the yard of one of the units. You also had a small quantity of cannabis.
Both Mr Walker-Boulter and Ms Crawn were taken to hospital. Ms Crawn suffered an 8 cm laceration to her forehead. It was a deep cut, so much so that for part of its length her skull was exposed. The laceration was closed by stitches. She also had a 1 cm shallow laceration to her thigh which did not require stitches but was cleaned and bandaged. She left hospital that morning. Mr Walker-Boulter suffered a vertical laceration to his right cheek and a laceration to his left upper lip. Plastic surgery was required to repair the right cheek laceration and he was discharged the following day. The wounds healed without complication but Mr Walker-Boulter has been left with a scar on his face. Although the physical injuries have resolved, the psychological impact on each victim is significant and ongoing. Their lives have been permanently affected. They were subjected to what must have been a terrifying attack in their own home. Mr Walker-Boulter understandably feared for his life. He required counselling to help him and is understandably self-conscious about the scar on his face. He is now less trusting of others, anxious and worried about the children who were both directly and indirectly affected. Both victims found themselves unable to continue living in the house. Ms Crawn’s already fragile mental health was made worse and her accommodation became unstable. She continues to fear for her own safety and for the safety of her son and Ms Tattersall’s two daughters. Her son also observed the attack on her and his behaviour was affected.
You are now aged 39. You were 37 when these crimes were committed. You have a lengthy record. You were first sentenced to detention when you were 16 and to prison when you were 19. Since then you have served many substantial terms of imprisonment for offences involving dishonesty, driving, escape and assault. In 2005 you were sentenced to imprisonment for two and a half years, in 2008 for three years, in 2011 for two years, in 2014 for 12 months and again for nine months, in 2015 for two years, in 2018 for four months and then 12 months, in 2019 for three months and in 2021 for 12 months. These crimes were committed on 28 October 2021. Since then you have been sentenced for other offending, including a subsequent assault, to three shorter terms of imprisonment which are not prior convictions for sentencing purposes but are relevant to the likelihood of reform. Most of your record is not for violence but there are exceptions. You committed a number of assaults as a young man. The two year sentence in 2011 was for assault. The term imposed in 2018 was for a family violence assault and there were subsequently many breaches of family violence orders put in place to protect the victim.
You have had a lifelong problem with abuse of illicit drugs. In part it is a response to the trauma caused by terrible abuse you suffered while in youth detention. At that stage of your life you lapsed into drug use and homelessness, problems you have struggled with ever since. As long ago as 2011 a judge recorded your wish to undertake drug and alcohol treatment but the issues have never been effectively addressed. When, in August 2021 you received a large payment of compensation it was spent very quickly on drugs. You claim that you have little memory of these crimes because you were so affected by drugs. Something triggered your anger but you cannot remember what. Your behaviour was so irrational that you even used the knife to damage your own car. Your drug use is not mitigating, especially when, more than most people, you would understand what effect heavy drug use may have on you. You pleaded guilty to the charges although not until October 2023 after the material disclosed to you by the prosecution persuaded you of your guilt despite your lack of memory. You are now remorseful and ashamed. You are in a new relationship with a responsible and supportive partner, are not using drugs and wish again to try to reform. However, as has been pointed out to you before, although you have engaged in some programs while in prison you have done little to demonstrate a reasonable prospect of reform by your actions in the community.
You have already spent 416 days in custody which have not been taken into account in relation to any other sentence. I accept that those days should be taken into account in calculating the commencement date of the sentence I am about to impose. Although your plea is not an early one it should nevertheless result in a reduction of your sentence because it relieved the victims of the additional trauma of having to give evidence and avoided the need for a trial. I have reduced the length of the head sentence and will allow the earliest eligibility for parole. Had the plea been earlier the reduction would have been greater. Nevertheless, you are to be sentenced for very serious crimes involving two victims, each subjected to a terrifying and damaging attack with a weapon in their own home and in the presence of children. The public is entitled to protection from the risk of a repetition.
Dane Clark, you are convicted on counts 1, 2 and 4 on the indictment and on complaint 34526/21, counts 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9. I order pursuant to the Crime (Confiscation of Profits) Act 1993, s 11(1)(a), that the knife and the sheath be forfeited to the State. As to the damage to the motor vehicles I make compensation orders in favour of Amy Tattersall and Katherine York in amounts to be assessed. On the complaint, counts 5, 8 and 9, in light of the other sentences I am about to impose I make no further order. On counts 4 and 6, the destroy property counts, you are sentenced to imprisonment for two months from 9 January 2023. On the indictment I impose one sentence. You are sentenced to imprisonment for 3 years and 4 months also from 9 January 2023. You are not eligible for parole until having served half of that term.