STATE OF TASMANIA v JAYSON MARK CRONLY 22 FEBRUARY 2023
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE GEASON J
Mr Cronly you have pleaded guilty to three counts of assault and I am dealing with some other matters under s 385A of the Criminal Code, at your request. The complainant in this matter is Marli Anka Cronly. At the time of your offending, you and the complainant were separated but remained living together with you two children, aged 5 and 8. In the days and weeks prior to the offending there had been tension between you about the future status of your relationship.
On 13 July 2021, you and the complainant were at home at Blackmans Bay. You left the house at around 5.30 pm, stating that you were going to Queenstown to stay with your father for a few nights. However, you returned to the house at around midnight. The complainant, who had been in bed asleep, awoke and went to the kitchen where she found you. You appeared to be intoxicated and you were slamming things and threatening to take the complainant to court over the children. You became verbally abusive towards her before taking her mobile phone out of her hand and stepping on it. She grabbed your mobile phone and ran to another room where she dialed 000. Whilst she was on the phone, you approached her and you took the phone from her. She was screaming for help. During this altercation, you grabbed the complainant’s hair and you pulled her head backwards (Count 1 on the Indictment).
You went outside briefly and the complainant went to the kitchen. Shortly after, you entered the kitchen and you confronted the complainant again. During this stage of the altercation, the complainant ended up on the floor. While she was on the floor you pulled her hair, kicked her to the left side of her body and punched her to the face multiple times. She began to bleed from her nose (Count 2 on the Indictment).
You and the complainant moved to the lounge room where you turned off the lights and you told her sit down. You pushed her against a door frame, put both hands around her neck and applied pressure to it. She was unable to breathe (Count 3 on the indictment). Her next memory is waking on the floor to you saying “I should kill you”. She got up, ran out of the house and got into her car, which was parked outside. You followed and punched the driver’s side window of her car causing it to smash (this is Count 4).
She drove to the Kingston Police Station where she reported the matter to police and made a statutory declaration. You were located by police at around 2 am in the backseat of a vehicle parked on Macquarie Street in Hobart. The children were also in the backseat of the vehicle. You exited the vehicle and you were arrested. You resisted the arrest by fixing your arms to your sides and refusing to place your hands behind your back. You were taken to the ground by police where you continued to refuse to place your hands behind your back. Once handcuffed, you resisted police placing you in the rear of the police divisional van and once inside the divisional van, you kicked out at the van door as police attempted to close it.
You were transported to the Hobart Police Station. At that station, while waiting to be removed from the divisional van, you appeared to lose consciousness. An ambulance was called and arrived shortly after. You, while still in police custody, were taken to the Royal Hobart Hospital in the ambulance in soft restraints. You were assessed by a doctor and discharged without the need for further medical treatment. Paramedics agreed to transport you back to the police station in the ambulance. Whilst being attended to by medical staff, you became loud and abusive towards them and to police. When you were taken on stretcher back to the ambulance you continued to be loud and abusive to police. You looked at Constables Jeremy Brown and Cameron Blight and said words to the effect of “you’re dead, you’re dead”. As Constable Blight assisted paramedics in fastening your restraints, you turned to him and said “This cunt, you dirty dog, fucking piece of shit, you fucking, disgusting, lying cunt”. You then coughed up phlegm and spat at Constable Blight. Your saliva landed on his chest and face.
You were ultimately transported back to the Hobart Police Station and held at the Reception Prison overnight and interviewed the following morning in relation to the matter. Under caution you said you had had a few drinks with a friend the night before, four beers and a couple of shots of whisky, over seven or eight hours; that you got a lift home; you do not remember what time you got home, but you think it was about 1 am. You said that you could not remember any of this, “it is like a black out” and that this was part of your “mental disorders”. You told police that your mother had told you that you had called her distraught at 1.30 am because your partner had tried to run over you and you had had to leave with the children. You said you had been arguing a bit with your partner about the children. You said you were going to Queenstown to get away from her, but it was snowing so you went to your friend’s house who lives in Macquarie Street. You said you did not recall mocking your partner. You said you do not really drink anymore, so maybe it was a lot to drink. You said you had never laid hands on her. You said you were very against that sort of thing. You said you do not believe that the assaults happened. You said you have only ever touched her in a loving, romantic way. You said when something extreme happens in your life, you cannot remember. You told police that you remember her jumping up from sitting and taking off. You said you went outside and she turned her car on and drove it at you, a proposition the State does not accept. You said that her car was parked on the street for some reason. That the kids were awake, crying, and followed you outside. You said you assumed the cut on your arm happened when you fell backwards, jumping out of the way of her car but it could be, you acknowledged, from smashing the car window, although you said you do not recall breaking that window. You told police that you cannot explain the complainant’s injuries as you cannot remember that night. You said that when you left for Queenstown, the complainant did not have any injuries to her face. You said you were worried it did happen if she, in fact, had to go to hospital.
You said you had had a bunch of benzos last night. You told police you did not recall what had happened. You said you probably did resist police. You said you did abuse the police officer but you said you used the words “you’re fucked” and I infer from that, that you did not, on the version you gave police, utter the other words. You said you could not recall spitting at police. You were charged and remanded in custody until you were granted bail on 4 August 2021.
The complainant suffered pain to her nose and neck as a result of your assaults on her.
When you last appeared before this Court, I was told that you had spent time in custody, and we will come back to that. Time in custody is time that will be taken into account in relation to your sentence.
Your offending is in a particularly serious category of offending. Violence within relationships must attract a penalty which deters people like you and others from similar conduct. Because this type of offending occurs behind closed doors it is imperative that a very strong message is sent by the courts in order to deter those minded to behave in this way from doing so before they proceed to do so. It is difficult to detect such offending and the court must, as I say, discourage such behavior before it occurs. I do not ignore the remarks contained in the victim impact statement prepared by your partner, who appears to regard this episode as out of character for you, nor do I ignore the personal circumstances outlined by your counsel and the matters contained within the psychiatric report, which has been prepared by Dr Josephs. I have regard to the contents of that report without setting out in detail the symptoms that she describes. They are relevant to your offending and as I say, I take them into account. But even if this is an isolated episode, any such episode must be responded to in a way which recognises the potential for serious harm to follow when people allow their emotions to manifest themselves in the aggressive way that you did on this particular evening.
Insofar as the conduct occurred whilst there were children in the house, it is fortuitous that they apparently did not witness what occurred, but that is not a consequence of your actions it is merely, as I say, fortuitous. I accept the State’s submission that you were reckless as to such likelihood. I do observe that they were found in a motor vehicle at around 2 am that night, which is a wholly unsatisfactory state of affairs.
It is to be hoped that during the period of time that you have spent in custody that you have reflected on your behavior and reflected on the prospect of having caused even greater harm when you applied your hands to your partner’s throat in the way I have described.
You do not have prior convictions for offences such as these, but I do observe that on a previous occasion your partner at that time, a different person, had cause to contact police because she feared your actions. I am not punishing you again for previous conduct, but point to it as something which ought to have instigated action on your part to deal with the issues which underpin this offending. I note that you have attended on Dr Josephs for some period of time, and perhaps that is indicative of you having done that, but it is something that requires your urgent attention if it is not to be repeated.
As I say your mental health conditions are relevant to sentencing, as is the fact that you have taken steps to address them according to the report that your counsel has provided to me. Your continuation of that process of obtaining ongoing support is critical to your overcoming some of the issues which underpin your violent conduct on this night.
I acknowledge that you had a difficult upbringing characterised by a poor relationship with your father and your mother’s departure from the State without you, when you were young. You have endured lengthy periods of homelessness, unemployment, and you are now in receipt of a benefit. I note that you attempted to gain employment last year but that the bail conditions created difficulties with your being able to fulfill your employers’ needs in that regard, which resulted in your employer making inquiries as to the circumstances of the bail order and, in turn, your losing that employment.
You have pleaded guilty and I accept that you take full responsibility for your actions. There is a utilitarian benefit which accrues in consequence of that course having been taken and that should be recognised by the court in the penalty which it imposes.
You continue to have some contact with your children, and that appears to be a positive influence in your life. I accept that you are remorseful, and I note your counsel’s comments in relation to your offending against police officers and emergency services people. That conduct serves to highlight your emotional state at this time and emphasizes the need, which I have already referred to to deal with the personal circumstances that are at play.
I had you assessed for a home detention order, in order to receive information as to whether such sentencing option was appropriate in your circumstances. You are not, however, considered suitable for such order. A home detention order falls for consideration in cases where a term of imprisonment is considered the appropriate sentencing response. In the circumstances of that determination, a sentence of imprisonment is an appropriate sentencing order.
I have emphasised already that general deterrence is a significant factor in framing sentence for violence such as this. Notwithstanding the comments of your former partner, your offending is objectively serious and, as I say, it requires a term of imprisonment. In all the circumstances, I have determined that a sentence of 14 months’ imprisonment is appropriate.
I turn to consider whether any of that sentence should be suspended. I consider that some weight should be attached to the fact that you have taken steps to address your mental health condition. I am of the view that I should suspend some of the sentence to encourage your attention to those matters because they at least in part explain your behavior. I think you should be encouraged to pursue that treatment, knowing that if you fail to address those issues, you run the risk of repeating this sort of conduct and hurting someone you apparently care for.
I have decided in the circumstances to suspend six months of the sentence on condition that you commit no offence punishable by a term of imprisonment for a period of three years. That means you must serve eight months’ imprisonment, that is eight months of the 14 months sentence that I have imposed.
As I said a moment ago, when this matter was before me last, it was agreed that you had spent 50 days in custody. Counsel will correct me if I am wrong, but by my reckoning you have spent a further 148 days in custody. That time is to be taken into account against the sentence. It equates with about six months of the sentence, meaning you have approximately two months left to serve at which point you will be released subject to the condition that you will be of good behaviour and not commit an offence punishable by a term of imprisonment for three years.
These are to be recorded on your criminal record as family violence offences.
In relation to the summary matters, which I am dealing with under s 385A of the Code, in relation to Count 3, which is the spitting on the police officer, I sentence you to one months’ imprisonment. That sentence is to run concurrently with the sentence I have imposed in relation to the indictable matters. In relation to the other matters, I record convictions. I make the compensation order sought by the State in relation to the mobile telephone that you damaged.
So, you understand, Mr Cronly what I have done. There is a 14 month gaol sentence. I have suspended six months of that sentence, eight months is to be served and you have served about six months of that, maybe a little bit more. When the balance of that is served, you will be free to go, but I remind you that if you commit an offence, and lots of offences are punishable by a term of imprisonment, drink driving is a good example, then you run the risk of being required to serve the balance of that sentence. My purpose in suspending the sentence is to encourage you to deal with the issues that you present with and that are referred to in the report by Dr Josephs. That is your best chance of not getting into trouble like this again.