STATE OF TASMANIA v SHARNI MARIE DOWNEY 1 APRIL 2021
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE PEARCE J
Sharni Downie, you plead guilty to receiving stolen property and to being an accessory after the fact to stealing. Early in the morning on 28 February 2019 your then partner stole tools from the back of a tradesman’s utility parked at Midway Point. On 1 March 2019 he stole jewellery, medication, tools, electrical devices and other items worth almost $30,000 from inside a house in Richmond. On 6 March 2019 he stole fishing rods and a wrench worth a total of almost $4,000 from the garage of a house in Midway Point. At the same time he stole two mobile phones and some other items worth about $1,600 from the downstairs flat in the same property.
A car seen near the site of the latest theft belonged to your mother. The police went to her unit in Clarendon Vale where you also lived at the time. You and your partner were there. The police found many of the stolen items hidden in the wardrobe in the bedroom. The stolen medication was in your handbag. You were interviewed and you admitted that you knew the items in your possession were stolen.
The police investigation revealed that on 2 March 2019 you went with your partner to Cash Convertors. You sold a ring stolen from Richmond for $50. On 4 March you sold three other rings to a different Cash Convertors for $80. Your partner took the money. The charge of receiving stolen property is confined to those four rings and to the medication. The charge of being an accessory to stealing is confined to the items hidden in the wardrobe, on the basis that you assisted your partner to keep the theft of those items secret so he may escape punishment. All of the property which is the subject of the charges against you has been recovered. For some reason not disclosed to me, your partner has not been charged with any crime, even though you are to be sentenced on the basis that he was responsible for the thefts. I have a victim impact statement from the owner of the goods stolen from Richmond. He and his wife were understandably affected by the invasion of their home, although the person responsible for that is the thief, not you. You are to be sentenced on the basis that he was the person primarily responsible for the dishonesty. Although the value of the stolen goods you helped him hide was considerable, it has not been asserted that you had anything to gain financially by helping him.
You are now almost 21. You were 19 at the time of these crimes. Your life has not been very easy. You have three children aged 7, 5 and 9 months. You first fell pregnant when you were 14. You managed to complete year 10 through home education. You also have a qualification in hospitality but your primary responsibility has been care for your children. The relationships with the fathers of the two oldest children was, in each case, controlling, violent and abusive. You managed to escape those relationships but you were introduced to methylamphetamine by friends in mid-2018 and you became addicted. You lost your accommodation and were forced to move in with your mother. Your drug habit was contributed to by the man you were involved with when these crimes were committed, who you met in January 2019 and who supplied drugs to you until the relationship came to an end in March 2019. At that time you did not have any relevant prior convictions apart from a minor stealing matter from April 2017 which did not result in a conviction. However, you have since been sentenced for other offences, some of which were committed before February 2019 and some of which were committed later. There is a series of driving offences including driving with methylamphetamine in your blood, eight counts of possessing either a controlled drug or a restricted substance, and a considerable number of breaches of the conditions of your bail committed through 2019, including that you not associate with the man who stole the items you were wrongly in possession of. You were remanded in custody on 23 November 2019 for breaching bail. You remained in custody for almost a month until you were sentenced. You were sentenced on 19 December 2019 to a term of imprisonment of six months, but the balance of the term was suspended for two years. You will remain subject to that suspended sentence until November this year. A 12 month community correction order was made at the same time and I am informed that you complied with all of the conditions while that order was in force.
Your plea of guilty is in your favour. The matter has been outstanding for some time but you quickly pleaded guilty when the charges were amended to those which you accepted are correct. All of your children are in your care. You look after them with the help of both your parents. You have stable accommodation in a private rental property, you receive social security benefits and you are living within your means. I am also informed that since you spent time in prison at the end of 2019 you have weaned yourself from illicit drugs and you now abstain from drug use. You have not been in any further trouble. Those factors are very much to your credit because they demonstrate that you have been able to rehabilitate yourself and remove yourself from others who may have been a bad influence. I have concluded that your rehabilitation is the primary sentencing consideration and the order I am about to make is aimed at assisting you with that process.
Sharni Downey, you are convicted on each count. I impose one sentence. I make a community corrections order for a period of 12 months from today. The core conditions of that order will be specified in the order you will be given and include that you not commit an offence punishable by imprisonment, that you report to and comply with the directions of a probation officer, that you must not leave Tasmania without permission and that you must notify of any change of address. I impose a special condition that you must, within the operational period of the order, satisfactorily perform 35 hours of community service, as directed by a probation officer or a supervisor. I impose further special conditions that you must, during the operational period of the order, submit to the supervision of a probation officer as required by the probation officer, attend educational and other programs, undergo assessment and treatment for alcohol or drug dependency, submit to testing for alcohol or drug use and submit to medical, psychological or psychiatric assessment or treatment as directed by a probation officer. If you breach any of those conditions you may be brought back to court and re-sentenced.
If you breach any of those conditions you may be brought back to court and re-sentenced.