STATE OF TASMANIA v CADE GEORDIE HAINES 24 SEPTEMBER 2026
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE PEARCE J
Cade Haines, you plead guilty to assault. The crime was committed on 5 November 2023 against Peter Baker. At the time you were aged 35 and Mr Baker was 67. He was your mother’s long term partner and they lived together in Karoola. At about 2.45 pm on that day you drove to their house. When your mother and Ms Baker came out to meet you, you punched Mr Baker in the face with a closed fist. The blow knocked him to the ground. Whilst he was on the ground you repeatedly punched him to the face and head. You stopped the assault when your mother intervened. Mr Baker walked away and phoned emergency services. He also called his son for help, who came and drove Mr Baker to hospital.
The blows you inflicted damaged many of Mr Baker’s teeth, which were missing, chipped or loose. His nasal bones and upper jaw were fractured. He suffered a full thickness laceration of the lower lip which required stitches to repair. Apart from that, his lower and upper lips were swollen, his left eye was bruised and his nose was bleeding.
Your record includes instances of assault commencing when you were a youth. In 2009, when you were 19, you were convicted of common assault and made subject to an undertaking to be of good behaviour. On 24 July 2014 you were sentenced to a wholly suspended three month term for two counts of common assault associated with other family violence offences. That is the most recent offence of violence on your record. Since then, in 2019 you were sentenced to imprisonment, some of which was suspended, for a string of burglaries. You committed more offences of dishonesty and firearm offences in 2020 and served a short term. Then, on 13 April 2021, you were sentenced to a term of 18 months, with nine months suspended for 18 months, for dishonesty and damage to property, and not long afterwards, part of the previously suspended term was activated.
You are now 38. At the time of this crime you lived on another part of the property on which your mother and Mr Baker lived. You had been subject to break ins at your home. On this day you drank to excess and formed the irrational belief that Mr Baker may have had something to do with the burglaries. There was no basis for this at all. You had previously got on with Mr Baker and he did nothing at all to provoke this attack. It was plainly a very serious assault. Mr Baker was badly injured and although there is no victim impact statement, his injuries and their ongoing effects must be traumatic for him. I would infer that his dental injuries are likely to have a very long term impact. A sentence of imprisonment is the only appropriate sentence. However I was asked to consider a sentence which does not result in your immediate imprisonment. As a result of this crime you lost your home. You experienced a period of homelessness but have relatively recently obtained new stable accommodation. Despite your personal difficulties you have shown in the past that you are able to hold stable employment in labouring positions and you may have employment available to you. You pleaded guilty. Although it was not an early plea, I am satisfied that it is indicative of some remorse. Although you have had difficulty with drug abuse in the past you now claim to be drug free except for cannabis use in relation to which you are working with your general practitioner. I sought a screening assessment which assesses you, because of that drug use and because of the nature of this crime, as unsuitable for community service. If support in the community can assist you to get your life on track then everyone will benefit. I would have ordered community service but, in light of the contents of the report, I cannot now make that order. You should clearly understand, however, that unless you take advantage of the opportunity that is now being offered to you by remaining free of offending and by complying with the conditions of the order that I am about to make, it is almost inevitable that you will go to prison.
Cade Haines, you are convicted on the indictment. You are sentenced to imprisonment for 15 months. I suspend all of that term for 18 months from today on the following conditions:
- You are not to commit another offence punishable by imprisonment during that period. If you breach that condition you will be required to serve that term unless that is unjust.
- During the 18 month operational period of the order, commencing today, you will be subject to the supervision of a probation officer. The conditions referred to in s 24(5B) of the Sentencing Act apply to these conditions and will be set out in the order you will be given. These include that you must report to a probation officer at the office of Community Corrections in Launceston within three clear working days, you must submit to supervision and comply with the directions given by your probation officer, you must not leave Tasmania without permission and you must notify of any change of address.
- In addition to those conditions, the order will also include the following special conditions that you must, during the operational period of the order:
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;
attend and complete the EQUIPS addiction program and the EQUIPS aggression program if directed to do so by a probation officer.