HINDS, M K

STATE OF TASMANIA v MICHELLE KYLIE HINDS                             29 APRIL 2022

COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE                                                            PEARCE J

 Michelle Hinds, you plead guilty to aggravated burglary and assault on a pregnant woman. I also agreed to deal with your plea of guilty to the related summary charges of common assault and aggravated common assault. The offences were all committed on 3 November 2021. You and your husband Frederick had been in a relationship for 12 years. You were with him in a car parked in the car park of a shopping centre in Launceston. You were with the younger of your two children having just dropped your other child at a child care centre. Your husband told you, despite repeated past denials, that he had been having an affair with a mutual friend, and that she was pregnant. You argued and then you assaulted him. You struck his head with your hand several times before grabbing his head with both hands and repeatedly hitting it against the car window. You then demanded that he take you to the home of the woman with whom he had been having an affair, who I will call the complainant. He complied. At the time she was 20, you were 30 and your husband was 26.

When you arrived at the complainant’s address you left your husband and child in the car and walked to the shed at the rear of the property in which you knew she lived. You kicked in the door and found her inside. By going inside intending violence you committed an aggravated burglary. You yelled at her and pushed her over. While yelling that she needed to get an abortion you punched her once in the stomach. You threw a second punch towards her stomach but she deflected it to her left hip. You then forcefully slapped her face before leaving. The punch to her stomach constituted the crime of assault on a pregnant woman. The push and the slap together constituted a common assault which was aggravated because you knew she was pregnant. There were thus three separate applications of force referred to in the charges but all were part of the same course of conduct. The police were notified and you were arrested not long afterwards. You immediately admitted what you had done and spent two hours in custody. You pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.

You have no prior convictions of any nature. Until this incident you led a law abiding life. I accept that your actions were an immediate response to the disclosure of infidelity which your husband had just made. No doubt you felt extremely angry and betrayed by both your husband and the complainant, not only for yourself but also for your children. Whilst that may explain your conduct it does not excuse it. It is an aggravating factor that you assaulted your husband in the presence of one of your children. You then invaded the complainant’s home. As upset as you were, to aim a punch at her stomach, believing her to be pregnant, had potential to pose a real risk to her health. Despite that risk there is no suggestion that the complainant’s pregnancy was compromised in any way. She has not provided a victim impact statement. That may be for a range of reasons, and does not necessarily imply that there was no impact. However a medical report from her general practitioner records that she attended for examination with her mother on that same day. The complainant reported the details of the assault to her doctor, but said that she did not need immediate medical help, was calm and in control during the consultation and was primarily concerned with her unplanned pregnancy and not the assault.

You quickly realised the seriousness of what you did and I accept that you are very sorry for it. References tendered on your behalf attest to your otherwise good character and to your devotion to your children who are 5 and 2. You are hardworking and hold permanent part time employment. One of the references is from your husband. He is completely forgiving and refers in detail to your good qualities. His attitude to sentence is not relevant except that a lenient sentence is not likely to aggravate any feelings of distress, hurt and violation he may feel. You have remained together and have been regularly attending marriage counselling to address the difficulties in your relationship. I am satisfied that your violent conduct was an out of character reaction to the particularly distressing circumstance in which you found yourself and that you pose little future risk to the complainant or anyone else.

A sentence of imprisonment is not required. I do not see a fine as appropriate. A community correction order requiring community service will allow you the opportunity to make amends, possibly to participate in programs. It is likely to be onerous because you will have to comply with the obligation to complete the community service between your family and employment commitments.

You are convicted on each count. I impose one sentence. I make a community corrections order for a period of 18 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 70 hours of community service, as directed by a probation officer or a supervisor. If you breach any of those conditions you may be brought back to court and re-sentenced.