STATE OF TASMANIA v BRADLEY JOHN HOLTON-CRANE 14 MARCH 2024
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE BLOW CJ
Bradley Holton-Crane, I have to sentence you on charges of assault, stealing and breach of bail. These charges relate to an incident on 17 August 2021. At that time you were on bail on a charge under s 170 of the Criminal Code in respect of which you were later convicted and sentenced. You are now serving that sentence. Your bail conditions included a curfew condition requiring you to be at a residence in Turners Marsh between 10pm and 7am each night. You had been out of prison for about eight weeks at that time and you were habitually spending the night with the complainant in this case at her home on Ravenswood. She was a former partner of yours.
An incident occurred on 17 August that resulted in you being arrested on 18 August and charged with rape, assault and stealing, and brought to trial. At the commencement of the trial two days ago, you pleaded guilty to the stealing charge. I’ll come back to that. The rape charge involved an allegation that you had oral sexual intercourse with the complainant without her consent. The jury found you not guilty on that charge. It was common ground that oral intercourse had taken place so I must sentence you on the basis that there was consensual oral intercourse at the time in question. The assault charge involved allegations of a number of unlawful physical acts on your part. I have made findings this morning to the effect that three such acts have been proven beyond reasonable doubt.
On the occasion in question you had found a letter that had been written to the complainant by a former sexual partner of hers. You got angry about that. You pushed the letter into her face and grabbed her by her clothing. Then, at the conclusion of the act of oral intercourse, you slapped her to the head causing her to fall off a couch and onto the floor. The pushing of the letter into the face resulted in a small mark on the bridge of the complainant’s nose that could be seen in some body worn camera footage taken by a police officer and screened during the trial.
After the assault, you took the complainant’s mobile phone and two bank cards of hers. The stealing charge related to the taking of those items. You took them back to your residence at Turners Marsh. Within hours some police officers went there with a search warrant, arrested you, and found the stolen items under your mattress. They were returned to the complainant. Your counsel told me that you took them because she owed you money. In her evidence she said that she only owed you about $15. I understand that you contend that you were owed more than that. I do not think the amount owed makes any difference. You should not have taken those items. It was a silly, impulsive thing that you did, but the complainant got them back.
So far as victim impact is concerned, it appears to have been minimal. You had been to prison before this incident in relation to family violence charges relating to the same complainant. She had you back, to the extent that she had resumed having sexual relations with you. She conceded during her evidence at this trial that later in 2021 she had consensual vaginal intercourse with you on a number of occasions. It is particularly clear from the body worn camera footage that she was upset in the hours after this incident, and it may be that in the long term she will regret resuming a sexual relationship with you, but this does not appear to have been a case where there was a terrible psychological impact.
You were 34 when you committed these offences. You are now 36. You have got a terrible criminal record. It contains a number of convictions for family violence offences and for assaults. Your second conviction, when you were only 18, was for assaulting a pregnant woman. You are serving a sentence of 4 ½ years’ imprisonment in relation to a charge under s 170 of the Criminal Code of committing an act intended to cause bodily harm. I have been provided with the sentencing comments in relation to that matter. It appears that you seriously assaulted another man in circumstances involving sexual jealousy, just as you assaulted the complainant in this case in circumstances involving sexual jealousy. Because you are serving that long sentence I must take a more lenient course than I would otherwise have taken. I am also taking into account the fact that you spent eight days in custody in relation to these matters in August 2021.
Because of your terrible record and because these offences all relate to family violence, I do not think that a concurrent sentence would be appropriate. The offences are fairly minor compared to what this Court ordinarily deals with. I think the appropriate course is to impose a short cumulative sentence of imprisonment without provision for parole. I am dealing with the breach of bail charge under s 385A of Criminal Code.
I convict you on the three charges and, as a global penalty, I sentence you to 7 weeks’ imprisonment cumulatively with the sentence you are currently serving. I specify that I am making no provision as to parole.
I direct that the assault conviction is to be recorded on your criminal record as a conviction for a family violence offence.