STATE OF TASMANIA v KLM 13 FEBRUARY 2026
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE SHANAHAN CJ
These comments in passing sentence have been anonymized to comply with s 194K of the Evidence Act , and I refer to the offender in the first person as “KLM”. On 17 October last year, you entered a plea of guilty to indictment 300 of 2024, the indictment pleads a single count of persistent family violence, contrary to s 170A(2) of the Criminal Code 1924.
Your date of birth is 28 July 1996 and you are currently 29 years of age.
You commenced a relationship with the complainant, to whom I will refer as “JFK”, in 2016. You were married to the complainant in July 2018. There are two children of that relationship, a son, born in 2017; and a daughter, born in 2019.
JFK was born on the 1 January 1999 and she is currently 27 years of age.
During that relationship, you both resided at JFK’s parents’ house in Brighton. At some point you became verbally abusive to the complainant, frequently calling her “a cunt”. The complainant experienced low sexual desire and you would get angry when she said “No” to sex. You would initiate sex by getting on top of the complainant and kissing her. She would ask you to stop, but you would not listen unless she got cranky.
You frequently touched the complainant to the area of her genitalia. When you did, the complainant would tell you to stop. You would continue for a minute or two before desisting. Sometimes, the complainant would tell you to stop seven or eight times before you would desist. On occasion, this would involve digital penetration of the complainant’s vagina. This would also happen when you were in bed together. You would touch the complainant to the back, bottom, and legs, and also to the area of her vagina, while she was asleep in order to attempt to wake her and initiate sexual contact.
On occasion, you would touch the complainant to the area of her vagina, over her clothing, in front of her mother, to “stir her”. It appears that sometimes you intended this to be a joke; although, on other occasions, you would give the explanation that the act was a joke, even when he was motivated by sexual desire.
It is put that this kind of behaviour occurred weekly, sometimes on multiple occasions. In total, this has occurred more times than the complainant can count. The complainant felt afraid to tell you that she did not appreciate your sexual advances. By December of 2021, the complainant had resolved to break off the relationship with you but was afraid to tell you.
There are a number of specific occasions which comprise the crime of persistent family violence, and they were pleaded as particulars.
Occasion one was an indecent assault. This occurred on one occasion in approximately August or September of 2020, when the complainant was asleep in bed, sometime between 1 and 2am. The complainant was lying on her stomach, asleep, and you were lying on your side beside her. While she slept, you touched the complainant to the area of her vagina, or her external genitalia, with two fingers, for between five and 10 minutes. You did this in the hope that the complainant would wake up and become aroused. The complainant did not wake up, and you stopped and went to sleep. Afterwards, you told the complainant about having done this; the complainant told you it was a bad thing to do.
Occasion two was also an indecent assault. This occurred in 2020 or 2021 when you and the complainant were at home. You attempted to remove the complainant’s clothing and would not stop when the complainant told you to. You rubbed your penis against the complainant’s genitalia. This was not skin-on-skin contact but was contact through clothing. The complainant thought she would have to yell for her dad to get you to stop and told you so. Eventually, you did stop, but not before the complainant became quite angry and upset.
The complainant told you that she did not like what you were doing as it reminded her of a traumatic sexual experience she had had as a teenager, and you apologised to her. The complainant told her mum what had happened, and she spoke to you and chastised you for what you had done. Despite this, however, you continued to touch the complainant to the area of her vagina and genitalia on multiple occasions.
Occasion three is a further indecent assault. On an occasion in mid-December of 2021, you and the complainant were in the lounge room of the house with the complainant’s mother. You and complainant were arguing. During the argument, you walked over to the complainant and touched her in the area of her genitalia over her clothing. The complainant told you to stop, but you did it at least three times before saying, “Okay” and walking away. The complainant was angry and upset and told her mother that this was not the first time you had not stopped touching her when she had asked you to do so.
Police were called to attend the house on the 23 December 2021 after the complainant called police and reported that you had assaulted her parents. Upon police arrival, you were crying and yelling. While speaking to police about the incident of that day, the complainant outlined the general history of unwanted sexual contact in her relationship with you. She completed a statutory declaration at that time and then participated in a video-recorded statement on 30 December 2021.
On 31 December 2021, you attended the Bridgewater Police Station by appointment and were interviewed under caution. You said that you were aware of the complainant’s past experience relating to an episode of sexual assault. You like to play a lot, including wrestling for fun. Because you both live with the complainant’s parents, you do not get to spend much time with the complainant alone, so whenever you are around her, you get the urge to want sexual attention from her.
During your interview you said that when she says, “Don’t touch me,” it’s like you do not want to let her go. You know you should back off, but you want that attention more than she does. Sometimes, you will touch her to the area of her genitalia unintentionally, and when you do that, you tell her, “Oh, sorry, that was just a joke.” It depends on what mood she is in as to whether she thinks it is a joke. When it is intentional, it is to lead to sexual intercourse.
You said you argue with yourself in your mind a lot. It is really hard to try and make yourself stop. When you are with the complainant you want her and nobody else. One side of your mind will be telling you, “No, you need to stop,” and the other side is going, “No, no, keep doing it,” when you know that you have to stop. When you tell yourself to stop, you do not always stop. You keep going because the other side of your mind tells you that if you keep going, the complainant will want it. Then, when you do that, you apologise to the complainant, but one side of your mind is saying, “You shouldn’t be apologising.”
You said the last time it happened was a month or two ago. You just wanted to hold the complainant and be in her presence when she told you to stop and let go. The other part of your mind was going, “No, don’t let her go, because she’s your wife, you want to be in her presence, you want her to feel safe in your company.” You were forcing yourself on her, hugging her and giving her kisses because you wanted attention from her. You were pushing yourself against her. You then got off the complainant and told her, “I’m so sorry.” You were seeing a counsellor about this and your anger issues.
A few weeks prior to the interview, you said you had touched the complainant over her vagina on her clothes. You kept doing it when you should not have done so. You kept putting your hand down there to try to make the complainant want intercourse. You did it two or three times. The complainant told you to stop; it took her about four or five times of saying ‘stop’ for you to stop. You do this often, unfortunately. Your father used to sexually assault you and keep going even when you would tell him to stop. You think you have transported this into your relationship with the complainant.
You said that you started acting like this towards the complainant a year or so into your relationship. The complainant’s mother has told you to stop forcing yourself onto the complainant. You have had that conversation a few times over the years you and the complainant have been together.
You are utterly disappointed in the way you have behaved over your relationship with the complainant. When you have engaged in this type of behaviour, you fall back into your bed and feel depressed because you know you have traumatised the complainant and that you should have backed off straight away when she said ‘stop’. The complainant has told you that she will call for her dad when you do not stop, and you do stop because you did not want her dad knowing what is going on. Sometimes, when you get angry, you will touch the complainant to the breasts or the area of her vagina. You said you feel very alone when the complainant is asleep. On occasion, you have tickled her to the thigh and bottom, and your hand also touches her vagina when she is asleep. There have been other times when she has been awake and she has told you to stop.
You said the last time that happened would have been last year. The complainant was asleep and you were giving her back, bottom, and leg tickles, and you started tickling past her thighs and around the area of her vagina, and one of your fingers was stoking across the area of her vagina. The complainant stayed asleep. You have touched her in her sleep, and in reference to the indecent assault, occasion one, you described this as “fingering”. When you did that, you thought she would wake up and want intercourse, but it did not work. You stopped and went back to bed. You also said that you did it a year ago, in approximately August or September. You said it did not turn her on because she did not wake up at all. You thought you should stop. You did it for five or 10 minutes before you stopped. You wanted to try to turn her on, but it did not work so you gave up. When you discussed it with the complainant, the complainant told you that you should not have done it. You did not do it again because the complainant did not wake up to it. You have not done it since as you were not going to get anything out of it.
You said you do ask the complainant if she wants it but you keep going when she says “No” and become forceful in most cases. You have forced yourself upon the complainant three or four times in the past year when you knew she did not want it. By “forcing yourself upon her” you said you meant touching her and kissing her and trying to turn her on. You are not happy with yourself. You are absolutely disgusted with yourself. You wanted to be a better person than your father and you are scared to become like your father. You said if you get these urges again, you are not going to interact with them.
You were charged with persistent family violence in December 2022 and first appeared in the Hobart Magistrates Court in January of 2023. The State’s trial papers were filed in November of 2024, and the matter was intended to proceed to trial. I was offered no explanation for the lengthy delay in the filing of the trial papers between 2023 and 2024. There were discussions with the accused’s previous counsel in early 2025 about resolving the matter. Ultimately, that did not proceed anywhere at that time.
I listened carefully to the victim impact statement read by the complainant on the sentencing hearing. In particular, I note the complainant’s statement that “I don’t trust men anymore, at all. I can’t see myself being in another relationship, because I can’t trust that another man won’t abuse me as well”. Obviously your conduct has had a substantial and continuing impact on the complainant.
The impacts described by the complainant in her victim impact statement are not unusual, in cases of persistent family violence of the type you have pleaded guilty to. Sexual abuse in an ongoing and long-term domestic relationship involves a significant breach of trust.
In terms of prior convictions the Crown highlighted the common assaults against the complainant’s mother. This appears to be as a consequence of your conduct and you and the complainant living with JFK’s parents. That is reflected in the fact that the complainant was present on each of those occasions, and witnessed the assaults perpetrated against her mother. I do not propose to seek to excavate your relationship with either or both of the complainant’s parents except in general terms and to the extent that it is relevant to sentencing.
It was submitted that the close proximity of the complainant’s parents, as is observed by the complainant in her victim impact statement, was likely to heighten the shame and embarrassment felt as the victim of ongoing perpetration of family violence.
It was accepted by the Crown that you were quite frank in the admissions that you made in your interview with police. Indeed, as I understand it, the matter charged as occasion one is the direct result of admissions that you made, without which there would be no evidence of that criminal conduct.
It was put that your frank approach to police can be contrasted with the Community Corrections assessment as to your current level of insight and any indication of remorse in relation to this matter. It is put that I should take the mixed versions as to your level of insight and remorse into account in counterbalancing what was said in the interview.
It was further submitted that since the inclusion of the crime of persistent family violence in the Criminal Code, there has only been one non-active custodial sentence in relation to that matter. That matter did involve sexual offending within a relationship.
I accept that the nature of this type of offending is serious, and I have reflected on the best way to emphasise the seriousness of this offending and the principles of specific and general deterrence whilst also seeking to meet the broad range of other sentencing objects, including the operation of the Verdins principle.
It was accepted on your behalf that if a home detention order is not made, that a wholly suspended period of imprisonment, coupled with a community corrections order, would be an appropriate disposition. In that regard it was submitted that a community corrections order would assist you. Suggested programs included the Family Violence Offender Intervention Program, and it was accepted that there would have to be some programs aimed at your understanding of the dynamics of sexual relationships and what constitutes consent. Clearly, Community Corrections are best placed to identify helpful programs as they are best placed to identify the engagement with psychological, psychiatric or medical treatment as is necessary.
The nature of the offending suggests that were I to make a community corrections order, it should include special conditions to facilitate such treatment and engagement.
It was put that you have not offended since being charged, and that your separation from your children has come at a great personal cost to you, but in light of what has occurred you have stayed away and have not seen your children since your relationship with the complainant ended.
Whilst a relatively young man at 29 years of age, you are not a youth.
You grew up in the Bridgewater area of Hobart with your younger sister. Your parents separated in 2016 when you were 20 years old. Your father moved to Launceston and he has re-partnered and had more children. You see your father on a sporadic basis. Your mother passed away in 2019 when you were 23 years old, and I am told it was an extremely difficult life event for you to deal with.
It is submitted that, whilst a child, you were subjected to conflict and anger between your parents and a lack of boundaries and education regarding appropriate sexual behaviour. Certainly, your criminal behaviour towards the complainant was persistent.
You were educated to year 12 and have since been employed in the hospitality industry. You are currently employed at an hotel, where you have worked for the past two years on a casual but stable basis. You are single and live alone at your unit, which you accessed through Mission Australia.
You met the complainant through an on-line dating application and commenced a relationship in January 2017, when you were only 21. You had little relationship or sexual experience at that time. You and the complainant discussed having a child almost immediately after you started your relationship. The complainant fell pregnant with your first child within a month of the commencement of your relationship.
In July 2017, you and the complainant told her parents about her pregnancy. This was the first time you had met the complainant’s parents. Your son was born in October 2017 and two weeks later you moved into the complainant’s parents’ house. The dynamics of those arrangements were problematic.
You married the complainant in 2018 and your daughter was born in 2019. The relationship ended towards the end of 2021.
You were diagnosed with ADHD as a child and have a Mild Intellectual Disability with a Full Scale IQ score of 69. In that regard I have a forensic psychological report from Dr Jennifer Wright, dated 19 January 2025. That report, at paragraph 14, noted that your presentation to Dr Wright was said to be “consistent with mild intellectual disability”. Dr Wright describes your account of living with the complainant and her parents at paragraphs 20-24 of her report, it was clearly a difficult arrangement which lead to conflict.
Dr Wright records your history that being diagnosed with ADHD included a tendency towards impulsive aggression when angered and, as an adult, having difficulty not engaging in impulsive action when in an emotional state.
Dr Wright concludes that you are at a “moderate risk” of engaging in further acts of intimate partner violence in your future relationships.
In respect of your admissions to police and your commentary regarding your father, Dr Wright reports that you “described poor boundaries and education regarding appropriate sexual behaviour and … [that you] … witnessed … [your] … parents engage in sexual activity when … [you were] … a child.” She said that you reported that your “father engaged in sexual behaviours and gave him advice that … [you] … perceived to be ‘teaching … [you] … how it works’ when [you] were in your teens which further compounded the lack of sexual boundaries and knowledge in regard to what was right and wrong”.
Dr Wright opined that you have difficulties with consequential thinking and problem solving as a result of your Mild Intellectual Disability, coupled with impulsivity and problems with behavioural controls as a result of your ADHD in the context of lacking a clear and explicit sexual education, leading to a lack of understanding of appropriate sexual boundaries. These deficits go to the first Verdins principle and are said to underpin your inability to exercise appropriate judgment and to impair your ability to appreciate the consequences of your conduct.
Dr Wright noted that these deficits are permanent not transient, and to reduce your risk of re-offending it is recommended that you “would benefit from long term engagement in psychological intervention and education to assist [you] to manage your emotions and impulsivity; to better understand sexual boundaries and appropriate behaviours”.
In respect of Verdins principles 3 and 4, in particular whether the general deterrent should be moderated or eliminated as a sentencing consideration as a consequence of the nature and severity of the symptoms you experience, Dr Wright opined that you have not had the benefit of engaging in psychological intervention as an adult, which you now state you are motivated to engage in, and “that is what is required for you to address the reasons for your offending”.
In respect of the likelihood that a sentence of imprisonment may weigh more heavily on you because of your mental health conditions, Dr Wright states “In my view imprisonment for people with Intellectual Disability and ADHD is more onerous as they are more vulnerable and experience the custodial environment as more aversive than those who do not have these conditions.” It says you are likely to respond negatively to imprisonment, and to have difficulty coping with it. The Crown, in reply, did not “take particular issue” with Dr Wright’s report or her account of the Verdins principles, but noted the admitted motivation for the offending was sexual gratification.
I have taken Dr Wright’s opinions into account and have taken into account the Verdins principles in the disposition of this matter.
The primary points put in mitigation were: (a) your offending was a less serious example of the crime and I am required to apply the principle of totality when imposing a sentence, in that regard it was noted that occasions two and three relied upon for this prosecution, involve contact through clothing and would ordinarily, in line with DPP charging guidelines, be charged as summary offences; (b) the application of the Verdins principles; (c) the fact that you remain a relatively young person, and have no prior convictions outside matters involving the complainant’s mother; and (d) you have pleaded guilty to the charge, which includes the facts described as occasion one, the most serious indecent assault, which has only come to light through the admissions you made first to the complainant and then to the police.
I have a Community Corrections Home Detention Assessment Report which assesses you as unsuitable for home detention, an assessment which I accept.
It is submitted on your behalf that you are supported by the JustAce program and that program will continue to support you after sentence. I am told that you are in the process of seeking NDIS support, as well as medical and psychological assistance.
In respect of your remorse and acceptance of responsibility, it was put that despite your dual mental disabilities, you have insight that what you did was wrong. That is why you have admitted your guilt and why you spoke to police about it, and why one of the pleaded occasions did not come from the complainant’s report; it came from your own admissions.
It was also acknowledged on your behalf, that all offending of this type is obviously serious offending. But it was put that, comparatively speaking, the actual acts alleged by the State, or the actual acts that form the basis of the offending are limited in terms of number, duration, and level of seriousness.
In reply, the Crown accepted that your offending was not at the top end of offending of this type. It was also put that post‑sentence the existing protective bail conditions will cease and an application was made pursuant to s 36 of the Family Violence Act for a family violence order upon sentence, on conditions that you do not threaten, harass, abuse or assault the complainant.
KLM, I convict you on the single count of persistent family violence contrary to s 170A(2) of the Criminal Code, charged on indictment 300 of 2024. Offending of this type is very serious and has been condemned by this Court, it usually attracts a period of immediate imprisonment.
Your persistent offending constitutes a serious breach of trust and appears to have primarily been motivated by the desire for sexual gratification, it has heavily impacted upon the complainant’s sense of safety.
I am, however, very conscious of your diagnosed conditions of ADHD and mild intellectual impairment and the impulsivity which flows therefrom. I have taken into account the opinion of Dr Wright and the application of the Verdins principles as described in my comments in passing sentence.
Since being charged, I understand that you have generally been of good behaviour and have taken some steps to address your conduct, whilst there have been some differing accounts proffered to the Court, I accept that you are remorseful, have co-operated with police and have some insight into your offending.
A term of immediate imprisonment is necessary to express the need for general and specific deterrence in respect of this type of offending. I impose a single sentence. I sentence you to 15 months’ imprisonment, but wholly suspend the execution of that term for 18 months on the condition that you commit no offence punishable by imprisonment.
I also make that order suspending the execution of your sentence subject to the supervision of a probation officer under s 24(2) of the Sentencing Act, in which regard I make the following community corrections order.
I make a community corrections order under s 42AN of the Sentencing Act which will commence immediately and operate for period 18 months This means you will be subject to the supervision of a probation officer. That order will include all the core conditions under s 42AO of the Sentencing Act and the following special conditions, that is that during the operational period of the order:
- you must submit to the supervision of a probationary officer as required by a probation officer;
- you must attend educational and other programs as directed by a probation officer;
- you must not consume alcohol;
- you must submit to testing for alcohol use as directed by a probationary officer;
- you must undergo assessment and treatment for alcohol dependency as directed by a probation officer, and
- you must submit to psychological or psychiatric assessment as directed by a probation officer.
By making those orders pursuant to s 24(2) I acknowledge the seriousness of your offending.
The Family Violence Act 2004 defines a “family violence offence” as “any offence the commission of which constitutes family violence”, and “family violence” is defined at s 7. I am satisfied that the gravamen of your offending constitutes family violence within the definition at s 7(1)(a)(i). I make an order under s 13A of the Family Violence Act that this offending be recorded on your criminal record as a “family violence offence”.
The Crown submits that these are matters to which s 6 of the Community Protection Offender Recording Act 2005 applies. That provision requires the Court to make an order directing the Registrar to cause the name of a person sentenced for a reportable offence to be placed on the register, and the person to comply with the provisions of that Act unless the Court is satisfied that the person does not pose a risk of committing a reportable offence. Offences against s 170A of the Criminal Code, such as this, are a reportable offence pursuant to s 12 of that Act as a class 2 offence, but only if the offending involves the commission of an unlawful family violence act involving an offence against another provision listed in Schedule 2. That note appears in Schedule 2.
The most relevant “other” provision referenced in Schedule 2 is to “indecent assault” and it is on the basis that this matter involves at least one “indecent assault” that it is a “reportable offence” within the meaning of the Community Protection Offender Recording Act 2005. I will hear submissions on that matter.
I can indicate that I am not satisfied that you do not pose a risk of committing a reportable offence and I note Dr Wright’s report in that regard. I make an order, under the relevant Act, that your name be placed on the Register of persons reporting for a period of two years, and that you comply with the requirements of that Act.
I make a protective order under s 36 of the Family Violence Act that you not threaten, harass, abuse or assault the complainant. I make that order for a period of two years.