STATE OF TASMANIA v ANTHONY JOHN KNOWLES 27 SEPTEMBER 2024
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE PORTER AJ
Anthony Knowles, the defendant, has pleaded guilty to one count of dangerous driving and one count of assault. Both these crimes arise out of acts of driving near Campbell Town and Ross on 6 May 2023. In short, the incident was one of what is commonly described as “road rage”. At about 6.30am on 6 May 2023, the complainant, Benjamin Cowen, was driving his 4WD vehicle in a northly direction on a gravel section of Ashby Road near Ross. He had his wife and their two children aged five years and 18 months in the car with him. They were travelling from Hobart to Agfest in Carrick and were doing so by way of back roads. At this time, the defendant was driving along Ashby Road in the opposite direction. He was driving a flat tray utility vehicle and was returning home to Ross after a camping trip. The two vehicles passed each other without any incident although the defendant is said to have had his headlights on high beam. Shortly after, the defendant turned his vehicle around and drove in a northerly direction behind Mr Cowen’s vehicle. The defendant came up behind with his headlights turned off. He then flashed his headlights and Mr Cowen pulled over thinking something was wrong. The defendant continued to drive towards Mr Cowen’s vehicle flashing the headlights of his car and started to overtake it but in doing so clipped the rear of Mr Cowen’s vehicle. The defendant then drove ahead, slowed down, pulled to the left and turned the vehicle slightly sideways so it was in the middle of the road blocking it. At this point Mr Cowen stopped. The defendant got out of his vehicle and move towards Mr Cowen’s vehicle waving his arms around. When he reached the driver’s side door of Mr Cowen’s vehicle, he tried to pull at the door handle at which point Mr Cowen reversed away. As he did so the defendant hit the front corner of the bonnet with his fist. The defendant returned to his vehicle and set off again in a northly direction. Mr Cowen decided to turn his car around and travel in the other direction to avoid any further confrontation. About 10 minutes later the defendant again drove up close behind Mr Cowen’s vehicle, this time at speed and but again without the headlights on. After flashing his headlights, the defendant drove alongside Mr Cowen’s vehicle and scraped the side of it with the result that the passenger’s side mirror of his own vehicle was knocked off. Mr Cowen stopped and so did the defendant, but he reversed towards Mr Cowen’s vehicle and Mr Cowen drove backwards in retreat. By this time Mrs Cowen had telephoned the police. The officer directed them to drive to Oatlands and Mr Cowen very quickly drove in a southerly direction to get away from the defendant. Shortly after he tuned right onto the Midland Highway, the defendant again drove up close behind and then intentionally drove into the rear of Mr Cowen’s vehicle. He did this a total of seven times. The last contact pushed Mr Cowen’s vehicle off the road momentarily into gravel earthworks involving about a 30 centimetre drop from the road, but Mr Cowen was able to recover the situation and continue to drive. The defendant started to overtake on two parallel white lines but desisted and and when pulling back in clipped the rear of Mr Cowen’s vehicle. He then stopped following them.
The whole incident occupied about 13 minutes. About 15 minutes after it ended police met with the complainant and his family in Oatlands. The attending officer was provided with Mr Cowen’s dash camera footage and description of the defendant’s vehicle. Early in the afternoon of the same day the officer went to the defendant’s address and spoke to him. He was initially evasive but when asked how white paint on the bumper bar of his vehicle came to be there, the defendant acknowledged an incident of ‘road rage’. He was then arrested. When interviewed he made limited admissions. He said that Mr Cowen had his vehicle’s lights on high beam and nearly ran him off the road, a statement which is not accepted by the State and is now not adhered to. He admitted that he intentionally drove into the rear of Mr Cowen’s vehicle once because the driver had annoyed him. He agreed that he had chased Mr Cowen’s vehicle after the altercation in Ashby Road and admitted again hitting his vehicle from behind. He was charged and bailed. As a result of the defendant’s actions of driving into the rear of the vehicle Mr Cowen suffered an aggravation of a pre-existing neck injury and his car was considerably damaged to the extent that his insurance company considered it to be a “write off”. Replacement value was in excess of $24,000. I note the intentional ramming of the other vehicle is one of the 12 particulars of the crime of dangerous driving. The other particulars relate to instances of unsafe driving and manoeuvring, disobeying road markings and driving in the dark without headlights on. The assault is alleged to have been committed by way of repeatedly driving into Mr Cowen’s vehicle from behind.
I have victim impact statements of both Mr Cowen and his wife, Isle Cowen, dated 4 September 2024. Mr Cowen says that the rear end collisions resulted him in receiving low back injuries and whiplash type injuries for which he is continuing to receive physiotherapy and there seems to be a possibility of the need for future back surgery. He is on daily medication. He has now been diagnosed with PTSD and a major depressive disorder something which he had not experienced before. He has not been able to return to the work due to the physical and mental effects of this incident. The loss of his vehicle has caused inconvenience and extra emotional stress in addition to financial stress. He believes this incident has changed him and his family permanently. He is now more wary and on edge with people and is cautious and defensive. His five year old son has also being dealing with mental health issues and is receiving counselling. Isle Cowen said they are still feeling the effects of this attack. She is currently on medical leave from work to take care of herself and her family. She says her solid career and her reliable work reputation have changed due to sickness, stress and the need to take medical leave. She has also been diagnosed with PTSD and anxiety. She struggles to drive in the dark. They were used to undertaking many outdoor activities including camping, but they no longer do that. She experiences panic attacks if she sees someone driving aggressively.
The defendant is now 43 years old. He has a record of offending which includes relevant matters. Offending of a traffic nature includes road safety and alcohol and drugs breaches and many regulatory offences. There is also minor drug offending. Of particular note though, are the following. There are convictions in July 2013 for common assault; in February 2018 for aggravated assault, resist a police officer and possess loaded firearm in public for which he was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment; in September 2019 for injury to property for which he was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment; in December 2020 for a family violence common assault and a further common assault for which, along with a miscellany of other offences, he was sentenced to five months’ imprisonment; and in September 2023 for a further common assault and injury to property. Of course, the convictions in the last matter pre-dated this offending but the offences were committed in June 2022. That record relevantly shows a tendency to violence and a disregard for traffic laws. At the time of the sentencing hearing the defendant was living with his grandmother in Ross and assisted with her care. He was in a relationship and is the father of two children from a previous relationship who are adults. He was employed as a farm worker in the area where he lived and had been so employed for about two years. A very significant matter in his personal circumstances is that about six months after this incident he sustained serious injuries in a single motor vehicle accident. It appears that he was driving home from a hotel in a drunken state and veered off the road. I have a neuropsychological report form Dr Roddy dated 30 April 2024. That reveals that the defendant sustained a very severe brain injury along with a significant fracture of the C1 vertebra. His treatment was prolonged and intense. There is evidence of mood disturbance in the form of anxiety and stress symptoms which have a moderate impact on his daily functioning. Testing revealed weaknesses in attention processing speed and core verbal and visual skills. Verbal and visual memory are variable beyond what might have been expected pre-morbidly. He has difficulty consolidating information leading to increased forgetfulness and limited benefit from recognition queuing. His executive functioning skills are variable with tendencies for reduced divided attention, attentional switching, some dissipation and behavioural impulsivity. He also has a minor speech defect and has occasional word finding difficulty. Dr Roddy is of the view that the defendant will have difficulty returning to full farmhand duties as he would struggle to fulfil the physical and cognitive demands of usual duties on the farm. His impulsivity may also to contribute to poor or potential risky decision-making in respect of his work duties. He is likely to be limited by cognitive and physical fatigue. The authorities have suspended the defendant’s licence to drive because of his disabilities. The impact of the injuries is such that he is unable to provide instructions as to what prompted him to act in the way he did on the day in question, but I am told he accepts that whatever may have been Mr Cowen’s conduct that upset him, his response was totally appalling and out of all proportion.
This is a serious incident involving a high degree of criminality. All the particulars of the dangerous driving arise from angry retribution for some perceived slight, and for the purposes of instilling fear. This must have been a terrifying ordeal. Aspects of the defendant’s driving placed the occupants of Mr Cowen’s vehicle at risk. Actual physical harm was caused to Mr Cowen and emotional harm to all occupants of the vehicle. As noted before, the acts of repeatedly driving into the back of Mr Cowen’s vehicle constitute a particular of dangerous driving and those particulars also appear in the crime of assault. Accordingly, the Court needs to avoid double punishment in relation to that particular conduct. The defendant effectively used his vehicle as a weapon in the assault. Plainly, factors of general deterrence and denunciation are prominent in the sentencing process. There is a need to deter others who may be tempted to behaviour is a similar way and the conduct needs to be completely condemned. At the same time, I take into account the defendant’s pleas of guilty which were not early ones but retain utilitarian value. The defendant still requires ongoing medical treatment in terms of his physical and mental difficulties. While there is no suggestion that the required treatment will not be available to him in prison, the reality is generally accepted to be that medical treatment in prisons is less than optimum due to difficulties in accessing health professionals and in transportation. I take that into account. It is possible the factor of specific deterrence has been moderated by the intervening effect of the defendant’s injuries but given his history of violence it must remain a factor.
Mr Knowles, I have set out the facts of the matter, your personal circumstances and what I see to be relevant considerations. They include, of course, the impact on the occupants of the other car, both immediate and long-term, and your personal circumstances as they were at the time and now are. There is little alternative to a lengthy term of imprisonment. You are convicted of the two counts and sentenced to a global term of three years, imprisonment to commence on 6 September 2024 and I order that you not be eligible for parole until you have served one half of that sentence. You will be disqualified from driving for five years from your release, which means your licence is cancelled. Lastly, I make a compensation order in favour of NRMA Insurance in the sum of $24,044.77.