STATE OF TASMANIA v NS 29 MAY 2025
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE CUTHBERTSON J
NS, you have pleaded guilty to the crime of perverting justice by providing a false name and other identifying information to police. On 6 August 2024 you were staying at the Village Motor Inn in Launceston. At about 10.30pm, police attended your hotel room and executed a search warrant. They spoke with you and asked you your name and date of birth. You provided the name and date of birth of another person. During their search of the hotel room, police located property that had been stolen earlier that day. You were arrested in respect of that property and taken to the Launceston Police Station. You were presented to the custody sergeant and again provided the same false name and date of birth. You were interviewed by police the next day. During the course of that interview, and while under caution, your provided the same false name and date of birth and an address in Hobart that was not yours. You denied being responsible for any of the stolen property. At the conclusion of the interview, you were charged. You underwent the relevant forensic procedures including having your fingerprints taken. You were issued with a police bail notice in the name of the other person. The fingerprints were later examined and found to match your fingerprints, not those of the person you purported to be.
On 12 August 2024, you went to the Hobart Police Station. At that time you identified yourself by your real name. Police systems were checked. It was discovered you had breached a curfew condition on 16 July and you were arrested. You also told police that you had been arrested in Launceston and had given a false name and date of birth. As a consequence of those admissions, you were arrested and participated in an interview. You admitted being arrested and giving the false name and date of birth. You also admitted you did not correct those false details throughout the custody process including when you were released from custody and given a bail document in a false name. You told police you had never met the person whose details you had used, but used the alias as the birthdate was similar to yours and easy to remember. You told police you gave the false details as you were aware you were wanted for an outstanding breach of bail and did not want to be arrested at that time. You admitted thinking you may have been remanded in custody for that breach and you wanted to delay that occurring. You told police you had matters you needed to take care of before being remanded in custody. You also admitted that you were aware that providing the false information prevented police from addressing your outstanding breach of bail. You were charged and detained to appear in court.
You were 37 years old at the time of committing this offence. You are now 38 years old. You have some prior convictions relating to offending which has occurred from 2021 when you were 35 years old. Those prior convictions include dishonesty offences, numerous breaches of bail and like offences, breach of an interim family violence order, disorderly conduct, failing to comply with a police officer and common assault. In September 2024, you were sentenced in the Hobart Magistrates Court to a partially suspended period of imprisonment for a large number of offences committed between 2022 and 2024. The timing of your prior offending is significant.
In 2019, you gave evidence in the trial of (name removed) who was a former partner of your mother and sexually abused you. He was convicted of a number of sexual crimes involving three separate complainants. On the charge of maintaining a sexual relationship with a young person which related to his offending against you, he was sentenced to six and a half years imprisonment. This was a significant sentence and speaks to the extent and seriousness of the abuse you suffered. In total he was sentenced to a period of 13 and half years imprisonment. I am told he suicided in prison in 2022 while serving that sentence.
Your counsel tells me, and I accept, the consequences of the dreadful trauma you experienced in your formative years has been significant for you. Coming forward and participating in the criminal proceedings against (name removed) exacerbated your experience of that trauma. Your counsel tells me that your life started to unravel. Your marriage collapsed and you struggled to maintain a relationship with your five children. You commenced a new relationship which was negative. Your consumption of alcohol has been problematic through this time. You have become homeless and in effect lost everything.
I do not have comprehensive information addressing the extent of the impact of these issues upon you generally or the extent to which they contributed to your offending behaviour or will contribute to your risk of reoffending in the future. I adjourned the sentencing proceedings on two separate occasions and sought a comprehensive pre-sentence report from Community Corrections to assist me with the sentencing process but you did not co-operate. You have missed a number of appointments that have been arranged to conduct an assessment. You are not currently and never have been the subject of any community-based orders.
You have five children. The two youngest reside with their father. I am told you are now having contact with your younger children.
You have spent time in custody in relation to this charge but that time was taken into account in the sentence recently imposed upon you in the Hobart Magistrates Court. Your counsel also told me that you spent some time in custody in 2021 in relation to an unrelated allegation which did not proceed. It was suggested that I could take into account that period of time, however your counsel did not have a formal record of it and could provide me with no details that would enable me to do that.
The crime of perverting justice is always regarded as serious because of its tendency to undermine the justice system. You lied to police about your identity in order to avoid being remanded in custody. You persisted with the lie over an extended period of time. It was only because police identified that the fingerprints you provided did not match those of person you purported to be but matched yours that your lies were detected. There was a very real risk that a totally innocent person could have been caught up in the criminal justice system because of your conduct. Fortunately, your lies did not have that effect and it was discovered and resolved quite quickly. People who commit this crime are often sentenced to imprisonment, not only to punish them but to send a clear message to others who might be tempted to do what you did that prison is a likely outcome. Prison sentences are sometimes imposed even in a case such as yours where the attempt to undermine justice was ultimately unsuccessful.
I take into account you made full admissions to police. I also take into account your plea of guilty. It is apparent to me that you are and have been struggling to deal with the impacts of the terrible trauma you experienced as a child which you had to relive in order to bring the perpetrator to justice. There is a clear temporal connection between you coming forward about the abuse, the ensuing criminal proceedings and your own criminal conduct. It was for this reason I requested the assessment of your suitability for community based orders. It seemed to me you would benefit from supervision and support. Your lack of cooperation in the assessment process makes such an order untenable. It suggests you would have difficulty complying with any supervision requirements. I am not prepared to make an order that would set you up to fail.
Your conduct warrants the imposition of a sentence of imprisonment. In light of your circumstances, I do not, however, consider it necessary to impose a period of imprisonment that is required to be served immediately.
NS, you are convicted of perverting justice. You are sentenced to three months imprisonment wholly suspended for 18 months from today. It is a condition of that order that while it is in force you do not commit any offence punishable by imprisonment. If you commit such an offence, then the Court must order that you serve the term of three months’ imprisonment unless that is unjust.