STATE OF TASMANIA v RICKY JAMES OHLSEN 9 OCTOBER 2026
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE JAGO J
Ricky James Ohlsen, you have pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated burglary and one count of Criminal Code assault. The charges arise out of a violent home invasion that occurred on 24 August 2020 at the home of Mr Adam Willis in Devonport. On that date you and two others, Christopher James Horton and Keith Wayne Woods, attended the residence and by the time you all left, Mr Willis had been very badly assaulted. I recognise that Mr Horton and Mr Woods were convicted following jury trial of the crimes of aggravated burglary and committing an unlawful act intending to cause bodily harm. Your pleas of guilty are entered, and accepted by the State, on a different basis than I sentenced Mr Woods and Mr Horton.
The background to this matter is that on 14 August 2020, a Carol Williamson, the then partner of Mr Horton, was in the company of Adam Willis at his unit. Some sort of incident occurred between the two of them. Ms Williamson called police and also called Mr Horton. Mr Horton attended the unit in an agitated state. You were with him. Mr Horton made comments to Mr Willis consistent with him having a high level of angst towards him. Between this incident and 24 August, Ms Williamson continued to make a number of comments to both Mr Horton and you about what had happened to her at the hands of Mr Willis. It seems Mr Horton felt considerable acrimony towards Mr Willis.
On the evening of 24 August, you, Mr Horton and Ms Williamson were at your residence. You were drinking heavily and you were intoxicated. The topic of Mr Willis’ conduct again came up. Both you and Mr Horton became quite agitated and decided to attend at Mr Willis’ residence, essentially to seek retribution. At some point, Mr Keith Woods also agreed to attend the residence. He was also intoxicated by the time he joined you. All three of you walked to the residence. Mr Horton was armed with a fence paling, and Mr Woods was armed with a metal pole. You arrived at about 11.30pm. As would be expected, both Mr Willis and his partner Ms Heald were asleep in their unit. One of you banged loudly on the front door. Mr Willis woke up and answered the door. You were first through the door. You immediately spear-tackled Mr Willis and pushed him backwards. Mr Willis was trying to defend himself from your attack. The two of you wrestled. You went to the ground in the loungeroom of the unit. At one point you struck Mr Willis to the nose. By this time Mr Horton and Mr Woods had also entered the residence. As Mr Willis was grappling with you, he saw Mr Horton swing a fence paling in his direction. The fence paling struck the wall adjacent to where Mr Willis was standing. You continued to wrestle Mr Willis. Both of you ended up on his couch. As Mr Willis was facing you, and still grappling with you, he was struck from behind by Mr Woods who was wielding a metal pole. Thereafter Mr Woods continued to strike Mr Willis repeatedly to his legs, shoulder, head and hand with the metal pole. The State do not assert that you are criminally responsible for the actions of Mr Horton or Mr Woods or that you joined in any plan to use weapons in the attack upon Mr Willis, but of course, it was a consequence of your initial attack upon Mr Willis that rendered him vulnerable and susceptible to the attack by the others.
It was around this point, that Mr Willis’ partner emerged from the bedroom. She called 000. She was highly distressed. All three of you fled the residence. You and Mr Woods were located a short time later at a nearby school. You were arrested and taken to the Devonport Police Station. You subsequently participated in a record of interview. Essentially, you lied to police and said that you had nothing to do with the attack. You denied going anywhere near Adam Willis’ unit. During the interview you showed no concern for the welfare of Mr Willis.
Mr Willis was transported to the Launceston General Hospital. He had suffered serious injuries. He had a head laceration on his parietal area, which was 6-7cm in length. His left hand was badly swollen. He had a substantial and deep laceration to his left shin. He had grazing to his left shoulder and a laceration on the left clavicle. The x-ray of his left hand showed a comminuted fracture of the little finger. A CT scan undertaken on his head revealed a subgaleal hematoma. The scalp laceration was closed with staples. The laceration on the shin was 2cm in depth and a skin graft was required to promote healing. The fracture to the little finger required surgery. His finger remains deformed. He is left without feeling in it and its function is significantly impaired. There remains a prospect that the finger may be amputated.
Mr Willis endured pain for some time after the assault. He has been left with a significant scar and an indentation from the laceration to his shin. He has reduced movement in his left leg, particularly around the ankle flowing from the skin graft. This impacts his gait. As noted, his little finger is deformed and protrudes sideways and his ability to use his left hand is significantly limited as his deformed finger often becomes caught on objects. The injury to his hand means that he is no longer able to participate in sports he once enjoyed. The residual scars and deformities are a constant reminder of the attack. In addition to the physical injuries, Mr Willis suffered significant psychological harm. He believed he was going to die on the night of the incident. Mr Willis had been subject to previous trauma, and this incident exacerbated his already fragile mental health. Because of the attack, he now is hypervigilant and anxious. His sleep is disturbed and he experiences flashbacks.
There are several factors which aggravate your conduct. Firstly, the attack was premeditated. When you and Mr Horton left your home, you were planning on attending at Mr Willis’ residence to exact retribution. There was an element of vigilantism associated with this attack. Whilst I have already noted you are not to be held criminally liable for the actions of Mr Horton and Mr Woods, this was in effect a three on one attack. Mr Willis must have felt incredibly intimidated, and scared. The attack was committed in the middle of the night when it was reasonable to expect that Mr Willis would be sleeping and therefore less prepared to defend himself. It was, quite frankly, a cowardly attack. When the three of you left the residence, no one showed any concern for Mr Willis who, by that point, was badly injured.
I turn now to your personal circumstances. You are 35 years of age. You live in Rosebery with your partner. You grew up in New South Wales. Your childhood was marred by considerable adversity. Your mother suffered with a significant mental illness. You were raised predominantly by your grandmother as your father spent most of his time away working. When you were about 8 years old, a family friend began to sexually abuse you. This went on for several years. You felt unable to tell anyone about the abuse because the perpetrator threatened that he would harm your family if you disclosed it. The abuse did not end until you moved away to boarding school in your early teenage years. Sadly, you experienced further abuse at the boarding school at the hands of several Catholic priests. This led to you behaving in a manner that ultimately led to your expulsion. Eventually you completed your year 12 equivalent via a community Tafe. You have always prided yourself on being a good worker. You held various positions of employment until you sustained a workplace injury in August 2021 when you were working at Woolworths. Apparently, a shelf began to collapse. You were concerned it was going to strike others, so you attempted to catch it. You caused significant injury to your AC joint, including nerve damage. You have had surgery to try and repair it, but it has been unsuccessful. You have not been able to return to work. You are currently in receipt of a disability support pension.
You have a number of relevant prior convictions, including behave in a violent manner, offences committed against police, destroy property, stalk or intimidate with intention to cause fear or physical harm and assault occasioning bodily harm committed in a domestic violence context. Some of these prior convictions arose in New South Wales. Since the commission of this crime, you have committed further family violence offences in Tasmania including, assault and breach of police family violence order. These last-mentioned offences were committed in February 2021. Since then, there has been no further offending. I am told that many of your prior convictions related to your past excessive consumption of alcohol and the use of illicit substances. Alcohol, in particular, has been an ongoing difficulty for you. In an effort to combat trauma, arising from your traumatic childhood, you began using alcohol from an early age. It was common for you to drink to excess, sometimes multiple bottles of spirit per day. It was against that background, that many of the prior convictions to which I have referred, were committed. I am told however that you have not consumed alcohol for the last five years. That is consistent with there having been no further offending since February 2021.
You now live a very quiet and law-abiding existence. You have purchased a house in Rosebery and have been focussed on trying to improve your health. In the last 18 months your health has declined significantly. You suffer from functional neurological disorder. This results in you experiencing non-epileptic seizure activity and significant fatigue. It is common for you to experience seizures on a near daily basis. Precipitants for the seizure activity can be pain and/or stress, but the seizures can also present quite unexpectedly. They result in disorientation and memory loss. They also lead to frequent falls. In addition to this condition, you suffer from PTSD arising from your childhood trauma, sleep apnoea, major depressive disorder, complex trauma disorder and a further condition which impacts upon your joints leading to frequent bone breaks. You have had several surgeries to insert pins and rods to stabilise your joints and bones. You are prescribed several medications and regularly have to attend medical appointments. You are supported by you partner. I am told that since the commission of this crime you have engaged with a psychologist and you are working hard to address the issues stemming from your childhood trauma and past substance abuse issues.
I accept you currently present with complex medical conditions, which require ongoing management. Those conditions would make a period of imprisonment particularly onerous for you. The functional neurological disorder, in particular, would render you very vulnerable within the prison environment.
I am conscious of the sentences I imposed upon Mr Woods and Mr Horton. I am satisfied that they are of limited relevance in this sentencing exercise for a number of reasons. Firstly, you have pleaded guilty to the crime of aggravated burglary on the limited basis that the place entered was a place of human habitation. The violence you inflicted upon Mr Willis was limited to pushing him, striking him and grappling with him in a wrestle. You are not to be held criminally responsible for the more serious injuries that were inflicted upon Mr Willis by Mr Horton and Mr Woods. You are to be sentenced on the basis that you did not intend to cause harm, and you were not in possession of a weapon when you engaged in the assault upon Mr Willis. The physical injuries that were in fact occasioned by you were not significant.
That said, the seriousness of this crime cannot be overlooked. Mr Willis was at home minding his own business when you and two others set upon him in an act of vigilantism. Such conduct must be deplored. General deterrence is a weighty consideration. Here however, I think there is some room for mercy. There is no doubt that in the five years since this crime occurred, your health has deteriorated markedly, and your medical conditions are such that a period of actual imprisonment would be particularly cruel. I am persuaded that I can appropriately deal with this matter by the imposition of a home detention order. I have a report which indicates that you have been assessed as suitable for such an order.
I therefore make the following orders. You are convicted of the crimes of aggravated burglary and assault. I make a home detention order with an operational period of 15 months, commencing today. That order will include the following conditions:
- you must not commit an offence that is punishable by imprisonment;
- you must reside at the home detention premises of [address redacted] at all times, and be present at those premises unless your absence is approved by a probation officer;
There are also special conditions which will attach to the Home Detention Order. They are as follows:
- You must permit a probation officer, a police officer, or other prescribed officer to enter the home detention premises.
- You must permit a police officer to conduct a search of the premises, conduct a frisk search of you and take a sample of any substance that may be found on the premises or on your person.
- You must submit to electronic monitoring, including the wearing or carrying of an electronic monitoring device.
- You must not remove, tamper with, damage, disable or interfere with the proper functioning of that device or equipment used for the purpose of electronic monitoring.
- You must not allow anyone else to remove, tamper with, damage, disable or interfere with the proper functioning of that device or equipment used for the purpose of electronic monitoring.
- You must comply with all reasonable and lawful directions given to you in relation to the electronic monitoring device, including directions relating to the installation, attachment or operation of the device.
- You must maintain in operating condition an active mobile phone service, provide the contact details to Community Corrections and be accessible for contact via that device at all times.
- You must not take any illicit or prohibited substances.
- You must not take any prescribed medication unless you provide written evidence from your medical practitioner that you have been prescribed that medication.
- You must not during the operational period of the order consume alcohol and you must, if directed to do so by a probation officer, police officer, or community corrections officer, submit to a breath test, urine test or other test for the presence of alcohol.
- You must submit to the supervision of a community corrections officer as and when required by that officer.
- You must, during the operational period of the order, continue with your medical, psychological or psychiatric treatment, as directed by your probation officer and comply with all reasonable directions given to you by a medical practitioner or mental health professional.
I further order that you present to Community Corrections, Burnie by 5pm today for induction into this order.