STATE OF TASMANIA v SHANE RALSTON 19 AUGUST 2025
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE BRETT J
Mr Ralston, you have pleaded guilty to one count of wounding. You have also pleaded guilty to the summary offences of trespass and driving a motor vehicle as a learner driver unaccompanied by a licenced driver.
The offending arises out of an incident which occurred on 21 July 2024. You and the complainant exchanged mutually abusive text messages when you were told that he was driving a motor vehicle owned by you without your knowledge or permission. Apparently, the vehicle was stored on a neighbouring property and the owner of that property had permitted the complainant to drive your vehicle. In the messages, you both threatened violence against the other. After this exchange, you and your father drove to the complainant’s property. When you got out of the car and went on to his property, you were armed with a machete and your father was armed with a knife. You called out for the complainant to come outside. He did, carrying a pitchfork to protect himself. He walked toward you with the weapon and you and your father backed away. You then threw the machete at him. It hit him to the crown of his head, causing a 1 to 2 cm wound. It is accepted that you did not intend to cause a wound, but you are liable for the crime on the basis of subjective recklessness.
The complainant then chased you out of the yard. He picked up the machete and threw it at your father’s vehicle. Your father then ran him down with the vehicle and attempted to run him over again. You and your father then left and went to the neighbouring property to retrieve your vehicle. You drove the vehicle alone to a friend’s house, thereby committing the driving charge.
The complainant was taken to hospital. The laceration caused by you was treated with glue. He suffered a number of other relatively serious injuries, but it is accepted that these were caused by your father’s actions. Your father was convicted of the crimes of committing an unlawful act intended to cause bodily harm and Criminal Code assault. He was sentenced by another judge to imprisonment for three years and eight months. I note that he was 54 years of age and had a number of prior convictions for offences involving driving, dishonesty, and violence.
You were 18 years of age at the time you committed this crime and you are now 19. You have no prior convictions. You have lived with your father since you were 12, after your mother left the family to pursue another relationship. She has now passed away. You been diagnosed with potential ADHD and autism but there has been no further investigation of these conditions due largely to your father’s negative attitude. You found school difficult although you did complete a course and obtain a certificate in horticulture before leaving school during grade 12. You have for approximately one year been involved in a program designed to support young people with the challenges you experience. A reference from the director of this program indicates that you have participated well and are highly regarded. In fact, you are now employed on a paid, part-time basis by the program in the area of horticulture and hope to start an apprenticeship in landscape construction in the near future.
The crime committed by you was a serious one. Although I accept that the complainant must bear some responsibility for his contribution to the circumstances which led to this confrontation, at the end of the day you and your father went to his residence with weapons. The only possible inference is that you were there to aggressively confront him and you must, at the least, have contemplated the use of violence. As things turned out, when he came at you with the pitchfork, you panicked and threw the machete at him. I accept that this was a responsive act but it was extremely dangerous and the injury to him could easily have been far worse. However, you are not responsible and will not be punished for your father’s subsequent actions. In fact, I think that both of these older men, your father and the complainant, both acted in an abysmal way. Your moral culpability is considerably lessened by your age and the fact that you were acting under the influence of your father. I do not intend to impose a sentence as severe as that imposed on him. While you both went there with weapons, your reactions and his were very different. There are also significant differences in age and criminal history.
In my view, your conduct deserves a sentence of imprisonment. However, given your age and background and the mitigating circumstances to which I have referred, I am satisfied that you should be given the chance to avoid actual imprisonment. Accordingly, I intend to impose a wholly suspended sentence of imprisonment. However, the conditions of suspension of the sentence will include community service to ensure some immediate and actual punishment.
Accordingly, the orders I make are as follows:
- You are convicted of the crime and the offences to which you have pleaded guilty;
- In respect of the crime of wounding and the offence of trespass, you are sentenced to a global term of 10 months imprisonment, the whole of which will be suspended for a period of 18 months on the following conditions:
- i that you are not to commit another offence punishable by imprisonment during that period.
- ii that you will perform community service for a period of 175 hours. The Court notes that the sections referred to in s 24 (5A) of the Sentencing Act apply to this condition. For the purpose of those provisions:
- (a) you must report to a probation officer at the office of Community Corrections in Burnie within three clear days of today and
- (b) the operational period of the order is 18 months.
- For the offence of driving unaccompanied as a learner driver, you are disqualified from driving for three months from today, and any licence you have is suspended for that time. Apart form this, I impose no further punishment.