STATE OF TASMANIA v JAMIE LEE STEIN 3 NOVEMBER 2021
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE PEARCE J
Jamie Stein, you plead guilty to assault. During the morning of 8 April 2019 you went to the home of the complainant, a female acquaintance, in Penguin. She lived a couple of doors away and you had spent time together at your home the previous evening. You were angry because you believed she had stolen some personal items from you. She let you in and returned to the couch, where she had been asleep. You had with you a drink bottle which, unknown to her, contained petrol. You approached her, expressed your displeasure about what you thought she had done, and then poured some of the petrol over her. It went onto her hair, clothes, her skin and the linen on the couch. Holding a cigarette lighter in your hand you told her that you would set her on fire and moved towards her, flicking the lighter on briefly as you did so. She tried to get out of the house and screamed through a window to a neighbour. You left taking the bottle with you.
The police were called by representatives of Housing Tasmania who arrived for an inspection very shortly after you left. You were interviewed by the police a few days later. You admitted that you were angry with her but denied pouring petrol on her. You were initially charged with common assault but you were later charged with Code assault and you were not committed to this Court until April 2020.
You are now aged 29. Until 2018 your record was for mostly minor offending, relating to driving, some dishonesty, drugs and bail. In July 2018 a magistrate ordered community service and probation for drug related driving offences, but also for one count of assault arising from an incident in which you punched a man. Your most serious prior convictions are subsequent to the date upon which this crime was committed, for offending which occurred at about the same time. On 1 August 2019 a magistrate imposed a 16 week term, 12 weeks of which was suspended, for drug and driving offences. On 15 May 2020 you were sentenced to imprisonment for 9 months from 12 February 2020, the balance of which was suspended, for trafficking and other drug offences committed in 2018. The earlier suspended sentence was breached when you committed other summary drug offences and other offences including a further relatively minor common assault. On 27 July 2020 a further term of 16 weeks imprisonment was imposed. You completed that sentence and were released on bail on 12 September 2020 having served an additional nine days in custody which could now to be taken into account.
There is no victim impact statement. According to your counsel the complainant continued to associate with you even after what occurred. However it is a very serious crime to douse someone with petrol and threaten to set them alight. From the victim’s point of view it was likely a terrifying experience at the time. It is not suggested that you intended to carry out your threat but the risk of a terrible mishap was also very high. You have asked me to take into account, however, that when this crime was committed your life was badly affected by addiction to methylamphetamine. You were trafficking in the drug. You became irrational and quick to anger. The use of illicit drugs does not mitigate the objective seriousness of the crime you committed, but it is relevant to the risk you continue to pose and the chance that you may reform. Since your release you have been largely abstinent from drugs, you have complied with strict bail conditions, and, until recently have been living with and obtaining support from your grandparents.
You have been assessed as not suitable for home detention. You have recently re-entered a relationship with your partner with whom you have two children born in 2016 and 2018. It was the house you now share with her which was assessed for its suitability. Both Community Corrections and Child and Family Services are concerned that, in light of a history of some conflict in the relationship, notifications of disturbances over a number of years, and financial strain if combined with the additional stressors which may be imposed by home detention, would create an unacceptable risk within the household. For that reason, I accept the recommendation that the premises are unsuitable. In light of the periods of imprisonment served by you since this crime was committed, I consider it in the general community interest that you not be returned to custody, and that measures be put in place to assist the steps you say you have already taken to address your abuse of drugs and alcohol. For that reason I will impose a term of imprisonment but wholly suspend it on conditions. You must understand that if you breach the conditions of the sentence it is almost inevitable that you will be required to serve the term I am about to impose.
On the indictment you are convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for seven months, 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 breach that condition then a court must order that you serve that term unless it is unjust. I impose a further condition on the suspended sentence that, during the period the order is in force, you are to be subject to the supervision of a probation officer. The conditions which the law imposes on that order include that you must report to a probation officer at the office of Community Corrections in Devonport on or before 5.00 pm on 4 November 2021, you must, during the operational period of the order, report to a probation officer as required by the probation officer and comply with the reasonable and lawful directions of a probation officer or a supervisor, you must not, during the operational period of the order, leave, or remain outside Tasmania without the permission of a probation officer and you must, during the operational period of the order, give notice to a probation officer of any change of address or employment before, or within 2 working days after, the change. I impose special conditions that you must during the operational period of the order, submit to the supervision of a probation officer as required by the probation officer, attend educational and other programs, undergo assessment and treatment for alcohol or drug dependency, submit to testing for alcohol or drug use and submit to medical, psychological or psychiatric assessment or treatment as directed by a probation officer. If you breach any of those conditions you may be brought back to court and re-sentenced.