STATE OF TASMANIA v ADAM JOHN REX STONE 23 SEPTEMBER 2026
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE CUTHBERTSON J
Adam Stone, you have pleaded guilty to a charge of wounding the complainant, Ms Butler, by striking her to her head with a mug on 23 September 2025. The mug broke, causing a large laceration next to the complainant’s left ear, two smaller cuts on her left ear, a cut behind her ear and one on her neck.
Your conduct towards the complainant was unprovoked and outrageous. You had been casually seeing each other for about two months prior to the incident. You went to the complainant’s house that morning. While there, the two of you discussed your relationship. You told the complainant you wanted the relationship to be more serious; she told you that she did not want that. Both of you then went to an address in Bridgewater. You were in the kitchen at that address holding a mug. As the complainant was walking into the kitchen, you said, “If I cannot have you no one can”. You then hit her to the left side of her head with force using the mug. You immediately left the address.
The complainant noticed her wounds were bleeding significantly but cannot remember what happened immediately after that. An ambulance was called and police attended. The complainant was taken to hospital where she was admitted and stayed overnight. She received six stitches in the large laceration next to her left ear. She required stitches in the two smaller cuts on her left ear. The cuts on her neck and behind her ear were glued with wound glue.
You were arrested and interviewed by police in relation to this matter on 30 October 2025. In that interview, you admitted that you were friends with the complainant but denied being at the address in Bridgewater, striking the complainant and having any knowledge of her injury. Police seized your mobile phone and located text messages you sent to the complainant the day following the offence which were inconsistent with the account you gave during your interview. In those messages you apologised for “doing it to U with the cup” but claimed you did not mean to.
I have been provided photographs of the complainant’s injuries, before and after they were stitched. The wounds, particularly the one to the front of the ear, were significant. I have not been provided a victim impact statement from the complainant. I have no doubt, however, that this incident caused her great pain and was highly distressing for her.
You are 31 years old. You were 30 at the time of the offending. You have a significant history of prior offending, including for offences of violence. You were first convicted of an offence of violence when you were 15 years old. Your most recent violent offending includes family violence offences and a serious assault against police. The latter offence was dealt with in the Magistrates Court in March 2025. In addition, you have a lengthy history of dishonest offending, serious driving matters, including aggravated evade police, drug driving, breaches of family violence orders, and bail offences. You have been sentenced to suspended imprisonment on multiple occasions but breached many, if not all, of those orders. You have also been sentenced to drug treatment and home detention orders, both of which were revoked.
You are one of nine children of your parents’ relationship. They struggled to provide for you and your siblings. You were placed in the care of an aunt when you were eight years old. She provided some stability, but she partnered and had her own child when you were 13 years old. You believed you were no longer wanted and left home. You have spent lengthy periods of time since then, homeless and sleeping rough. You were exposed to criminal behaviour and substance use in that environment. You were using methylamphetamine heavily by the time you were 16. You have spent considerable periods of time in youth and adult custody since you were 14. Unsurprisingly, your education has been affected. You completed grade seven, but your attempts to engage in education beyond that time proved difficult given you were homeless. You are currently pursuing redress as a result of your experiences in youth detention.
As for your offending on this occasion, you were more invested in the relationship with the complainant than she was. You had been drinking prior to striking her with the mug. The State accepts you did not intend to wound the complainant but asserts that you foresaw there was a real possibility that by striking her in that way a wound would be caused, and you chose to take that risk. In my view, the degree of recklessness was high. Intentionally hitting someone with force with an object capable of breaking is inherently likely to cause a wound. You hit the complainant to the head, which, of itself, is an inherently dangerous thing to do.
You indicated you would plead guilty on your first appearance after being committed to this Court. I accept you told the complainant you were sorry after the event, but you were reluctant to accept responsibility for your offending, denying any knowledge of the incident when spoken to by police. Your plea does have utility, although it was entered in the face of a strong prosecution case.
You have been in custody since 13 December 2025 when you were remanded in relation to another matter which has not yet resolved. You were first remanded in custody on this charge in April 2026. I will backdate the sentence of imprisonment I intend to impose to 13 December 2025. Like most prisoners in the current environment, you have experienced lengthy periods in lockdown while housed in the Remand centre. This has made it difficult for you to access programs.
This is a bad case of wounding. There is no suggestion that the complainant had any warning you were going to strike her in the way you did. She had no way of protecting herself. It is not asserted that you had ever been in a significant relationship with the complainant, so it is not a family violence offence. Nevertheless, it bears many of the hallmarks of such an offence. You claim to have loved the complainant. That the complainant did not share those feelings is no excuse for your conduct. Her decision not to take the relationship further was one you should have respected. Rather than respecting her choice, you struck her. The words you spoke just before doing so clearly indicate your lack of respect for her decision, irrational jealousy and an attempt to exercise some form of control over her. Your conduct constituted a breach of trust in the circumstances.
I take into account your plea of guilty and the matters that have been put on your behalf including your difficult background and limited support in your formative years. There are, however, other factors of significance in this matter. It is important to send a message to you and others who share such unacceptable attitudes towards women that there is no place for such conduct. General and specific deterrence and denunciation are the paramount sentencing considerations in this case. The sentence imposed must also recognise the harm you have caused to the complainant. You have previously had the benefit of sentences designed to encourage your rehabilitation. Unfortunately, you have not taken advantage of those opportunities. Nevertheless, I intend to make an order affording you the opportunity of parole. It will, however, be the minimum period that I have determined is required to be served in the interests of justice.
Adam Stone, you are convicted of the charge of wounding. You are sentenced to a period of 15 months imprisonment, backdated to 13 December 2025. I order that you are not eligible for parole until you have served nine months of that sentence.