STATE OF TASMANIA v JAMES ALLAN BENNETT WATTS 20 MAY 2022
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE BLOW CJ
Mr Watts has pleaded guilty to a charge of arson and also to a charge of assault under the Police Offences Act 1935. I am dealing with the assault charge under s 385A of the Criminal Code.
Both charges relate to an incident that occurred on 15 December 2020. At that time Mr Watts was living at the home of his parents in Montrose. He was out of work, had separated from his partner, had needed somewhere to live, and his parents had allowed him to live on the lower level of their house. He had access to all areas of the house and the yard.
Christmas was approaching. Mr Watts’ former partner, Ms Whitney, had bought presents for her children and had arranged for Mr Watts’ father to store them for her. On 15 December she made contact with Mr Watts senior and arranged to come to the house and collect the presents.
Mr Watts learned about this and became angry. He said that Ms Whitney was not going to collect the items, and that she could only collect them when he said she could. He began drinking alcohol at about 10am. Ms Whitney arrived with two friends at about 6pm to collect the presents. One of her companions was a male. Mr Watts was drunk and angry. He jumped to the conclusion that the male must be in a sexual relationship with Ms Whitney. He started “death staring” her. He verbally abused her and both of her companions. He looked as though he was about to start a fight. His father intervened, said that Ms Whitney could collect the items, and told him that he should leave. Mr Watts became more angry, and said words to the effect of “I’ll fucking burn youse out.” He walked away, passing through the garage.
Ms Whitney collected the presents and left with her companions. A short time later, Mr Watts’ parents were in the kitchen when he entered the room, abused his father, threw something at him, and punched him to the face with a clenched fist. That punch is the subject of the assault charge. The punch caused Mr Watts senior to fall down and hit the window sill. He sustained a bruise to the back of his head and bruises under each eye. Mr Watts was told by his mother to get out of the house. He left, stating, “I’m going to fucking burn the house down.” He did just that.
He went to his bedroom, drunk, irrational and very angry. He used mower fuel from the garage to set fire to some of his belongings. At some stage he changed his mind and tried to put the fire out, but it was too late and he fled.
His mother saw smoke coming from the window of his room. She phoned 000 and reported the fire. The police and the Tasmania Fire Service attended, but the house was fully engulfed by smoke and flames by the time of their arrival.
Officers of the Tasmania Fire Service eventually extinguished the fire, but the house suffered so much damage that a decision was subsequently made to demolish it. Mr Watts’ parents lost their home and apparently all its contents. Mr Watts had a niece who was living there as well. I was not given any details of her arrangements, but she obviously had to find somewhere else to live, the house having become uninhabitable. There is no suggestion that Mr Watts’ parents had insurance cover in relation to this fire. Household policies often do not cover fires deliberately lit by members of the household.
Mr Watts went to the Glenorchy Police Station at about 8.40pm – about two hours after he had started the fire. He told police officers that he wished to hand himself in. He took part in a very short formal interview, during which he said that he had made a mistake, said that he had done something that he would not normally do, and said that he would not answer any further questions. He has been in custody ever since.
Mr Watts was aged 41 on the day in question and is now 43. He is single. He had been living at his parents’ home for about eight months. He was unhappy for a number of reasons. He had lost his job as a scaffolder during 2020, and was living on Centrelink benefits. He had no savings. His relationship with Ms Whitney had come to an end. In the hours before the fire he had argued with his father about Ms Whitney coming to the property to collect the Christmas presents, and his father had threatened to throw him out. He subsequently got into an argument with his father about events that occurred 20 years previously. After his confrontation with Ms Whitney and her companions, his father told his mother to call the police. Rightly or wrongly, that made him angrier and he went and started the fire.
He has a number of prior convictions. The most serious of them are for driving offences. He was dealt with by magistrates for offences involving damage to property in 1995 (when he was 16), 1999 and 2003. He was ordered to perform community service on two of those occasions. He has three convictions for assault, resulting in a fine in 2003, a suspended sentence later in 2003, and another suspended sentence in 2015. He went to prison for driving while disqualified and his second and third drink driving offences in early 2008, for driving while disqualified again in October 2008, and for his third offence of driving while disqualified and fourth episode of drink driving in early 2009. In 2017 he was given a suspended sentence of 4 months’ imprisonment in relation to his fifth drink driving offence.
On 8 November 2019 he committed a series of driving offences including his fourth offence of driving while disqualified, his sixth drink driving offence, driving with methylamphetamine in his body, and evading police. He was on bail on those charges when he committed the offences that I am concerned with. Those matters were dealt with by a magistrate in April 2021, some four months after Mr Watts was taken into custody. On the charge of evading police he was sentenced to 8 months’ imprisonment with effect from 15 December 2020. Concurrent sentences were imposed on a couple of the other charges. The sentencing magistrate also activated the four-month suspended sentence from 2017, ordering that it be served cumulatively with the other sentences. The result is that Mr Watts was serving other sentences up to and including 14 December 2021. I will therefore backdate the sentence that I impose today to 15 December 2021. The fact that my sentence will follow on from 12 months in custody on other matters means that I must impose a slightly shorter sentence than would otherwise be appropriate.
I need to say a little more about Mr Watts’ personal circumstances. He attended school until the end of grade 9. He has a good industrial record. He commenced an apprenticeship as a rigger in 1998, but got retrenched. He subsequently worked for about 20 years as a scaffolder, in Tasmania and on the Gold Coast. He would like to resume working as a rigger after his release from prison. He has a history of drug and alcohol abuse, as his prior convictions illustrate. Once he is convicted and sentenced he wants to undertake courses in the prison in relation to anger management and drug and alcohol abuse. His counsel told me that he is remorseful. It of course counts in his favour that he gave himself up, and that he pleaded guilty without the case having to be prepared for a trial. He lost all his possessions in the fire.
This was a very serious case of arson. His parents and his niece lost their home and their belongings. His parents had done the right thing by taking him in when he had nowhere else to live, but he treated them and their property with the opposite of the respect that they deserved. The only appropriate penalty is a substantial cumulative prison sentence. Because of the length of time Mr Watts has been in custody I will impose the shortest possible non-parole period.
James Allan Bennett Watts, I convict you and sentence you to four years’ imprisonment with effect from 15 December 2021. You will not be eligible for parole until you have served 2 years of this sentence. I order you to pay Allan George Watts and Brenda Joy Krushka compensation for the loss and damage suffered by them. I adjourn the assessment of the compensation sine die.
Your offences will not be recorded as family violence offences because the relevant definition in the Family Violence Act 2004 only covers offences committed against a spouse, partner, or child, and does not apply to offences committed against parents.