STATE OF TASMANIA v AIMEE NEITA WILLIAMS 27 AUGUST 2026
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE CUTHBERTSON J
Aimee Neita Williams, you have pleaded guilty to a charge of perverting justice. At about 4am on 26 August 2023, Jodie Carmichael was violently attacked and robbed by two masked men, one of whom was armed with a firearm, in her driveway at Blackmans Bay. Michael Hopkinson and Gary Sullivan were later arrested and charged by police with aggravated armed robbery. Mr Hopkinson’s arrest occurred on 27 August 2023. On that same day, you attended the Hobart police station and made a statutory declaration providing an alibi for him. In that statutory declaration you essentially stated that you had been with Mr Hopkinson from about 3am until 11am on 26 August 2023. You said the two of you were at various locations in Glenorchy and at the Valern Hotel during that time. You told police that Mr Hopkinson did not travel south of the Southern Outlet while you were with him. You said you had both caught an Uber to a place called the Crack Shack in Glenorchy at some time between 3.20am and 4am. You sent a screenshot of your Uber transactions to police. When signing the statutory declaration, you acknowledged that it was an offence to provide false or misleading information.
After you gave your statement to police, you spoke to Mr Hopkinson by phone while he was on remand at Risdon Prison. The phone call was recorded. Mr Hopkinson’s alibi was discussed during that call. He asked you, “What did they say to you?”, which I infer is a reference to police. You mentioned that you could be done with perjury. Mr Hopkinson asked how and said that the truth was that you both caught an Uber at 3.27am. You responded, “Yeah”.
Police arrested you on 1 February 2024. You were interviewed about your statutory declaration and made some limited admissions. It was put to you that you were trying to protect Mr Hopkinson. You said, “I suppose, if that’s what you want to call it, yeah”. You also said you were asked to make the statement but that nothing was forced. You said that details were not discussed and that you came up with the story on the spot. You told police you knew that what you had done with the statutory declaration was an offence.
It is the State’s case that you deliberately provided a false alibi for Mr Hopkinson with intent to obstruct, prevent, pervert or defeat the due course of justice.
You are 22 years old. You were 19 years old when you made this statutory declaration. You have experienced considerable trauma and adverse experiences throughout your life. You were exposed to family violence from a very young age. Your mother was diagnosed with cancer and died when you were only 12. Her partner provided no support during your mother’s illness. You took on a significant amount of responsibility to care for your mother and younger half siblings during this time. During the last months of your mother’s illness, you lived with your maternal aunt. Your aunt was strict and you did not cope with the change. You left your aunt’s care and began couch surfing and living in youth shelters. In that unstable environment, you were exposed to drugs. You started using cannabis and methylamphetamine. Your mental health deteriorated and you developed an eating disorder. When you were 17, you gave birth to your first child, raising him on your own.
The year before you committed this offence, you and your baby were passengers in a car which was involved in a fatal accident. Your child has not been in your care since the time of the crash. Against this background, your mental health and personal circumstances deteriorated further. You returned to drug use. Your associates during that time were far from desirable.
You committed this offence against that background. You were using drugs heavily and were vulnerable. You accept that the account you provided to police of your movements and whereabouts, and those of Mr Hopkinson, at the time the aggravated armed robbery was committed, was false. Your statement did not deter the investigation of Mr Hopkinson’s involvement in the offence. He told police he was with you at the time of the offence but gave a different account of your movements together. The records you provided police did not support that you had caught an Uber together as stated. They showed an Uber had been ordered at 3.27am to the robbery victim’s address, not an address in Glenorchy. That Uber trip was taken by Mr Sullivan, not you or Mr Hopkinson. Telstra records established that the phone you had with you was connecting to mobile phone towers in the vicinity of the robbery around the time it occurred. Your statutory declaration proved to be an unsophisticated attempt to assist Mr Hopkinson. Mr Hopkinson was recently found guilty of the offence. You gave evidence during the trial. You were an unimpressive witness and added little to the State’s case.
You were charged with perverting justice in February 2024 and first appeared in court in April 2024. A warrant was issued for your arrest when you failed to appear in February 2025. You went to Queensland, where you remained until you were extradited and returned to Tasmania. You have been in custody since 10 June 2026. You indicated you would plead guilty to this offence shortly after being committed to this Court for trial.
Your period in custody has been a circuit breaker. You have not been using drugs and have started to focus on your future. You hope to live with a family member on your release from prison. You also hope to reunify with your child once your circumstances allow it. You are interested in enrolling in a vocational course.
Your record of prior matters mainly consists of dishonesty offences and breaches of bail. You have not yet been convicted by a court.
Providing a false alibi during the course of the investigation of a serious violent crime is a bad example of the offence of perverting justice. By pleading guilty, you acknowledge that you intended to interfere with the proper investigation of the robbery, and the capacity of the courts to bring those responsible for the crime to justice. It does not matter that your efforts were unsuccessful and not likely to assist. It is your intent at the time you made the statutory declaration that is relevant. People who commit this crime are often sentenced to imprisonment, not only to punish them but to send a clear message to others who might be tempted to do what you did that prison is a likely outcome. Prison sentences are sometimes imposed even in a case such as yours, where the attempt to undermine justice was ultimately unsuccessful.
I take into account your plea of guilty and personal circumstances. You were young at the time of committing this offence. You have never been convicted of an offence. Your life was chaotic and there were likely significant pressures of various kinds in operation at the time you made the statement. None of this is an excuse, but it goes some way to explain the poor choices you made at the time. In the circumstances, I have determined that a period of imprisonment is warranted. I am satisfied that you have already served sufficient time in custody in relation to this matter, so I will order that the balance of the sentence be suspended.
Aimee Neita Williams, you are convicted on the indictment. You are sentenced to five months imprisonment, backdated to 10 June 2026. The balance is suspended from today for a period of 18 months following your release from custody, on condition that you do not commit any offence punishable by imprisonment while the order is in force. Ms Williams, you must understand that if you breach that condition, the suspended period of imprisonment must be activated unless it is unjust to do so.