STATE OF TASMANIA v BRYCE ANDERSON WOODWARD 5 FEBRUARY 2021
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE PEARCE J
Bryce Woodward, you plead guilty to wounding. On 3 October 2020 you were at the Commercial Hotel in Launceston with your partner. You arrived at about 8.00 pm but by 10.45 your behaviour and level of intoxication was such that you were asked by security staff to leave. As you were being escorted out you approached the complainant, Nathan Dawson, who was standing at a queue at the bar. From behind him you leaned around and smashed the glass you were carrying into his face. It shattered on impact and caused immediate serious injury. You walked out of the hotel but, after some further bizarre behaviour, you were restrained by the security staff until the police arrived.
Mr Dawson was taken by ambulance to the hospital. He had multiple lacerations to his face including to his cheek near his nose, the inside of his mouth, through his upper lip, and smaller lacerations to his upper and lower left eyelid. He required plastic surgery to repair the wounds but he has been left with permanent scarring and disfigurement. His victim impact statement describes the physical and psychological trauma you have caused which affect his work and personal life. The immediate aftermath of the injuries was particular confronting for Mr Dawson and his family and he continues to suffer physical and psychological effects which are likely to be long lasting. The facial scarring is likely to be permanent.
You are aged 25. As a young man you committed serious driving offences, some involving alcohol. You have a record for violence. In 2015, when you were 20, you were given a four month suspended sentence and probation for seriously assaulting your father at a funeral. On 11 November 2019 you were sentenced by a magistrate for a considerable number of summary offences including driving offences, some drug related, possessing and selling a controlled drug, dishonesty offences, breaches of bail, two counts of breaching a family violence order and two counts of common assault. You were sentenced to imprisonment for 160 days from 21 August 2019. The balance term, 77 days, was suspended for 18 months, but you quickly breached that sentence by re-offending. On 21 August 2020 you were made subject to a drug treatment order with a custodial part of eight months. That sentence was imposed for offences including three counts of common assault, eight counts of breaching a police family violence order, three counts of destroying property and possessing and using a controlled drug. The crime for which you are now to be sentenced was committed just over a month later and while you were subject to the drug treatment order. Until you committed this crime I am informed that you were otherwise successfully complying with the conditions of the order. However, on this night you were heavily affected by illicit drugs and alcohol. This is no mitigation. As a result, on 28 October 2020, the drug treatment order was cancelled and you are currently serving that eight month term from 2 October 2020. As to totality I take into account that no order for parole was made for that sentence although you may be entitled to remissions. For that reason, I will allow eligibility for parole at the earliest opportunity.
The only mitigating factor here is your plea of guilty. It indicates an acceptance of responsibility, some remorse and facilitates justice. You are not to be sentenced as having caused grievous bodily harm, but the level of harm here is nevertheless significant. Although you acted in an apparently spontaneous manner it was a dangerous and brutal act, done for no reason other than that there had been a minor exchange of words earlier in the evening. The State does not dispute that you inflicted the wound recklessly rather than intentionally, but it makes little difference to your criminal culpability here because of the obvious and extremely high risk of serious injury inherent in the act of punching a person while holding a glass.
Bryce Woodward, you are convicted. You are sentenced to imprisonment for 15 months cumulative to the term imposed on 28 October 2020. I order that you not be eligible for parole until you have served half of that sentence.