Skull find sparked my crime spree

THE fisherman who found a human skull at North Shore two years ago says the trauma of the grisly discovery led him into drugs and crime.

Newcomb’s Kye Whitney, 26, pleaded guilty in Geelong Magistrates’ Court yesterday to 14 offences committed between April and June, including burglaries, car thefts, stealing from shops and damaging property.

The court heard about his ill-fated getaway from the burglary of a work shed at Little River on Anzac Day and other bungled crimes in Corio, Love- ly Banks, Bell Park and the Geelong police cells.

At Little River, Whitney and two other men squeezed themselves onto a motorbike after their getaway car, a stolen ute, broke down a short distance from the shed they’d burgled.

The thieves escaped from the two men who’d chased them from the scene, but Whitney and one of his co-offenders made the mistake of returning to collect the ute and the stolen tools inside it.

Prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Kerrie Moroney told court police were monitoring the scene from the air and followed the men, catching Whitney. A couple of weeks later Whitney stole a Holden Rodeo from Corio, and was caught running from the car in Lovely Banks, leaving his bank card in the vehicle.

The defendant also admitted stealing from Bell Park’s Cheap as Chips store and Dr Paws vet clinic in the following weeks, as well as committing a petrol drive-off and breaking security cameras in the Geelong cells in early July when he was in custody.

Defence lawyer Adrian Paull said the father of three had turned to crime because of drugs and debts, explaining the man had never faced court before this year.

He said the turning point in Whitney’s life came on June 14, 2016, when he was fishing on the beach at North Shore.

“He finds a severed head, this causes him to develop post-traumatic stress,” Mr Paull said. “That is the catalyst for the downturn in Mr Whitney’s life.”

Despite a supportive family and long-lasting relationship with his childhood sweetheart, Whitney began to service a new master; ice”, Mr Paull said.

But the lawyer said the family remained steadfast.

“They know the man he was before the catastrophic incident that has led him down this path. They want him back,” he said.

Asked to release the man from jail onto a community corrections order yesterday, magistrate Louis Hill noted he’d already failed on his first attempt at a CCO.

“Why is it going to be different this time?,” he asked.

But given Whitney had already served 102 days in custody, the magistrate agreed to release him onto an extended CCO, also cancelling his driver’s licence for six months.

“I don’t know how you’ll go. Quite frankly, there’s no guarantees, but as your counsel says; ‘it’s up to you’,” the magistrate told the man.