MAN JAILED OVER EASTERN GARDENS CARJACKING
A NEWCOMB man who carjacked two people at Geelong’s Eastern Gardens has been sentenced to 3½ years’ jail.
Ricky Dean Wilson, 25, was fresh out of jail when he arrived at the scene in a stolen BMW with two others, and used a baseball bat to force an 18-year-old woman and 23year-man out of a Ford XR6.
In the County Court in Melbourne yesterday, Judge Susan Cohen said he had used the bat to hit the male victim on the knees in the incident at 11.30pm on March 23, 2018.
“As this was occurring (the woman) escaped from the car . . . and hid in nearby bushes,” Judge Cohen said.
“(Wilson) snatched the keys from the (male victim’s) hands and swung the bat at his right elbow, hitting him again.
“The swinging of such a weapon at a person was clearly aimed at injuring him and did so, although not seriously.
“The whole area was unlit. The victims were sitting in the back seat of a car and had done nothing to attract your attention or provoke you, or anyone with you, in anyway.”
Wilson, released from jail the previous month and unlicensed, then drove the Ford out of the carpark while the victims cowered in bushes.
Judge Cohen said she was satisfied that each victim was “frightened and shocked by the incident”.
When Wilson was arrested in May 2018, two police officers had to use their batons to strike and subdue him because he tried to “face off” against them, the judge said.
“You tried to get one of the constables off your back while you were on the ground and the second constable struck you on your arms and legs. A call for back-up was made,” Judge Cohen said.
The court heard Wilson, who was sentenced after a jury found him guilty of aggravated carjacking, had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after he saw the shooting of a cousin in 2015.
Judge Cohen said he had experienced a troubled childhood during which he was exposed to violence, taken from his parents, did not start secondary school and started using drugs at 10.
“(Your) chronic substance abuse commenced and became entrenched because of a problematic childhood,” she said.
“The use of drugs is not to be regarded as wholly voluntary. It does decrease your personal culpability.
“Your prospects for rehabilitation are guarded (because of your childhood) but rehabilitation should not be abandoned as a sentence purpose.”
Wilson was also jailed for three months after pleading guilty to three charges of theft, two of drug possession, two car thefts, petrol theft, resisting arrest, going equipped to steal, unlicensed driving and failing to comply with reporting obligations under the Sex Offender Registry.
In custody since in May 2018, he will be eligible for parole in about 11 months.