Jailed for ‘vigilante’ attack

A MAN with a “tendency to take the law into his own hands” has been sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to charges associated with a violent home invasion near Burnie.

Damien Wayne Smith pleaded guilty to charges including aggravated burglary, aggravated assault and carry- ing a gun with criminal intent in relation to the incident at a house on Ridgley Highway in August, 2017.

The Supreme Court in Burnie heard Smith pointed a gun at the head of the resident and threatened to shoot him in a bid to extract payment for debts Smith was told he owed his former de facto partner.

Smith’s lawyer told the court Smith had gone to the house on the woman’s instruction to get $100,000 and two cars from the victim.

That woman, Anne Bennett, pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary, assault, and demanding property with menaces with intent to steal and this week received a non-custodial sentence.

The court was told that four to six weeks after Bennett and her partner separated, she arranged for Smith, her new partner’s brother, to go to the house to commit the assault.

“Because she instigated him to commit that crime, Ms Bennett is also guilty of that crime,” the court was told.

“The Crown does not assert that Ms Bennett asked the assailant to arm himself with a firearm or that she was in any way responsible for the making of threatening gestures with a firearm. However, Ms Bennett concedes that she arranged for the assailant to give her former partner a hiding.”

Justice Helen Wood said Smith had spent time in jail for prior offences of threatening.

“You take the law into your own hands and threaten peo- ple you regard as being in the wrong,” Justice Wood said.

“The court must discourage the vigilante resolution of grievances. Holding a gun to someone’s head is a serious crime and needs to be condemned.”

She sentenced Smith to two years and six months in jail. He will be eligible for parole when he has served half that sentence.