Psychotic teen sentenced
Court Reporter
A TEEN in the grip of psychosis, who believed police and the government were plotting to kill him, has been jailed over a terrifying New Year’s Day carjacking and rampage.
Rokeby youth Bailey Dennis Roberts, 19, appeared in the Supreme Court of Tasmania via video link on Friday, after holding up a terrified cabbie on the afternoon of January 1 this year.
Justice Michael Brett said Roberts was suffering a druginduced psychosis at the time — but that did not reduce his culpability.
On the afternoon in question, Roberts called for a cab to the city, with driver Syed Rizvi collecting him and asking for prepayment.
But Roberts produced a knife and held it “in front of the driver’s stomach, moving the tip backwards and forwards towards him”, with the cabbie stopping the vehicle and running away.
Roberts then took Mr Rizvi’s car on a half-hour rampage through the eastern suburbs, driving “in a dangerous and erratic highly manner”.
The meth-affected teen wove in and out of traffic, caused other drivers to swerve out of his way, drove at speeds of up to 150km/h, and ran intersections and red lights without stopping — as police pursued him with their lights and sirens activated.
The rampage came to an end when Roberts drove into a lane dividing wire at Mornington.
The teen threw away his knife and began ranting: “Someone’s out to kill me, youse (sic) are out to kill me, someone set me up.”
Justice Brett said the offending was spontaneous, but “it’s difficult to imagine a more serious case of dangerous driving”.
When Roberts was taken into custody, a psychiatrist noted he was suffering paranoid thoughts and believed the police were trying to kill him.
The psychiatrist also described Roberts as “facile and giggling”, in behaviour that was incongruent with his circumstances.
The teenager, who pleaded guilty to aggravated carjacking, dangerous driving, evading police in aggravated circumstances, unlicensed driving, and failing to submit to blood and oral testing, was jailed for three years and 49 days as of January 1.
Roberts will need to serve 18 months and 49 days before he is eligible for parole.