Jail for gun-toting crook
A CROOK who terrorised innocent people around Geelong at gunpoint has been jailed for almost eight years.
Highton man Kyle Deery was sentenced at the County Court in Geelong on Friday to a maximum term of seven years and 11 months in jail.
The former Geelong Grammar student must serve fiveand-a-half years before being eligible for parole.
During one week in June 2017, Deery — then aged 26 — committed two frightening armed robberies alongside an unknown accomplice.
In one instance, a young man was struck in the face with the butt of a gun while he ate McDonald’s in his car at a Highton reserve.
That incident came several days after Deery and another gun-toting bandit burst into a Newcomb bottle shop and demanded cash and cigarettes.
Sentencing Judge Gregory Lyon said the armed robberies had left the victims with “ongoing fear and anxiety” that persisted two years after the events.
“The offences to which you have pleaded guilty are very serious instances of armed robbery,” he said. “The second (Highton) armed robbery is made even more serious for the fact that a helpless victim was taken completely by surprise and viciously hit in the face with the butt of a firearm.”
During the incident near Thornhill Rd, Highton, Deery warned the two victims not to contact police, telling them: “We know where you live.”
The regular ice user and his accomplice then fled with wallets, a phone and keys.
Police surveillance of Deery over the coming days led to his arrest at a McDonald’s in Deer Park, where officers found him in possession of a bolt-action rifle and sawn-off shotgun.
Deery, now aged 28, had been contesting the allegations against him until earlier this month, when he pleaded guilty to a string of charges including armed robbery and recklessly causing injury.
Judge Lyon noted the father of one had a lengthy criminal record and had spent most of the past seven years in jail, and said the former bricklayer’s prospects for rehabilitation were “poor-to-guarded”.
Deery has already spent two years in custody and will be eligible for release in December 2022.