Teen’s phone calls costly

Time added to sentence for coercion bid

A TEENAGER caught making multiple “pathetic” attempts to coerce a witness into changing their police statement through phone calls from jail has had additional time added to his sentence.

Richard Nelson, 19, pleaded guilty to a single charge of attempting to pervert justice in Townsville District Court on Wednesday. Nelson was previously sentenced in June on a charge of robbery with actual violence, and breach of parole offences, and is serving time totalling three years, 10 months and 14 days. The court was told Nelson was in custody at the Townsville Correctional Centre when he made five phone calls between October 2020 and June 2021, where he spoke with his mother, sister and a potential witness, and tried to convince the woman to change her police statement.

Nelson wanted the woman to speak with police and get them to “drop” his charges.

The woman had previously told police she had been told by the victim of the robbery that Nelson was the one who robbed them. But unknown to Nelson, the woman’s statement had already been rejected, and she would not have been called to give evidence if he had pleaded not guilty to the robbery charge.

Prosecutor Shannon Sutherland said that on June 16 – one day after Nelson’s last phone call from jail – the woman had contacted police to say she wanted to change her statement to say Nelson hadn’t robbed the man.

Judge Greg Lynham said it was a “somewhat pathetic attempt” to get a witness to change their statement, because every phone call from jail was recorded.

“It was bound to have no consequence on the outcome here … it’s not the smartest course of conduct one might think,” Judge Lynham said. Defence barrister Dane Marley agreed, saying while it wasn’t the smartest conduct, it wasn’t the most serious attempt to pervert the course of justice either. He said Nelson was diagnosed with ADHD, Asperger's syndrome, and foetal alcohol syndrome disorder, and had been “exposed to extreme neglect” as a child.

Mr Lynham said it was “ironic” that Nelson had tried to get the woman to change her statement because her evidence would have been “hearsay” if the matter had gone to trial. “Your offending is both stupid and futile, with no benefit that might have been gained even if you had succeeded in your pathetic attempts,” he said.

Nelson, who has a full-time release date of March 2024, was sentenced to six months imprisonment – to be served cumulatively on his current sentence. He was given an immediate parole eligibility date.