Drug addled home invader who threatened to kill occupant allowed to serve three-year sentence at home
A DRUG addict with an 18-year criminal history who threatened to slit the throat of a man whose family home she had broken into will serve her sentence on home detention.
- Law review: No home detention for serious criminals
- Child-sex offender wants to be punished at home
- Families’ fury as offenders sentenced to home detention
A DRUG addict with an 18-year criminal history who threatened to slit the throat of a man whose family home she had broken into will serve her sentence on home detention.
Naomi Anne Wilson, 39, was under the influence of methamphetamine when she broke into a house in January this year, waking a couple and their three children, and stole electrical items.
When confronted by the homeowner, Wilson pulled out a screwdriver, threatened to slit the man’s throat and said that her family would come back and hurt the man.
On Wednesday, the same day Attorney-General John Rau announced a tightening of home detention sentencing legislation, the District Court granted Wilson permission to serve her two-year non-parole period at home.
The District Court heard the couple and their three children were woken by the break-in around 6am on January 6 and the man chased Wilson outside to a stolen car.
He opened the passenger side door and saw a bag of items stolen from his house.
When she drove off, the man went back inside the house and found a knife Wilson had taken into the house.
Wilson was later arrested and charged with aggravated serious criminal trespass, theft and aggravated assault.
In sentencing, Judge Wayne Chivell said that Wilson had been addicted to drugs from a young age and had a criminal record stretching back 18 years which included numerous dishonesty and trespass charges.
However, he said her background called for “considerable sympathy”, observing she had never had the “opportunity” to undergo home detention supervision.
Judge Chivell sentenced Wilson, who pleaded guilty to the charges, to three years, one month and two weeks in jail, with a non-parole period of two years. He said he had thought long and hard on the issue of granting Wilson home detention.
The judge ordered Wilson be subject to strict conditions while on home detention, including wearing an electronic monitoring device and abstaining from drugs and alcohol.
Hours after the sentencing, Mr Rau introduced legislation which would render Wilson ineligible for home detention because of the seriousness of the trespass and its aggravating features.
Under the proposed legislation there are three ways an offence automatically disqualifies a defendant.
There would be exclusion if the offence was under the category of serious and organised crime — which includes a serious drug offence — or specified acts of violence against a police officer.
Secondly, offences where the sentence would be at least two-years non-parole and involving manslaughter or serious harm.
Thirdly, if a defendant had in the previous five years been sentenced to home detentionfor any of a number of offences