Recidivist burglar Darin Mark Marshall, 50, sentenced for ramming police car, arson
A 50-year-old former removalist rammed a police car and then fled from officers by setting his vehicle rolling down a Redlynch street and leaping from it before it smashed into someone’s fence, a court has heard.
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A 50-year-old former removalist rammed a police car and then fled from officers by setting his vehicle rolling down a Redlynch street and leaping from it before it smashed into someone’s fence, a court has heard.
It was “objectively serious” offending which Darin Mark Marshall pleaded guilty to in the Cairns District Court on Monday, alongside setting fire to a $24,000 rental car in an abandoned lot in Caravonica and other charges including 15 burglary offences.
Crown prosecutor Rachel Boivin said Marshall, who appeared in court via video link from prison, had appeared in court a total of 64 times since becoming an adult for a raft of offences, many of which were similar to what he was now being sentenced for.
Ms Boivin said that on a number of occasions, Marshall would break into hotel rooms, targeting tourists and stealing cars, wallets, phones, clothing and other bits and pieces.
The court heard that on May 7, 2021, police were trying to locate Marshall at an address in Redlynch when he reversed a stolen vehicle into a police car, pushing it back on to a road and into oncoming traffic.
It was then that he accelerated his vehicle, jumping from it while it was still moving.
The court heard he managed to evade police on that occasion and was later arrested on May 11.
Defence barrister Joseph Jacobs told the court his client was remorseful and that his offending was the product of a drug dependency which was in turn a response to childhood abuse.
“He was abandoned by his mother at the age of two and lived in foster homes,” Mr Jacobs said.
“His mother said she never wanted him and he was a mistake.”
The court heard Marshall lived on the streets and in the care of the department between the ages of eight and 18.
“His life is one generally circumscribed by mental disorder and drug abuse,” Mr Jacobs said, with the exception of an eight-year period where Marshall ran a removals business.
That, too, spiralled out of control due to his amphetamine use.
The court heard Marshall has been diagnosed with a number of disorders including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
In sentencing him, Judge Anthony Rafter said Marshall’s “conditions have been caused by physical, sexual and psychological abuse you’ve been subjected to at the hands of foster carers and institutional settings”.
Addressing Judge Rafter via video-link, Marshall said he had been asking for help “for years” but every time he got out of jail he had no money, nowhere to go, no family to turn to.
“I’m just a product of the environment,” he said.
“Every time I try to do the right thing, things happen and I lose control.”
Taking all that into account, Judge Rafter sentenced Marshall to four years imprisonment, with parole eligibility at the end of September, taking into account 469 days in pre-sentence custody as time already served.
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Originally published as Recidivist burglar Darin Mark Marshall, 50, sentenced for ramming police car, arson
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