Back to jail after crime spree

LESS than two weeks after being released from prison, Anton Quay Haynes was stealing property from a Rockhampton house.

LESS than two weeks after being released from prison, Anton Quay Haynes was stealing property from a Rockhampton house.

The 20-year-old faced both the Rockhampton District Court and the Rockhampton Magistrates Court last week on 11 charges relating to entering premises and one charge of assault occasioning bodily harm.

Eleven of the charges were from when Haynes was only 18 years old.

He pleaded guilty to all charges.

Crown Prosecutor Josh Phillips told the District Court that in the course of just under a year Haynes had broken into the Hegvold Basketball Stadium in Rockhampton three times, viciously assaulted someone around his own age and broken into the homes of five people, some of who were home and sleeping at the time.

In his crime spree, Mr Phillips said, Haynes had stolen or damaged about $25,000 worth of property.

Defence barrister Jeff Clarke told the court Haynes had been stealing to feed the drug and alcohol problem he’d had since he was about 12 years old.

Mr Clarke said Haynes had left school at Year 8 and had spent time on at least five or six occasions in youth detention.

He said he was now in custody for the fourth time as an adult.

Mr Clarke said Haynes was told at age 16 that he suffered from schizophrenia and was also diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactive disorder but wasn’t on medication.

He said Haynes hadn’t been in contact with a psychiatrist since being in custody as an adult and in all his time behind bars had never received drug and alcohol counselling.

Judge Grant Britton took into account Haynes’s tumultuous upbringing and described his situation as “all too common”.

He acknowledged that Haynes had already served 81 days in pre-sentence custody and sentenced him to concurrent sentences for all charges, the longest of which was 18 months, with an immediate parole eligibility date.

In the Magistrate’s court Haynes faced a further charge for entering a Rockhampton house and stealing a 42 inch plasma television, a car fridge, an esky, a portable DVD player, an in-car DVD player and a large amount of alcohol including several bottles of spirits, bottles of wines and a number of premixed cans.

None of the property was recovered.

Defence solicitor Lance Rundle said Haynes had obtained a certificate two in engineering while in custody and hoped to secure an apprenticeship as a boilermaker when released. Magistrate Tom Bradshaw sentenced Haynes to nine months imprisonment and changed the parole eligibility date to August 1.

In his crime spree Haynes had stolen or damaged about $25,000 worth of property

Originally published as Back to jail after crime spree