Meth dealer Sean Woods jailed for trafficking, biting cop

A street-level Geelong drug dealer has been scolded in court for selling ice for profit despite drugs having “ruined” his own life.

Sean Woods pleaded guilty to trafficking ice and assualting a police officer.

A Geelong drug dealer has been scolded in court for selling ice for profit despite drugs having “ruined” his life.

Sean Woods, 32, appeared in Geelong Magistrates Court via videolink on Thursday, having last week pleaded guilty to a number of charges, including drug trafficking, and was sentenced to eight months in jail, including 139 days already served.

Woods trafficked ice between February and June this year, and bit a police officer during an attempt to transport him to Melbourne Assessment Prison.

Court documents reveal Woods was caught with drugs on May 8 and again on June 27, with the seizures on the latter date including a total of 84.5g of ice, 28g of cannabis, 47 suboxone strips, knuckle dusters, a knife, 1,4 butanediol, almost $3000 in cash, and prescription drugs.

On Thursday, crown prosecutor Sepideh Sadri told the court it was “not a one off” and Woods “was in the business of selling drugs”.

However the prosecution conceded that he was not involved in the drug trade beyond a street level, with average deals of no more than $300.

In addressing Woods’ assault of a police officer, Ms Sadri noted Woods had prior convictions for assault and aggression.

She said Woods had poor rehabilitative prospects, and acknowledged he had diagnoses of PTSD and borderline personality disorder which affected his judgement in relation to the assault, but said they should only be a “matter of slight weight” in his sentence.

During his sentencing remarks, magistrate Peter Mellas said Woods’ conduct was “serious offending” and comprised of two distinct episodes, the trafficking and the assault.

On the trafficking, Mr Mellas said while there was no suggestion Woods was involved any higher up the food chain, he was “certainly not down the other end”, such as cases of opportunistic dealing purely to fund a drug habit.

Woods made a “conscious” decision to sell ice for a profit, the court heard.

Mr Mellas noted that Woods had referenced the impact his own drug use had on him, lamenting how it “ruined” his life, but he still made the choice to sell drugs to others.

He said jail was the only appropriate punishment.

In regards to assaulting a police officer, Mr Mellas told the court he accepted Woods was someone “who doesn’t make very good decisions when confronted and placed under stress”.

He said environmental factors present in Woods upbringing, coupled with his mental health diagnoses, meant his decisions were often poor, reactive and instantaneous.

Prior to biting the officer, Woods damaged a seatbelt in the prisoner transport van by twice wrapping it around his neck, forcing the van to return to Geelong police station.

The court heard that although Woods, a father of two who plans to live in Melton after being released from prison, was found suitable for a community corrections order (CCO), he was found to be at high-risk of reoffending.

Mr Mellas said it would be “in everyone’s interest” for Woods to be supervised upon release from prison, and placed him on 18-month CCO to follow his jail term.

Originally published as Meth dealer Sean Woods jailed for trafficking, biting cop