Tyler Samuel Williams wins Casino Liberty Servo robbery appeal

A man jailed for his role in a violent servo robbery during which a staff member was slashed in the face has had his jail term reduced.

A man who has spent almost three years in jail for an ice-fuelled robbery has had his sentence reduced.

Tyler Samuel Williams was sentenced in Lismore District Court in October 2019 to six years jail for robbery in company of Casino’s Liberty service station in March 2018.

The sentence included a non-parole period of three years and 10 months, which meant Williams was first eligible for release on July 27, 2023.

The court had heard Williams and four co-accused hatched the plan to commit an armed robbery while at a party in Casino.

Williams told the court it was his first time smoking ice.

Captured in CCTV footage, Williams and another co-accused each held a long metal pole while Liberty Service Station staff member Kenneth Whitton, 61, opened the servo’s doors at 6.55am on March 25.

Williams dropped a metal pole he was carrying as he rushed into the store while his co-accused remained armed.

They both demanded cash from Mr Whitton and Williams punched the victim while his co-offenders scuffled with the man.

Williams grabbed money from the till while a struggle occurred and a co-accused slashed Mr Whitton’s face with a knife.

Mr Whitton then gained control of a metal pole and chased the offenders out of the store.

At the time of original sentence, Williams’ plea of guilty was accepted given he was unaware his co-accused had used a knife during the robbery.

However, Williams has now fought the conviction further and the sentence was quashed on appeal.

The Liberty service station on Centre St in Casino was the target of the violent robbery in 2018.

Justice Stephen Rothman, in a recent Supreme Court appeal decision, agreed it was impossible to conclude beyond reasonable doubt Williams had inflicted injury when he hit Mr Whitton and that presiding Judge Julia Baly did not take into account all of William’s subjective mental factors.

Williams argued while there was little doubt Mr Whitton faced injury, there was no evidence his strike caused any injury to Mr Whitton.

He was not involved in the following scuffle nor charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

In his victim impact statement, Mr Whitton’s only reference to bleeding was caused by the knife and the subsequent cut.

Mr Whitton required 13 stitches and suffered a number of bruises and grazes to the face, elbows, and knees and scratches to the arm but these were not attributed to Williams.

“Further, in large measure, the violence was perpetrated not by (Williams) but by his co-accused, Judge Rothman stated.

“The physical violence perpetrated by the applicant was confined to one or two punches delivered at the very beginning of the robbery.”

The appeal also delved into William’s deprived upbringing as an Indigenous man growing up on the Box Ridge Reserve.

Judge Rothman said Judge Baly acknowledged the disadvantaged childhood but “rejected any diminution in moral culpability” which was an “error” given the uncontested evidence of psychiatric disorders.

“Even if the psychiatric conditions were not causative of the offending, they were relevant to reducing the sentence to be imposed upon the Applicant,” he said.

“Often the deprivation and exposure to violence and alcoholism in childhood will be the cause of the psychiatric disorder, but not always, and usually not wholly.”

However, appeal on grounds of full 25 per cent utilitarian benefit for Williams’ plea and objective seriousness were not upheld.

In lieu of the original sentence, Judge Rotham resentenced Williams to a three year non-parole period, concluding on 27 September 2022.

The remaining two year term would conclude on September 2024.