Ray Hammond: Wellington man ‘sorry’ for Dubbo break-in

A 29-year-old father-of-six has revealed the last thing he remembers before taking part in a violent home invasion is making Coco Pops and putting cartoons on.

A 29-year-old Wellington man has told a court he wants to ask the family he terrified during a violent drug-fuelled home invasion to forgive him.

Raymond Hammond made the revelation during his sentencing hearing in the District Court at Dubbo, after he pleaded guilty to an aggravated break enter charge laid after a horrific home invasion in February last year.

Ray Hammond was recovering from a drug addiction but relapsed when he was forced to stay at a caravan park after rehab. Picture: Facebook

According to court documents, Hammond was unconscious and under the influence of methylamphetamine, fentanyl, cannabis and diazepam when his former girlfriend Krystal Carr, 31, tried to wipe saliva from his mouth at her Dubbo home.

After he woke, Hammond punched Ms Carr multiple times and when she tried to escape he took off in a car and crashed it into a tree in a neighbouring street.

While Hammond was driving, Ms Carr knocked on a neighbour’s door and said “let us in, let us in, he’s going to kill us”, the documents state.

Hammond returned and broke the neighbour’s front door frame and punched a person who was inside.

Ms Carr hid in a cupboard, however Hammond dragged her out and later fled the scene when she said police had been called.

Hammond led police on a 500 metre chase through an empty paddock, raised his middle finger and yelled “f*** off cops” before determined officers were able to outpace him.

Ray Hammond has been in and out of jail for more than a decade. Picture: Geoff Egan

In court it emerged Hammond was on parole at the time of the home invasion.

Defence lawyer Derrick Buchanan told the court Hammond had been in custody for some or all of every year since 2009.

While giving evidence Hammond agreed he had received convictions for reckless wounding, aggravated robbery and car jacking.

“I can’t imagine how the people in the house must have felt,” Hammond told the court.

“I just feel like a f****** dog. I’m ashamed.

“I admit that drugs are my downfall.”

Sharee Turnbull, the mother of Ray Hammond’s first child, stabbed Jack Mulligan to death at a Camperdown unit complex in 2019. Picture: Facebook

Hammond said he was first exposed to drugs and extreme domestic violence as a child.

Despite being “pretty switched on” and a top student at school, Hammond said he started smoking cigarettes and then marijuana before turning to harder drugs in his early teenage years.

“I always told myself I’d never use a needle but I don’t know what happened,” he said.

While in and out of jail for much of the past decade, Hammond said he had fathered six children.

“My first ever son was stillborn, she was 24 weeks pregnant,” he revealed before telling the court the woman who fathered his first child, Sharee Turnbull, was recently sentenced to 18 years in jail for the murder of a man in Sydney.

Another traumatic event Hammond said contributed to his drug dependency was the death of his father, who passed away after suffering a massive heart attack in 2012 at age 48.

“I haven’t been the same since then,” he said.

“My sisters will tell you … it’s affected me very badly.”

In 2019 before the home invasion, the court heard Hammond appeared to be on the road to recovery.

He spent time in rehab and said he stopped using drugs and even achieved goals once considered impossible, like competing successfully in the City2Surf.

Ray Hammond was high on a cocktail of drugs when he broke into the home of a Dubbo family.

After rehab, Hammond said he was offered emergency housing but when funding for that ran out, the court heard he was sent to live at a caravan park where he was offered drugs and the temptation proved too great.

“I should have stayed in rehab longer, three months isn’t enough,” he said.

When the home invasion took place, the court heard Hammond was hooked on drugs and on a downward spiral.

“The last thing I remember is making Coco Pops and Nutra Grain and I put cartoons on,” Hammond said.

“I couldn’t control myself.”

Dubbo District Court judge Nanette Williams set a date in May for Ray Hammond to learn his fate. Picture: Jedd Manning

Prosecutor Hallie Warnock told Hammond she counted a total of 14 prior convictions which referred to violence on his record.

“Can you tell the court what has changed between those 14 prior convictions and this one?,” she asked Hammond.

It was he who had changed, Hammond said.

“I’m old enough to know what’s wrong and what’s right … I accept responsibility now.

“It’s not drugs, it’s not alcohol, it’s me.”

Hammond said if he could speak to the family he traumatised he would say “I’m sorry, forgive me please”.

Judge Nanette Williams delivered judgement in Hammond's case on May 20. 

He was convicted and sentenced to a five year, four month term of imprisonment with a non-parole period of three years.

Hammond will be eligible for parole in April 2023.