Ryan Sharp jailed after bombing Illawarra couple’s car
An Illawarra man who tracked down a local couple on Facebook and bombed their car after they beeped their horn at his girlfriend in a Maccas drive-through has been sentenced.
Illawarra Star
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An Illawarra man who planted a live bomb under the car of a young family after carrying out a six-week campaign of harassment against them, spurred on by an argument in a McDonald’s drive-through, has been jailed.
Ryan Sharp was sentenced to at least three years jail by NSW District Court Judge Andrew Haesler on Tuesday, after he and his partner of 18 months, Deanna Struber, were arrested in April last year by officers attached to the NSW Police Fixated Persons Unit – a specialist squad set up in 2017 to target potential would-be terrorists.
After believing police failed to properly investigate the Maccas car beep, Sharp, 33, used Facebook to track down his victims, employing “catfish” style tactics to lure them into revealing their home address.
On Friday, the court heard his victims had been living in fear since the frightening ordeal, and were forced to move out of their home after the incident. Despite that, Judge Haesler said it was evident Sharp had little remorse, and was too “self-focused” to understand the implications of his crimes.
A set of agreed facts tendered to the court on Tuesday revealed Sharp’s frightening tirade began after an incident at Warrawong McDonald’s on February 22 last year.
His partner Struber was in the drive-through when she began to reverse, prompting the car behind her to beep its horn.
The seemingly simple warning led to Struber and the passengers in the vehicle behind her engaging in a verbal altercation, before they both drove off, and engaged in another altercation down the street.
Struber reported the matter to police and was able to obtain the male victim’s name and suburb. After the incident, she contacted her boyfriend Sharp, who told her to search the couple on Facebook.
She successfully found their shared profile and sent a screenshot to Sharp.
Sharp then created a fake profile under the name “Bree Elka” and contacted the victims inquiring about an item they had listed for sale on Facebook marketplace.
The victims provided Sharp their address, who then began planning a frightening attack on the couple.
Early the next morning, Sharp went to the couple’s home, taking to their Ford Ranger with a baseball bat, causing more than $10,000 worth of damage.
He then sent a threatening message to the pair on Facebook, one Judge Haesler said was intended to scare them.
“Both of you have made a big mistake …” part of the message read.
Two weeks later in the early hours of March 5, Sharp returned to the home after creating a homemade bomb with batteries, sparklers and a circuit board.
After fixing the bomb underneath the car, Sharp set a timer and took off. However, he returned shortly after, fearing he’d put the bomb too close to the fuel tank. When he arrived, firefighters were working to contain a blaze caused by the bomb.
Police launched a major investigation into the incident and arrested Sharp at a service station on April 2. In an interview with police he initially denied any involvement, however later admitted to creating the bomb, saying he only wanted to scare the couple – not injure them.
Asked why he did it, Sharp said he decided to take the law into his own hands after police chose not to further investigate the incident between the couple and his girlfriend.
In December last year, Sharp pleaded guilty to two counts of using a carriage to threaten serious harm, possess or use prohibited weapon without permit and manufacture military style weapon.
In court on Tuesday, Judge Haesler sentenced Sharp to a maximum prison term of five years and two months jail, with a non-parole period of three years, noting there was a “high degree of premeditation”.
“Nothing could justify or explain what was done,” he said.
“There was nothing particularly unusual about the initial incident that led to the grievance … it was minor and should have been put to the side.”
He also noted the strong impact the incident had on the victims, who told the court in a victim impact statement that after the attack, they didn’t feel they could provide for their newborn baby, and that their new marriage would have ended without counselling due to the stress it had caused them.
After learning his sentence, Sharp became angry asking Judge Haesler “are you serious?”.
He will be eligible for parole in June 2022.