Wollongong court cases: 25 sentences that shocked the Illawarra in 2022
Wollongong Court is the biggest south of Sydney and it has seen dozens of cases in 2022 which have left people in angry, in tears or lost for words. Here are 25 of the most shocking.
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Hundreds of offenders have been convicted and sentenced in Wollongong Courthouse in 2022 from drug dealers, to sex pests and people responsible for the death of innocent bystanders.
Here are 22 cases to appear in Wollongong Courthouse this year that shocked readers with all 25 people ultimately convicted of their crimes.
CAMERON KELLY, DWAYNE DIAZ: DRUG-DEALING DADS SERVED PRISON SENTENCES
A pair of drug-dealing dads from Berkeley were locked up in April when their “haphazard business” of selling meth came tumbling down.
Cameron Jade Kelly, 40, and Dwayne Diaz, 37, were arrested in March, 2021 and charged with two counts of supplying a commercial quantity of a prohibited drug.
The total value of the supply exceeded $200,000 with a police phone tap which led to their scheme coming undone.
Kelly, who is also known as Cameron McTiernan, was jailed for three years and eight months, while Diaz was sentenced to three years and six months.
Diaz could be eligible for parole in April, 2024, a month prior to Kelly potentially being eligible for release.
MOHSEN SLEIMAN: P-PLATER JAILED FOR CRASH THAT KILLED BEST FRIEND
Mohsen Sleiman, 21, was sentenced in Wollongong District Court to three years and six months jail for aggravated dangerous driving occasioning death and failing to stop and assist after a vehicle impact caused death.
The charges stem from a crash on ANZAC Day in 2020 when Sleiman was speeding through the Royal National Park near Helensburgh.
The red P-plater lost control of his blue Nissan 200SX and crashed into a tree.
The collision killed Sleiman‘s best friend Emrah Nokic, however, the court heard in the immediate aftermath the driver filmed the scene and posted it on social media with it taking more than 10 minutes for a passer-by to call triple-0.
Sleiman could be eligible for parole in May 2024, from which point his licence will be suspended for three years.
WAYNE WEST: PEDO COP LOCKED UP FOR FILMING GIRL IN SHOWER
Former Nowra police officer Wayne Errol West was chucked in the slammer for 18 months for filming an 11-year-old girl in the shower.
West, who has daughters of his own, was arrested and charged with two counts of filming a person in a private act without consent to obtain sexual arousal (aggravated) and resigned from NSW Police the day after his arrest.
The disgraced cop was later found in possession of child abuse material for which he was subsequently charged.
In Wollongong Local Court in May, Magistrate Robert Walker said “a serving police officer should have known better”.
West could be eligible for parole in April 2023.
SHANE HATTON: PRO SURFER FAMILY’S BOOKIE JAILED FOR $1.5 FRAUD
The former bookkeeper for famous Australian surfing family the Wright’s was jailed for more than five years in July after she swindled $1.5 million to fund her gambling addiction over nearly a decade.
After pleading guilty to four charges of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage through deception, Shane Maree Hatton was also ordered to repay a total of $647,000 to the Wright family despite the fraud amounting to much more.
The court heard Hatton said she initially took the money with the intention of “borrowing” it and wanted to repay it but did not stop gambling nor repay any money until she was exposed.
Hatton will be eligible for parole on July 20, 2025.
KAIS DAHDAL: FAKE UBER DRIVER AVOIDS JAILS FOR SEXUALLY TOUCHING TWO WOMEN
A Syrian national who pretended to be an Uber driver before creeping on two vulnerable women in the Wollongong CBD was spared jail in July.
Kais Dahdal had pleaded guilty to two counts of sexually touching another person without consent and one count of driving without ever holding a licence and was sentenced to a seven-month intensive correction order.
The court heard the 35-year-old had lured the victims into his wife’s silver sedan in October, 2021, before making sexual advances on them – being as direct as saying “Want to f**k?”.
The decision left one of the victims, Ashleigh Rauicava, ropable with the Balgownie mother slamming the outcome as “absolute bulls**t”.
WARREN KEMP: ‘HYPERSEXUALISED’ EX AMBO’S CHILD ABUSE MATERIAL CRIMES
Ex-paramedic Warren John Kemp was spared jail in August for a string of vile child sexual abuse material crimes which Wollongong Local Court heard was spurred on by his medication leading to “hypersexuality”.
Kemp, 64, was sentenced to a two-year intensive correction order for possessing child abuse material; disseminating child abuse material, intentionally recording intimate images without consent; and two counts of intentionally distributing intimate images without consent.
The horrendous offending occurred during the first half of 2021 with Kemp using messaging services Viber and Kik to send and receive the child exploitation material with some of the items depicting children as young as seven.
An expert report prepared for the court linked Kemp’s medication for Parkinson’s disease, Sifrol, to a heightened sex drive and causing “people to do things outside their personality”.
DEANNA AZABAL: DRIVER WHO KILLED GRANDMOTHERS LEARNS FATE
The distracted woman who killed unsuspecting grandmother Angela Darragh after veering into her car on the M1 Princes Mwy in the Illawarra last year was spared jail time in August.
Deanna Azabal, 31, was sentenced to an 11-month intensive correction order as well as a three-year community correction order for negligent driving occasioning death, negligent driving occasioning grievous bodily harm and two counts of causing bodily harm by misconduct.
The court heard Azabal had been arguing with her husband Ivan when she inadvertently veered her silver Nissan Juke into Ms Darragh‘s Holden Statesman near Figtree.
Ms Darragh, 47, sustained fatal injuries while her daughter and two other relatives were flown to Westmead Hospital.
After the judgment was handed down, Ms Darragh’s stoic widower, Dean Spicer, told the media “We forgive [Azabal] for what she’s done. We’ve got to in order to move on”.
JASKARAN SINGH, ARPAN SHARMA: KIAMA TEEN’S KILLERS LOCKED UP
The two men responsible for the death of 19-year-old Kiama teenager Libby Ruge were sentenced nearly two years after she was killed on a Wollongong CBD footpath in November, 2020.
Indian nationals Jaskaran Singh and Arpan Sharma were hooning around in a Toyota Camry when they lost control and careered into four young revellers, leaving two with serious injuries and a third, Libby Ruge, dead.
Singh, who was behind the wheel, faced a five-day trial after pleading not guilty to three counts of dangerous driving occasioning death and grievous bodily harm and not rendering assistance as a driver earlier this year.
After being found guilty, he received a six-year prison sentence with a non-parole period of four years.
Sharma, who pulled the handbrake moments before the crash, had pleaded guilty to three counts of dangerous driving occasioning death and grievous bodily harm and copped a five-year jail term with a non-parole period of three years and four months.
SHAYNE FREIMANN: PRISON GUARD SENTENCED FOR ROLE IN JAILHOUSE DRUG RING
A prison guard who was paid $50,000 to help smuggle drugs into a south coast jail, allegedly at the behest of a member of the notorious Brothers4Life gang, avoided becoming an inmate herself in September.
Shayne Louise Freimann was sentenced to a 12-month intensive correction order in Wollongong Local Court following confirmation of her guilty plea to two counts of corruptly receiving a benefit as an agent.
Court documents state Freimann aided infamous Sydney gangster Jamil Qaumi and other inmates to boost the supply of the illegal drug buprenorphine, commonly known as “bupe”, in the south coast Correctional Centre during 2020 – a task for which she was generously rewarded.
The former Nowra resident, who now lives in the Bathurst region, was also ordered to forfeit the $31,900 police seized during a raid of her home in November, 2020.
ELIE DOUNA: HOUSING DEVELOPER SPARED JAIL FOR $15M SCAM
Stained Illawarra property developer Elie Douna was sentenced in September for orchestrating a failed $14.7 million loan scam.
The co-director of LuxLiving Homes was hit with a 14-month intensive correction order in Wollongong Local Court after previously pleading guilty to three counts of making a false document to obtain a financial advantage.
The crimes related to Douna dodging-up nine fake contracts in order to land millions in loans from Australian Unity Bank so he could continue a luxury 92-home development, dubbed Avoca Park, in Avondale.
DAVID BAGSTER: JUSTICE FOR JANE AFTER 11 LONG YEARS
The man responsible for the death of Valmai ‘Jane’ Birch, the woman found tied up and submerged in a wheelie bin in Woonona more than a decade ago was finally brought to justice in September.
David Bagster, 55, was jailed for 11 years and six months after a second jury found him guilty of the manslaughter of his 34-year-old on-again-off-again girlfriend.
The court heard from the sister of Ms Birch’s late mother who recalled her “infectious laugh” and her ”happy and contented childhood“.
Wollongong District Court Judge Andrew Haesler said Bagster “demeaned her in life and in death. He did not care for her, his actions resulted in her death.”
Bagster‘s no-parole period expires in October 2027.
WAYNE CASSELL: MONSTER JAILED FOR RAPING 15YO GIRLS AT BEACH
Dapto predator Wayne Cassell, who stalked two teenage girls before raping them at a Wollongong beach, was sentenced to nine years behind bars in September.
The father had pleaded guilty to 11 charges including eight counts of sexual intercourse with a child aged 14 to 16, two counts of stalk or intimidate with the intent to cause fear of physical harm and one count of intentionally incite a child aged 14 to 16 to perform a sexual act.
Wollongong District Court heard Cassell followed the girls on a train from Dapto before pursuing them all the way to Wollongong Beach where he “aggressively” raped them as they held hands to reassure each other they would survive the ordeal.
The full term will expire in January 2030, however, Judge Andrew Haesler put in place a non-parole period of five years and 10 months meaning with time already served Cassell could be released from prison in September 2026.
JAYDON BEVERIDGE: JUNIOR BASKETBALL COACH SENTENCED FOR CHILD SEX OFFENCES
Disgraced junior Illawarra basketball coach Jaydon Beveridge avoided being sent to jail in October for coercing two underage girls into exchanging lewd pictures on Snapchat.
Jaydon Beveridge, the son of highly-regarded former NBL coach Rob Beveridge, pleaded guilty to inciting a person under 16 to commit an act of indecency and intentionally inciting a child older than 10 and under 16 years to carry out a sexual act.
The 24-year-old was hit with a three-year community correction order and ordered to complete 750 hours of community service for his vile behaviour between 2017 and 2019 when he was in a “position of authority” with the Illawarra Basketball Association.
The court had heard Beverage had referred to the minors as “sunshine” and ”princess” and sent one of them a video of him ejaculating in the bathroom.
BELINDA SIMMONDS: EX NRL WAG DODGES JAIL FOR CHILDCARE FRAUD
Former NRL WAG Belinda Simmonds avoided being sent to jail for shamelessly swindling more than $90,000 from a NSW south coast not-for-profit childcare centre.
Simmonds was the finance manager for not-for-profit Shellharbour Kiama Family Day Care when she stole $90,875 between 2013 to 2018.
Simmonds used the company card as if it were her own, spending hundreds of dollars at a time on shopping sprees at Kmart, Target, The Body Shop and Freedom Furniture.
A magistrate in Wollongong Local Court labelled Simmonds crimes as “reprehensible” before slamming her with a two-year intensive correction order for two counts of dishonestly obtaining property by deception.
Simmonds was also ordered to pay back stolen money and complete 500 hours of community service.
SIMON SULESKI, SALIM NEHME: DRUG-DEALING DUO SENTENCED AFTER $1.5M STING
In October, two Illawarra drug dealers working for the “Godfather” were jailed until the end of 2026 for their role in the ”7-Eleven of the drug trade”.
Simon Dimitrija Suleski, 24, and Salim Sam Nehme, 28, were arrested in Unanderra in December 2020, following a major undercover operation which connected them to the sale and the pending sale of $1.5 million of illicit drugs.
The duo were involved in selling 1.2kg of cocaine, 846g of meth and 1110g of MDMA, with the transactions occurring between September 2020 and the date of their arrests.
The two crims pleaded guilty to three counts of supplying a large commercial quantity of a prohibited drug with both sentenced to five years and six months in jail.
Suleski has a non-parole period of three years and three months, while Nehme has a non-parole period of three years.
RHYS NELSON: SNAPCHAT PREDATOR LOCKED UP
Rhys Bennett Nelson who groomed a 15-year-old girl on Snapchat before being caught with a sickening stash of more than 150 items of child abuse material was sent to jail in October.
The 22-year-old Figtree man sentenced to seven months behind bars following guilty pleas to grooming a child between the ages of 14 and 16 for unlawful sexual activity and three counts of possessing child abuse material.
Nelson sent vile messages to the girl like “I want to be inside u” and after he was arrested, police located an appalling stash of child abuse material across multiple devices.
The offender will be released in May 2023, but will be subject to a community correction order until October 2025.
NOAH RZEMINSKI: CHATROOM CREEP RELEASED FROM JAIL AFTER SENTENCING
Noah Rzeminski went by the name ‘MrSygonist’ on an online chatroom where he tried to lure a 14-year-old girl to meet up so they could “cuddle and kiss”.
That 14-year-old turned out to be an undercover police officer, with the Fairy Meadow man eventually being charged and sentenced for using a carriage service to groom a child under 16.
The court heard Rzeminski sent pictures of himself to the girl and asked her to skip school so they could “cuddle, kiss, touch your breast, between your legs, grab your bum”.
In a later conversation, Rzeminski asked the girl to read a slam poetry verse called “Ursula” with police claiming it was about having sexual intercourse with a Disney character.
Rzeminski learnt his fate in November after 150 days behind bars with Judge Andrew Haesler deeming that was sufficient, telling the court “if five months in custody hasn’t got that through to him I don’t think it ever will”.
Rzeminski will be on parole until September 2022, and will also be subjected to a child protection order.
SUZANNA RISTEVSKA: DRUG-DEALING HAIRDRESSER LEARNS FATE
A drug-dependent hairdresser at the heart of a major drug operation in Sydney and the Illawarra will be behind bars until at least 2024.
Suzanna Ristevska pleaded guilty to two counts of supplying an indictable quantity of drugs, participating in a criminal group, knowingly dealing with the proceeds of crime and organising or conducting or assisting a drug premise.
In Wollongong District Court in November, the 42-year-old from Berkeley received a three-year sentence with a non-parole period of one year and nine months.
Court documents stated phone taps led investigators pinning Ristevska for sourcing and supplying 41.76g of heroin and 496.44g of meth between May 20 and July 17, 2022.
LUKE MURRAY, CARL LAWRENCE: DUO PUNISHED FOR HORROR KIDNAPPING
Two Illawarra thugs who “randomly and opportunistically” kidnapped and dumped a weary traveller in the middle of the night jailed in November
Luke Donald Murray, 41, and Carl Lawrence, 29, were sentenced in Wollongong District Court after pleading guilty to taking and detaining a person in company to obtain advantage and being carried in a conveyance taken without the owner’s consent.
Murray also had an additional charge, which he pleaded guilty to, of knowingly dealing with the proceeds of crime.
Court documents stated the two goons hijacked a Riverina man’s car near the Wollongong CBD before forcing him to drive towards Sydney.
The victim was eventually dumped on the outskirts of Appin with many of his belongings stolen as well as his Hyundai Tucson hire car.
Murray was jailed for four years and six months while Lawrence was sentenced to four years and three months.
Both were handed the same non-parole period of two years and eight months.
ALLAN SIMPSON: GO-KART IDIOT’S MULTI-MILLION TRAIN DERAILMENT
A jailbird who caused nearly $8 million in damage when his botched go-kart theft caused a “catastrophic” before-dawn train derailment will be behind bars until at least 2024.
Allan Martin Simpson was sentenced in December to four years and six months jail with a non-parole period of two years and six months.
The 47-year-old was sentenced for committing a s114 offence with a previous conviction, larceny of more than $5000, endangering the safety of passengers on a railway, causing an obstruction to a railway locomotive and two counts of destroying or damaging property – one of a value in excess of $15000.
Court documents reveal Simpson tried to steal a $3000 go-kart from Wollongong Kart Raceway before it got stuck on the tracks with a train colliding with it at more than 90km/h.
Thankfully, no one was killed, however, the driver suffered a fracture to his spine, bruised ribs, a collapsed lung and extensive bruising to his hips, legs and back while a guard and two passengers were also taken to hospital.
GAYE GRANT: PAEDOPHILE TEACHER’S HISTORIC CHILD ABUSE
Disgraced former Catholic schoolteacher Gaye Grant was the last person to be sentenced in Wollongong District Court in 2022 after pleading guilty to maintaining an unlawful relationship with a child.
The old and frail 76-year-old was jailed for six years and nine months for sexually exploiting a vulnerable student at St Paul’s Catholic Primary School over two years in the 1970s.
Grant taught at St Paul’s Catholic Primary School in Albion Park for more than two decades with court documents indicating her sins extended from the classroom to the bedroom when her family wasn’t at her home.
The sentence included a non-parole period of three years and four months meaning Grant could be eligible for parole in April 2026 – four months before her 80th birthday.
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