NAMED: Tasmania’s violent offenders and their shocking, brutal crimes
Their crimes have sickened ordinary Tasmanians – the Mercury takes a deep dive into some of the state’s most violent offenders of recent years. SEE LIST + SENTENCES >>
Tasmania
Don't miss out on the headlines from Tasmania. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Their crimes have sickened ordinary Tasmanians – the Mercury takes a deep dive into some of the state’s most violent offenders of recent years.
Tasmania’s courts have seen horrific cases unfold, from a man who decapitated his housemate to a bodybuilder who tortured someone he suspected of stealing his ute.
The Supreme Court of Tasmania annual report for 2019-20 revealed some 114 assault criminal cases had been lodged for the reporting period, as well as 51 wounding lodgements and 31 aggravated assault lodgements.
Eight criminal cases were lodged for the crime of causing grievous bodily harm.
These are some of Tasmania’s most violent offenders, their crimes, and their punishments.
Shannon James Duffy
Shannon James Duffy shot Jarrod Leigh Turner in the head with a 12 gauge shotgun in April 2019 while the deceased was urinating on the side of Colebrook Road, Richmond.
The act devastated his family and saw Justice Michael Brett sentence Duffy in November last year to life behind bars with an 18-year non-parole period ending in April 2037.
Justice Brett said the pair were housemates and generally got along well, mixing in pro-criminal tending circles.
“In the days before you committed the crime, you had some pressure put on you by one of these people to shoot Mr Turner in a non-life-threatening way, as punishment for a perceived grievance,” Justice Brett said.
“That person had already administered a similar punishment to you.”
The following day, an upset female friend alleged to Duffy Mr Turner had sexually assaulted her.
“I am satisfied that you then, or shortly after, decided that you would kill Mr Turner in retribution for what you believed he had done,” Justice Brett said.
Duffy deceived Mr Turner by inviting him to socialise, drinking beers on the beach with him only hours before killing the 22-year-old and leaving him half-naked on the ground.
Read more here.
Darren Ward Gale
A convicted murderer is fighting to be re-sentenced for manslaughter after he decapitated his housemate in an act of “grotesque violence”.
The head of Ulverstone pensioner Noel Joseph Ingham remains lost, but his body was recovered in a forest at Dulverton.
Justice Helen Wood said during sentencing in the Supreme Court of Tasmania Mr Ingham had been a generous housemate to his killer Darren Ward Gale.
“The defendant became attached to his new environment and the living arrangements, which were more comfortable than he was used to,” Justice Wood said.
“He also wanted to exploit the situation and he saw a financial opportunity to be recognised as Mr Ingham’s carer, which would mean he would receive a Commonwealth carer’s benefit.”
But Justice Wood said Mr Ingham was still independent and did not need a carer.
Tensions ensued between the pair, with the victim regretting renting out his room to Gale.
Gale attacked the older man, with a “great deal of Mr Ingham’s blood” staining various rooms.
While attempting to hide the evidence Gale killed Mr Ingham’s two dogs.
He maintained a facade for months that Mr Ingham was still alive by sending messages from his mobile and writing letters to the housing department.
Gale sold the victim’s dinghy and other items for money.
Justice Wood described the decapitation as “grotesque violence”.
Gale has filed a notice of appeal after he was found guilty of murder by jury verdict and sentenced to 23 years behind bars backdated to November 2016, with 14 years non-parole.
Read more here.
Mark Rodney Jones
A New Years’ Day murder resulted in a 22-year jail sentence for Mark Rodney Jones.
The former bodybuilder will not be eligible for parole for another 13 years.
Jones has a history of violent offending, having raped and strangled a teenage girl in the late 1990s.
On January 1, 2017 Jones sought vengeance as he believed 22-year-old Bradley Breward had stolen his car, which was worth more than $20,000.
“He came to believe from various sources that Mr Breward was the thief and set out to find him,” Justice Robert Pearce said.
“He offered money for information about the car and Mr Breward through social media and flyers, and by word of mouth.”
Jones and co-offender Ricky Izard found Mr Breward asleep on a couch in a unit with hopes of finding out what happened to his car.
Jones violently interrogated the victim for some 15-30 minutes and bound his hands and ankles.
He punched the man’s torso and waterboarded Mr Breward, and put a bag over his head twice, counting to 40 both times.
The second act killed the young man.
The former air force reserve was found guilty by jury of murdering Breward and sentenced in July 2019.
Jones intended to appeal his sentence, but withdrew the appeal in May last year.
Read more here.
Natalie Maher
A 48-year-old woman smothered her mum before accessing and stealing thousands of dollars from her bank account.
Natalie Maher was found unanimously guilty of murder in November last year, using a cushion to kill her 71-year-old mother Veronica Corstorphine.
Justice Robert Pearce said in the Supreme Court of Tasmania at the time Maher committed the offence in October 2019 at her mother’s Launceston home.
Shortly after the murder, Justice Pearce said Maher bought flight tickets using her mother’s credit card, boarding a plane to Perth two days later with jewellery and tech gadgets belonging to the deceased.
“You had transferred all of the funds in your mother’s bank account, about $12,000, to your own account,” he said.
“You used the credit card to obtain a further $1,000 by way of a cash advance to yourself.”
Justice Pearce described Maher as “intelligent, educated and industrious” with a difficult upbringing.
He said Maher returned to Tasmania to live with her mother, who was offering financial assistance, two months before the murder, but old tensions resurfaced.
“I am satisfied that an escalation in your long held personal antagonism towards your mother was the primary motivation for the murder,” he said.
Justice Pearce sentenced Maher to 23 years behind bars, 13 years non-parole, backdated to November 7, 2019.
Read more here.
Jack Harrison Vincent Sadler
The court found Jack Harrison Vincent Sadler shot Jake Anderson-Brettner and left his body parts in bins around town, but Sadler is appealing the sentence.
The 29-year-old was found guilty by unanimous jury verdict of murder in May.
Justice Robert Pearce found Sadler shot Mr Anderson-Brettner in Riverside in August 2018 before dismembering the body in a “particularly gruesome exercise”.
The court found he threw the victim’s torso off the Sideling, Tasman Hwy and hid other body parts in wheelie bins in the Launceston area.
“The way in which Mr Sadler mutilated and disposed of his body, especially given that his head and limbs were not recovered, greatly added to the emotional and psychological distress caused to Mr Anderson-Brettner’s family and friends,” Justice Pearce said.
The pair had been friends prior to the incident.
“I think it very likely that the disagreement arose from mutual dealings with illicit drugs,” Justice Pearce said.
“A planned killing motivated by financial or commercial reasons, especially a drug debt, is a serious murder whether the debt is big or small.”
Sadler was convicted and sentenced to 32 years imprisonment from August 2018, with a non-parole period of 20 years.
Sadler will appeal the sentence on the grounds it was “manifestly excessive”.
Read more here.
Klaus Dieter Neubert
The death of Olga Neubert in broad daylight in New Town shocked the community in 2015.
Two years later, her estranged husband Klaus Dieter Neubert was sentenced to 25 years behind bars with the expectation of spending at least 15 years in prison.
He was found guilty by unanimous jury verdict of murder, and of inflicting grievous bodily harm on Olga Neubert’s friend Josephine Cooper.
The Supreme Court of Tasmania heard Mrs Cooper and Mrs Neubert were spending time together on May 14, 2015 when Neubert saw them in Moonah.
He had been looking for her for some weeks and was enraged she was intending to marry another man.
That day, Neubert pulled in front of Mrs Neubert’s car on Risdon Rd and fired several shots into the vehicle, injuring Mrs Cooper and the deceased.
Mrs Cooper lost two fingers trying to protect her friend.
Neubert came to stand beside an injured Mrs Neubert and fatally shot her in the head.
Sentencing Justice Michael Brett described the events as “selfish, brutal and callous crimes committed by you because you had no other way of exerting control over your wife”.
Read more here.
William Adair Rothwell and Jacob Michael Brennan
Two 17-year-olds killed their friend in August 2019 over stolen weed in a brutal bashing and stabbing attack.
Justice Robert Pearce lifted a suppression on the names of William Adair Rothwell and Jacob Michael Brennan, allowing media to unusually publish the names of the youth offenders due to the seriousness of their offending.
The kids planned the killing ahead of time, having discussed with a cannabis dealer the idea of murdering 18-year-old Billy Ray Waters.
The initial scheme was to shoot him in his sleep on a camping trip near Bridport, but Mr Waters did not fall asleep.
Their back-up plan was then set in motion.
They took Mr Waters to an area near Mayfield. Brennan shot Mr Waters in the upper leg, but the weapon jammed before he could fire further gunshots.
Mr Waters screamed for help before Brennan stabbed him 18 times, with Rothwell bludgeoning him with a wooden baton.
Brennan unjammed the gun and Mr Waters was killed with a bullet to the head.
The pair were sentenced in February last year to 26 years behind bars after pleading guilty to murder, with a 15-year non-parole period.
Denise Waters said at the time justice had been served for her deceased grandson, but she felt sadness the boys would “lose so much of their life” in prison.
Read more here.
More Coverage
Originally published as NAMED: Tasmania’s violent offenders and their shocking, brutal crimes
It’s official: Former Labor leader quits state parliament
Former Labor leader Rebecca white has quit state parliament to focus on her tilt at the seat of Lyons in the upcoming federal election.
Robbins Island wind farm opponent in Supreme Court bid
A key opponent of a 100-turbine wind farm proposed for Robbins Island says it was denied natural justice during a failed 2023 legal appeal against the $1.6 billion development’s approval.