Daniel Baigent pleads guilty to possessing drugs, speeding and destroying property
A young North Wonthaggi man who pleaded guilty to several drug and speeding charges has vented his frustration in court about a Facebook page who posted a “dirty mugshot” of him. Here’s what happened.
Bass Coast News
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A young North Wonthaggi man who was busted causing a ruckus across the Bass Coast, blamed a local Facebook page for not being able to find job because a “dirty mugshot” of him was posted online.
Daniel Baigent, 19, pleaded guilty in the Latrobe Valley Magistrates court to charges including possessing drugs, speeding, hooning, destroying property and committing an indictable offence while on bail.
Baigent’s lawyer said in an earlier hearing his “youthful” offending was based off “stupidity”.
“The offending before the court is stupid,” she said.
“They all show clearly a lack of thought which is quite common in a youthful offender”.
Baigent’s lawyer attributed his cannabis use as a method to control pain he suffered due to a rare disorder.
“Mr Baigent instructs he was introduced to cannabis by another youthful person in the means of assisting to control pain which has lead to him dabbling in other things,” she said.
Magistrate Ann Collin said his offending was “clearly reckless”.
“It only takes a split second to loose control of that car, kill yourself or kill someone else on that road,” she said.
Baigent said he “wasn’t in the right mind state” because he walked in on his girlfriend cheating on him.
“That’s when we think about the consequences of what we do,” Magistrate Collin said.
“If you are not in the right state of mind, you don’t get behind the wheel of a car.”
Baigent said he wasn’t able to obtain employment for a period of time due to a mugshot that was posted of him on a local Facebook page.
“Because of Bass Coast Eyewatch, no one was willing to give me an opportunity,” he said.
“They put this dirty mugshot of me up, if it wasn’t for that photo I would have had a lot better opportunity to actually get work.”
Magistrate Collin said his picture was posted “because of what [he] did”.
“They could have least picked a normal photo, they put the worst photo of me up there,” Baigent said.
“They put it up there to make me look like a bad person like they always do”.
The mugshot has since been deleted.
Baigent received a community corrections order and a six month loss of licence.
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