Anthony Besanko jailed over brutal St Kilda drug debt enforcement with taser
A St Kilda dealer who repeatedly bashed and tasered a man over a $200 drug debt — and filmed himself plotting and carrying out the brutal attack — has learnt his fate.
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A St Kilda dealer who bashed and tasered a man over a $200 drug debt — and filmed it — will spend at least three years in jail.
Anthony Besanko was sentenced in the County Court on August 18 over the brutal bashing carried out in the living room of the victim’s St Kilda apartment.
The court heard videos taken on Anthony Besanko’s phone showed the 43-year-old punching his victim to his head and face until he was bleeding from the mouth, then tasering him five times.
Further footage showed Besanko and a co-accused plotting their attack on the 38-year-old victim, as well as them debriefing after the brutal bashing.
The court heard Besanko’s co-accused had arranged to meet the victim — a mutual acquaintance — at his apartment on November 2, 2019.
Once inside, the co-accused left the door slightly ajar and called Besanko twice to signal him to enter.
After Besanko had carried out his vicious attack, he demanded his $200 from the terrified victim who pleaded with him, telling him “I would have paid you, why didn’t you call me?”.
Besanko and his co-accused then took the heroin stashed on the victim’s bookshelf and left.
CCTV footage showed them in the lobby of the victim’s apartment building and police then traced the two men to another apartment in St Kilda where they were arrested.
Cops found the taser, videos and plastic bags containing heroin and methylamphetamine inside the apartment.
Judge Howard Mason said Besanko himself had been the victim of a “tragic” childhood, but that his moral culpability had been high.
“You had a tragic early life … that has been described by mental health practitioners as horrendous,” Judge Mason said.
“You experienced an extraordinary level of abuse, neglect and trauma.”
The court heard Besanko’s mother had been a heavy heroin user and that Besanko had possibly been born drug-dependent.
His mother died of a heroin overdose when he was just three years old.
Besanko has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, ADHD and post-traumatic stress disorder.
His criminal history includes convictions for assaults as well as dishonesty, traffic and weapons offences.
Judge Mason said there was no evidence Besanko’s mental health issues had diminished his moral culpability.
“The offending involved a level of planning, you were armed with a weapon, you used the weapon on the victim by the administration of an electric shock which was repeated,” he said.
“You knew the victim was inside and you attended there for the purpose of enforcing a drug debt.”
Judge Mason also took into account Besanko’s guilty plea and “lack of serious criminal history”.
“This type of offending in the context of illicit drug behaviour is not uncommon and requires stern condemnation from the courts,” he said.
Besanko was sentenced to four and a half years in prison and must serve a minimum of three years before he is eligible for parole.
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