Dad’s gun death news triggered Rosebud druggie’s ice-fuelled crimes

A Rosebud man who grew up believing his dad died in a car crash spiralled out of control into drugs and crime when he found out the truth.

Shannon Dunstan went on a downward drug spiral after he was told his dad had been shot dead.

A junkie has blamed his life of crime on a downward drug spiral after being told his dad had been shot dead.

Shannon Dunstan, now 31, was 18 when he was told his father had been gunned down.

Since he was a baby he had been fed the lie his dad had died in a car accident, but when told of the real cause of his death he hit the drugs hard.

A court heard the hurtful revelation that he had been lied to for his entire childhood turned his teenage curiosity for cannabis into a daily heroin habit.

He then became hooked on ice and began to steal and deceive to pay for his supply.

The Rosebud man pleaded guilty to theft, handling stolen goods, deception, drugs and weapons charges at the online Frankston Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.

He also breached a community corrections order he had been given last year for ‘selling’ non-existent items online and pocketing the cash.

The court heard on December 27 last year Dunstan and a mate were at the Rosebud Plaza when a man and his young son rode up on their bikes.

They locked up their rides and went inside to shop.

Dunstan and his pal cut the locks and rode off on the Giant and Trek mountain bikes, even stealing the helmets.

Police became aware of Dunstan’s involvement and raided his Rosebud house, finding one of the bikes and a helmet.

When asked why he stole them he told officers he did it “for drugs, to sell for ice” or to “trade for drugs”.

In June last year he was found asleep in a car parked on a Rosebud nature strip with two stolen number plates attached.

With him he had a knife, two Viagra pills with no prescription, and a bag of ice.

Also in June he was caught in Rosebud in a vehicle with handwritten paper number plates, with a Taser, while high on ice.

And in May he was found walking in Tootgarook while drug-affected and carrying a hunting knife.

His defence lawyer said he had been remanded since December 29 and this was his first time in prison, although he had been in the police cells numerous times.

The 29 days he has spent there were his “most sober” and the longest he had been without using substances since he was a teenager, she said.

She said he carried weapons for his protection, and was honest with police in admitting his theft crimes were committed for drug money.

The court heard the man accused of shooting his father was subsequently acquitted on appeal on the premise he was acting in self-defence.

Magistrate Timothy Gattuso said Dunstan should use the forced detox of his remand to better himself, but he also needed to spend a little more time behind bars.

“You had difficult circumstances of not having a father and then discovering what had happened to him,” Mr Gattuso said.

“Your drug escalation commenced from that point on.

“This is an opportunity for your rehabilitation to benefit the community.”

Dunstan was jailed for 45 days, minus 29 days he had already served, and given a 12-month drug treatment community corrections order to follow upon his release.