Drug-fuelled thug walks free after ambo bashing
Thugs who attacked Victoria’s emergency workers were supposed to face mandatory jail time. But a judge has let one assailant walk free — and the attacker’s depression and autistic “traits” were part of reason. READ THE JUDGEMENT
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Mandatory minimum six-month jail terms for thugs who bash paramedics have never been dished out by Victorian courts — despite being in place for five years.
Tears and anger filled the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday as another assailant walked free, despite being found guilty of bashing two paramedics while high on a cocktail of party drugs.
James Haberfield, 22, should be spending the next six months in prison for assaulting an emergency worker on duty.
SCROLL TO READ FULL VICTIM IMPACT STATEMENT AND JUDGEMENT
But a magistrate ruled there were special reasons not to lock him up. The decision to spare him jail prompted outrage among police and ambo unions, with Victorian Ambulance Union secretary Danny Hill angrily branding the legislation “a dud”.
Outside court, one of Haberfield’s victims said the mental scars from his terrifying assault would be long-lasting.
Monica, who did not want her surname published, said she suffered constant flashbacks of being trapped in the ambulance by Haberfield, who was in a state of psychosis.
“I sustained injuries to my neck and back as a result of being placed in a headlock, being punched, twisted and pinned in the back of the vehicle,” she said.
Within hours of the court’s ruling, paramedics had begun writing on their vehicles, calling on the government to fix the weak laws and vowing to campaign hard to make that happen.
“It’s safe to say, every politician in this state will be getting a visit from an angry paramedic,” Mr Hill told the Herald Sun on Wednesday night.
Police Association Secretary Wayne Gatt said the sentence showed emergency services members in uniform were “anything but respected”.
Premier Daniel Andrews took the rare step on Wednesday of calling on the Director of Public Prosecutions to give “urgent consideration to appealing this matter”.
Monica cried in court on Wednesday as she learned the young man who attacked her so viciously that she has been unable to return to work would not spend a single day behind bars.
Haberfield was hospitalised in January after consuming ice, ketamine and MDMA while at the Rainbow Serpent music festival, in central Victoria, north of Ballarat.
But he escaped hospital and roamed the streets of Coburg before launching a frenzied attack on Monica as she tried to treat him in the ambulance.
Police prosecutors were in tears at the bar table as magistrate Simon Zebrowski said he would not jail the young offender as it would have a “catastrophic impact” on his future.
Hearing his colleague’s screams, paramedic Sam Smith ran to her aid and was himself caught in a flurry of violent punches.
Haberfield also pleaded guilty to recklessly causing injury.
Veteran paramedic Paul Judd, the victim of a career-ending bashing by two drunk women, hit out at Wednesday’s sentence. “It’s deplorable,” he said last night.
In his case, despite thugs Amanda Warren and Caris Underwood initially being jailed after they punched, kicked and broke Mr Judd’s foot while he attended a Reservoir patient in April 2016, the sentence was later reduced to a community corrections order by a County Court judge.
“It is devastating and I just don’t know understand how this can happen,” Mr Judd said.
“The magistrate made comments that if the offender was sent to jail it would impact on his life — I have been affected every day for four years now.”
Following the County Court appeal last year, the government sought to narrow exception criteria — which allowed offenders with a mental impairment to escape the mandatory jail term — and passed amendments to the Bill.
In sentencing Haberfield, Mr Zebrowski said he agreed a message needed to be sent to the community that “emergency service workers are not punching bags”.
But he did not believe Haberfield should be jailed as his mental impairment at the time of the attack was not solely due to “self-induced intoxication”.
Mr Zebrowski said the construction management student had a history of mental health issues including major depressive order, traits of autism spectrum disorder and he presented an “acute risk” of suicide in prison.
“Sending you to jail will have a disproportionately catastrophic impact on your future,” the magistrate said.
Haberfield was sentenced to an 18-month community correction order and must undergo mental health and drug treatment.
Ambulance union boss Danny Hill said the mandatory sentencing legislation “appears to be a dudâ€.
— Genevieve Alison (@GenevieveAlison) August 28, 2019
“Will a paramedic have to be stabbed or killed before the court sends a strong message?†@theheraldsun pic.twitter.com/PNJjGxqY6u
MAGISTRATE’S SENTENCING REMARKS
“Whilst amending the Sentencing Act to impose the mandatory minimum terms designed to protect emergency workers on duty, parliament in its wisdom also recognised that there are those in the community to whom statutory minimum sentences ought not apply subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions.”
• PSYCHOTIC STATE AT TIME OF OFFENDING
“There is little doubt that at all relevant times you were suffering a significant disturbance of thought, mood and perception.”
• MAJOR DEPRESSION DISORDER, ACUTE RISK OF SUICIDE IN PRISON
“Your clinically depressed state … would mean that you would find any term of imprisonment more burdensome than a prisoner not so afflicted.”
• AUTISM TRAITS
“Your autism spectrum traits would … make it very difficult for you to navigate the rather complex social environment of prison.”
• YOUNG AGE
• NO CRIMINAL HISTORY
• GUILTY PLEA, REMORSE
• PROSPECTS OF REHABILITATION “EXCELLENT”
“A rehabilitated James Haberfield will never be a danger ever again to any emergency workers on duty or anyone else for that matter.”
13 PARAMEDICS A DAY ATTACKED: WHAT WILL IT TAKE?
Five years ago, then Attorney-General Robert Clark introduced laws to impose minimum prison terms for thugs who assaulted emergency workers on duty.
Despite the crackdown, the ambulance union estimates that as many as 13 paramedics are physically or verbally assaulted on the job every day.
Last year, former attorney-general Martin Pakula sought to toughen the laws following widespread outrage after two women escaped prison despite being found guilty of savagely bashing and ultimately ending the 40-year career of paramedic Paul Judd.
At the time, Mr Pakula said it was in the public interest to strengthen the laws that protect those “who take on significant responsibility and personal risk in serving the Victorian community”.
“Recent decisions demonstrate that those laws were drafted deficiently, and have led to outcomes which are not consistent with community expectations,” he said.
The amendments to the Bill removed loopholes that saw drugs, alcohol and pycho-social immaturity used as “special reasons” for offenders to dodge jail. A provision in the law remained for people with severe mental or cognitive impairment.
But a shock decision by magistrate Simon Zebrowksi on Wednesday to spare a drug-addled thug jail again angered and outraged those on the frontline.
Victoria Ambulance Union secretary Danny Hill said he has never been angrier and called for immediate action to fix the “dud” laws.
“It’s not delivering what it was intending to deliver,” Mr Hill said. “Paramedics are going to be left wondering, what will it take before the courts send a strong message.
“Will it take a death?”
Mr Hill said there was effectively “still no mandatory sentencing in Victoria for people who assault emergency workers”.
“We have to start again, we’re back to square one,” he said. “What we’ve seen hasn’t worked and we’ve got to start from scratch.”
Police Association secretary Wayne Gatt said he would be looking to the government to take leadership and make the necessary changes. “The government needs to look at this and say is this what they hope should have occurred,” he said.
“If the answer to those questions is no, then more needs to be done. Emergency workers deserve to be respected, (yesterday) they were not respected; they were anything but respected.”
Shadow police minister David Southwick slammed the laws, saying the legislation “wasn’t worth the paper it was written on”.
“Victoria’s emergency services workers deserve better than they are getting from Daniel Andrews,” Mr Southwick said.
“Our first responders deserve to get home to their families in one piece – free from injury by cowardly attackers,” he said.
Premier Daniel Andrews has called for an urgent review of the sentence and asked the DPP to consider an appeal.
In parliament last year, Mr Pakula said paramedic bashers would no longer be able to use impaired mental functioning as an excuse where it was solely caused by alcohol or drugs.
“An offender who has a genuine mental illness or neurological impairment … will still be able to rely on a special reason if there is evidence that the impaired mental functioning was due to their pre-existing impaired mental functioning and not their intoxicated state,” he said.
VICTIM IMPACT STATEMENT:
I’m disappointed with the court’s decision in handing down a sentence for the assault on me while working as a paramedic.
My colleagues and I go to work every day to make a difference, to provide best care to each and every patient.
It’s a job I love knowing that I help people.
The assault on me back in January has had a profound impact on my life.
I have been unable to return to work, which has been physically and mentally challenging.
It took more than a month for the obvious physical signs like bruising from the assault to pass.
I also sustained injuries to my neck and back as a result of being placed in a headlock, being punched, being twisted and pinned in the back of the ambulance.
I’ve experienced significant neck and back trauma, including whiplash, and I still have ongoing neck and back pain requiring regular treatment.
The psychological impact will be longer lasting.
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I’ve been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress and anxiety, two things I have never experienced in my life.
I continue to have flashbacks of being trapped and assaulted and trying to reach out to free myself from the back of the ambulance — which was always my safe place to retreat whenever I felt intimidated or vulnerable.
Violence against anyone is unacceptable; violence against paramedics and other emergency workers and health professionals is never OK.