New law stops thugs who bash emergency service workers from dodging jail

Thugs who bash emergency service workers will have little hope of avoiding jail after new laws passed the parliament last night. Here’s how they’ll work.

Victorian Paramedic Monica leaves the the County Court of Victoria after James Haberfield has received a community corrections order, avoiding jail, after attacking a paramedic. Picture: AAP.

Thugs who bash emergency service workers will have little hope of avoiding jail after new laws passed the parliament last night.

The Sentencing Amendment (Emergency Worker Harm) Bill 2020 will force a mandatory minimum six months imprisonment for anyone who attacks an officer on duty except in very limited circumstances.

The legislation closes a loophole that saw several people sidestep the mandatory sentence by claiming special reasons.

But now offenders will be blocked from relying on a special reason of impaired mental functioning if it was caused by self-induced intoxication.

The changes also make clear that courts must take into account the Parliament’s intent that a sentence of the statutory minimum length should ordinarily apply.

James Haberfield has received a community corrections order, avoiding jail after attacking a paramedic in January 2019. Picture: AAP.

The changes were sparked after James Haberfield last year avoided jail despite being found guilty of bashing two paramedics while high on a cocktail of party drugs.

Haberfield had gone into a psychotic state after the four-day Rainbow Serpent festival, where he’d consumed a cocktail of drugs including ice, MDMA and ketamine.

The decision to spare him a prison term prompted outrage among the community, as well as police and ambulance unions.

But County Court judge Michael Tinney ruled that legislation thought to require mandatory sentencing had been widely misunderstood.

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