Thug gets five months’ jail for assault on police
VICTORIAN Attorney-General Martin Pakula has hit back at Peter Dutton’s attack on the state government’s judiciary appointments, saying they were completely wrong and untrue.
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VICTORIAN Attorney-General Martin Pakula has hit back at Peter Dutton’s attack on the state government, saying they were completely wrong and untrue.
“No government has done more to appoint former prosecutors to the bench than this government,” he told the Herald Sun.
He said it was demonstrably the case and pointed to the appointment of former director of prosecutors John Champion to the Supreme Court bench at the end of the year as an example.
Mr Pakula’s comments follow the immigration minister blaming Victoria’s judicial system and Premier Daniel Andrews for being too soft on sentencing for serious offending.
Mr Dutton said Andrews was responsible for allowing the appointment of ‘civil libertarians’ in the Magistrates’ Court.
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“I’m blaming the state government for making appointments which I think we’re seeing the consequences of now,” he told 3AW this morning.
“Daniel Andrews has created this mess through appointments to the Magistrates’ Court as well as the district court and elsewhere ... they have made problems by not having adequate sentences and deterrent put in place when people are actually arrested and committed of these crimes.”
“The solution in part is to (make) sure the appointments you are making to the Magistrates’ Court are people who will impose sentences and will provide some deterrents to people repeatedly coming before the courts,” he said.
“If you are appointing civil libertarians to the Magistrates’ Court over a long period of time, you will get soft sentences.”
Mr Dutton also said the judiciary was “not above public scrutiny” and that the public expected their standards to be met in relation to serious criminals going before the court.
Mr Pakula admitted at times the courts would make decisions that did not meet community expectations.
“From time-to-time courts make decisions that we as politicians find difficult to understand.”
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“The alternative is having a system where politicians decide who goes to jail and for how long — no Victorian wants that.”
He said the Mr Dutton’s interventions were purely a political attack on a Labor government and he offered no solutions to crime problems.
“It is a new development having a federal minister spent all their times throwing rocks at a state government because it happens to be a Labor Government and they are a Liberal government.”
He said the youth crime rates in Queensland and New South Wales were higher than Victorian, yet Mr Dutton made no comments about crime in those states.
Earlier the Herald Sun revealed a cop basher who had assaulted police eight times before punching a male constable and badly injuring a female officers will be back out on the street within months.
The Law Institute of Victoria this morning said it was “extremely concerned” by the ongoing political attacks on Victorian judges, magistrates and the legal profession.
“These political attacks are totally inappropriate and without foundation,” the statement read.
“There is no place for political attacks on the judiciary and undermining the independence of our judges and magistrates.
“The community can have absolute trust in the judiciary and the legal profession in Victoria,” the LIV said.
Mr Dutton said Victoria’s judiciary was not above public scrutiny.
“The public expects that their standards are met and their expectations are met in relation to serious criminals who are going before the court.”
Mr Dutton said was not suggesting cleaning out the judiciary and had not spoken directly to Mr Andrews.
The Immigration minister’s comments follow his attack on the Victorian government yesterday, where he accused the premier of dismissing the concerns of victims.
“I want Daniel Andrews to go out to dinner with one of the families who suffered at the hands of these violent criminals,” the Home Affairs Minister told Sky News.
THUG GETS FIVE MONTHS’ JAIL FOR ASSAULT ON POLICE
The soft sentence comes despite state government promises to crack down on thugs who use Victoria’s emergency workers as “punching bags”.
The Herald Sun has previously revealed thugs bashing police were avoiding jail.
This week’s sentence of just five months’ jail for Craigieburn man Shaun Mowbray, 37, once again highlights loopholes in laws that were meant to protect police.
During his appearance at Broadmeadows Magistrates’ Court, Mowbray, who pleaded guilty, did not apologise to his mother or other victims, but rather called police “c---s”.
“You’re criminals with badges,” he yelled in court.
The court heard Mowbray resisted police who were trying to arrest him for threatening to burn down his mother’s house.
He punched a male constable a number of times, badly injured a female senior constable, and yelled to another teen to go “get the boys so we can f--- them up”.
The policewoman’s hand was so badly hurt she has been off work for 11 weeks.
She said in a victim impact statement her career had been set back and she couldn’t perform normal tasks at home or play with her young nephews
Before the October 25 incident, Mowbray had been drinking with a mate, and on his way to his mum’s place, he threatened a female Protective Services Officer at a train station.
Mowbray’s rap sheet includes eight assaults on police.
In jailing him, magistrate Martin Grinberg said he was mindful of public expectations, but it would be a “sad day” when a court did not also consider individual circumstances.
Mowbray’s lawyer said he was a low-functioning adult who had experienced developmental delays, possibly from teen drug use.
The Police Association slammed the sentence, saying criminals would “run roughshod” over officers unless courts did something to stop them.
“Cases like this need to serve as an example, and five months’ jail, an aggregate for the offences committed, won’t do that,” association secretary Wayne Gatt said.
“The community has lost the service of a police officer for at least two months. The man who caused that to happen will probably be back walking the streets before that officer returns to duty. There’s a massive inequity in that.”
Mandatory prison terms for the offence of assaulting an emergency worker were introduced under the Napthine government.
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But the separate charge of assaulting a police officer does not carry the same six-month minimum penalty.
The government has said it is developing more comprehensive reforms to address such cases: a working group was set up to review prosecutorial practices involving pleas in cases involving harm to police.
Attorney-General Martin Pakula said it would keep working to ensure penalties met public expectations.
Three others arrested alongside Mowbray will face court next month.
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