Tasmanian judge sentenced over AVO breach after assault conviction

A judge who presided over cases in a state’s highest court has landed on the other side of the law for a second time.

A Tasmanian Supreme Court judge who resigned after he was convicted of assaulting and emotionally abusing a woman “essentially lost everything”, a court has been told.

Gregory Peter Geason, 63, appeared before Downing Centre Local Court in Sydney on Friday for sentencing after pleading guilty to breaching an apprehended violence order.

It comes after a Victorian court was told Geason had tendered his resignation after a magistrate found him guilty of striking and emotionally abusing a woman in Hobart.

In sentencing, magistrate Brett Shields told Geason he had suffered significant extra-curial punishment after the earlier offences came to the attention of the media.

Mr Shields convicted Geason, who does not reside in NSW, and sentenced him to a 12-month community corrections, noting the charge fell on the “top of the low range”.

Former Tasmanian Supreme Court judge Gregory Geason pleaded guilty to breaching an AVO. Picture: NewsWire / John Appleyard

The court was told the charge related to communication “with someone who has the benefit of protection from such communication” 12 times over nine days.

Geason’s lawyer, high-profile Tasmanian barrister Fabiano Cangelosi, said the judge had become isolated after allegations were first aired and “essentially became a hermit”.

“The defendant, as a result of the findings in the Tasmanian court for those offences, we submitted then and now that he essentially lost everything,” Mr Cangelosi said.

“He lost years working in the legal profession, lost his position in the community, his position in his chosen profession … He is a person who has risen high and fallen very low.”

The court was told Geason was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2017,

He had also served as chair of the Tasmania Parole Board and was the Victims of Crime commissioner.

Mr Cangelosi said the offending was the result of “circumstances that will surely pass”, and that in giving evidence over the prior matters had expressed his remorse.

“By virtue of his position as a judicial officer, he has sentenced people for this kind of thing, orders that he himself expects others to obey,” Mr Cangelosi said.

Mr Cangelosi told Mr Shields that Geason was prohibited from leaving Tasmania unless he received permission from his probation officer following the earlier sentencing.

Geason had lost everything, the court was told.

Geason, a resident of Battery Point, a historic suburb of Hobart, was initially charged with three counts of breaching an AVO; two were dismissed without a plea in November.

The 63-year-old was sentenced earlier this year to a 12-month community corrections order and 100 hours of community service over an attack on a woman in Hobart.

Magistrate Susan Wakeling found Geason had shaken the woman, struck her in the chest and pushed her forcefully, which caused her to fall back and hit her head.

She also found Geason subjected the woman to emotional abuse or intimidation over seven months, including tracking her movements and pressuring her to sign a contract.

In a statement, Tasmanian Attorney-General Guy Barnett said at the time he noted Geason’s intention “to imminently resign as a judge of the Supreme Court of Tasmania”.

“The government has not yet received confirmation of Justice Geason’s resignation,” he said on November 15, 2024.

“Failing confirmation of Justice Geason’s resignation before the next parliamentary sitting day, it is my intention to move a motion in the House of Assembly calling on the Governor to remove Justice Geason.”

Geason had been on full pay since charges were laid in December 2023 but had not been hearing any cases.