Woman handed good behaviour bond for cold-blooded crime

A WOMAN who played a bit-part in illegally keeping protected wildlife in the Darwin rural area has been handed a good behaviour bond

A woman who played a bit-part in illegally keeping protected wildlife in the Darwin rural area has been handed a good behaviour bond

A WOMAN who played a bit-part in illegally keeping protected wildlife in the Darwin rural area has been handed a good behaviour bond.

Chantel Galwey, 24, faced Darwin Local Court by video link from New South Wales on Wednesday where Judge Dick Wallace said ordinary citizens took a particularly dim view of wildlife offenders.

“By and large, animals are not supposed to be taken from the wild,” Mr Wallace said.

Galwey pleaded guilty to four offences stemming from the possession and interference with protected wildlife, committed with co-offender Matthew Little, who was in December handed a month-long suspended sentence.

Galwey and Little were charged after posting videos online of them toying with crocodiles and reptiles, which neither had permits to keep.

Mr Wallace said: “It must be said that no real harm was done.”

He said Little “seems to have paid” for the offending, which largely took place on his Noonamah property.

He said Galwey’s offending was relatively minor compared to other offences that have come before the courts in the Northern Territory.

Galwey came to the Territory last year and was in a brief relationship with Little, which was forged over the duo’s love of animals.

The court heard most of the protected wildlife on Little’s property was there before Galwey came to the Top End.

Mr Wallace did not record a conviction against Galwey, but ordered she be of good behaviour for a year.

He said Galwey was unlikely to reoffend.

Galwey will be required to pay $600 in victim impact levies.