The year that was: Major Tasmanian criminal court cases that finalised during 2020
Brutal torture, an unsolved death, a one-punch killing and a man in the grips of psychosis who mowed down an innocent pedestrian – it’s been a long year for Tasmania’s criminal justice system. Here are some of the state’s biggest cases that finalised in 2020.
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IT WAS a year that revealed the dark underbelly of Tasmanian society – and exposed uncomfortable truths hidden beneath rocks for far too long.
Criminals who had gotten away with their acts for decades finally came face-to-face with justice – and their victims.
A swathe of government workers were stood down amid child sexual abuse allegations, an unearthing that came in the wake of a host of disturbing revelations – apparent historical paedophilia cover-ups in state schools and institutions, a nurse who drugged and molested children over decades, and allegations of horrific abuse at the Ashley Youth Detention Centre.
As these scandals erupted during 2020, the state’s criminal justice system continued to plough its way through the rubble of Tasmanian society – judging and sentencing murderers, sex offenders and other serious criminals.
While the past year wasn’t easy for the courts – COVID-19 restrictions caused case backlogs to skyrocket to an all-time high while prisons struggled under conditions of record overcrowding – it was nevertheless a significant year for Tasmania’s justice system.
Here are some of the history-making cases that finalised during the past 12 months.
Murder, April 2019
SENTENCED NOVEMBER 2020
He pulled out a gun on his unsuspecting mate, who was urinating by a roadside.
Jarrod Leigh Turner, 22, had no idea it was coming.
After all, the pair had just spent a night of fun and drinking together.
After shooting his friend in the head at close range, Duffy jumped in his girlfriend’s car, telling her to speed away as he left Mr Turner bleeding to death on the ground.
Duffy was jailed for the term of his natural life after pleading guilty to murder.
The 32-year-old will be eligible for parole after he has served 18 years.
William Adair Rothwell and Jacob Michael Brennan
Murder, August 2019
SENTENCED FEBRUARY 2020
Launceston teenagers Rothwell and Brennan were just 17 when they subjected Billy Ray Waters, 18, to “tremendous cruelty” over some stolen cannabis.
Brennan shot Mr Waters in the leg before stabbing him 18 times.
Rothwell attacked the victim with a wooden baton.
Mr Waters died after he was shot in the head, with both assailants accusing each other of pulling the trigger.
Normally, as minors under 18, Rothwell and Brennan would have had their names prohibited from publication.
But Supreme Court judge Robert Pearce deemed that releasing their names was appropriate for “a crime of this nature”.
The youths, who both pleaded guilty to murder, are serving 26-year jail terms.
They will be eligible for parole after serving 15 years.
Manslaughter, February 2019
SENTENCED APRIL 2020
It was in the early hours of a Sunday morning at a popular Hobart nightclub that Beau Wayne Kelly, 18, first crossed paths with a Tasmanian university academic.
There was “no obvious reason” why the two engaged in a verbal altercation on the staircase of Mobius nightclub.
Stewart Williams, 54, walked away.
But Kelly followed him back into the nightclub, hitting him hard once to the head.
Mr Williams suffered multiple fractures, resulting in heavy and uncontrolled bleeding.
Kelly’s one-punch assault – an act of “drunken bravado” – resulted in Mr Williams’ death in hospital a few days later.
Kelly, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter, was jailed for five years. He will be eligible for parole after he has served two-and-a-half years.
Not guilty of murder by reason of insanity, March 2018
DETAINED March 2020
Dale James Watson was walking to a supermarket at Prospect when he became the unlucky victim of a stranger in the grips of acute mental illness.
Joshua Josef Barker, 32, drove into Mr Watson, killing him almost instantly, before driving to a friend’s house and telling them he’d killed a snake.
Justice Robert Pearce said Barker, who was found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity, first became mentally unwell in 2009 when he was savagely assaulted by a group of young men wielding wood and iron bars.
Barker was detained in a secure mental health unit, where he will remain until he is discharged by the Supreme Court.
Murder trial abandoned, March 2016
DISCHARGED MARCH 2020
The murder trial of a former Hobart doctor accused of killing his elderly mother at Sandy Bay was abandoned because he was “gravely ill”.
Stephen John Edwards, 66, was due to face a one-month trial in March this year to fight an allegation he murdered Nelda Mavis Edwards, 88, by administering her with a drug.
His trial was delayed due to COVID-19 restrictions hampering the Supreme Court of Tasmania’s case lists – and then dropped altogether.
No details about Dr Edwards’ illness were provided.
A charge of conspiring to obstruct the course of justice against Dr Edwards and his brother Robert David Edwards was also dropped.
Historical child sexual abuse crimes, 1980s
SENTENCED SEPTEMBER 2020
As a school teacher in the 1980s, Peter John O’Neill was placed in a position of trust.
But the teacher – who taught at Dominic College, Burnie High School and St Virgil’s College – abused that trust by grooming and sexually abusing a number of young school boys.
It took some of his victims decades to come forward – and one of them even died before seeing his abuser face justice.
But O’Neill, now 61, never really faced justice at all.
Morbidly obese and wheelchair-bound, O’Neill has spinal stenosis and a number of serious health conditions.
In fact, O’Neill – who these days lives in Canberra – was deemed too ill to serve a prison sentence back in Tasmania.
After pleading guilty to six counts of indecent assault and one count of penetrative sexual abuse of a young person relating to six children, O’Neill was given a wholly-suspended five-year prison term.
Child sexual abuse crimes, including six counts of rape, 1980s-2000s
SENTENCED DECEMBER 2020
It must be one of the longest-ever jail sentences in Tasmanian history for child sexual abuse crimes: 23 years.
The 63-year-old child molester and rapist spent three decades molesting six boys and girls aged between six and 16, and his victims included his own children – a biological daughter and two stepchildren.
The man, who cannot be named as doing so would identify his victims, was described by Justice Helen Wood as depraved with base attitudes and a callous lack of empathy.
She said he viewed children as “sexual commodities” and noted he could spend the rest of his days behind bars.
The man claimed he too was a child sexual abuse victim, assaulted while serving time at the Ashley Youth Detention Centre.
He will be eligible to apply for parole in 15 years.
Historic child sexual abuse, 1970s to 1990s
SENTENCED MARCH 2020
He was a science teacher with a talent for manipulation.
Over decades, Harington managed to groom and molest child after child.
But despite a swathe of child sexual abuse allegations, Harington was seemingly protected by his employer – the Tasmanian Education Department – who just moved him from school-to-school whenever the accusations made his position untenable.
He was jailed in September 2015 after confessing to molesting nine young boys over 35 years.
But this year, he copped an extra 18 months’ jail time after a jury found him guilty of molesting another two boys between the 1970s and 1990s.
Harington will be 72 years old when he’s eligible for parole in March 2024.
Originally published as The year that was: Major Tasmanian criminal court cases that finalised during 2020
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