Clarke Ben Rowan loses appeal to have sentence partially suspended for bashing cab driver in 2018

A FORMER soldier jailed for brutally bashing a taxi driver in a “frightening and thuggish” attack has lost an appeal

Former soldier Clarke Rowan pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court aggravated assault for bashing a taxi driver in 2018. Picture: Supplied

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• Ex-soldier jailed for ‘thuggish’ attack on ‘good Samaritan’ taxi driver who was ‘just trying to help’
• Ex-soldier who bashed taxi driver appeals jail sentence

A FORMER soldier jailed for three years for brutally bashing a taxi driver in a “frightening and thuggish” attack has lost an appeal to have part of his sentence suspended.

Clarke Ben Rowan, now 25, was sentenced in May after pleading guilty to a string of offences including aggravated assault and making a threat to kill in relation to the attack in October 2018.

He was given a three-year prison sentence with a non-parole period of 18 months.

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Rowan’s defence lawyer, Ambrith Abayasekara, appeared in the NT Criminal Court of Appeal last week and told the court his client’s sentence was “manifestly excessive” in that the judge “declined” to suspend part of it.

Mr Abayasekara said there were “a range of factors which point towards a partially suspended sentence” including the fact that his client was only 24 at the time of the offending.

Criminal Court of Appeal Justices Southwood, Brownhill and Riley acknowledged that although “there was much to commend the imposition of a partially suspended sentence”, the minimum sentence of 18 months was imposed to “reflect the seriousness of the offending and the weight which is to be given to general deterrence and denunciation in cases such as this”.

In their decision, handed down on Monday, the three Justices also referred to the victim impact statement of the taxi driver, who said he “lost his work for six months” as a result of the attack.

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“I can no longer drive nights as I am scared of what can happen,” the statement said.

Rowan assaulted the driver in the early hours of October 1, 2018 after falling asleep in his cab and punching and kicking him once he arrived at his destination.

After the driver begged him to stop and Rowan apologised, he assaulted the driver again and threatened to kill him after asking him to drive him to a second location

During the second assault, Rowan choked him in a headlock until he fell unconscious.