One of Tasmania’s most violent criminals Gavin Raymond McIntosh granted parole

A violent criminal who the Director of Public Prosecutions tried to have locked up indefinitely has been granted parole.

One of the state’s most violent criminals is set to be released from prison on parole.

A VIOLENT criminal who the Director of Public Prosecutions tried to have locked up indefinitely has been granted parole.

Gavin Raymond McIntosh, 41, will be released from prison next week after being given the green light by the Parole Board on Friday.

McIntosh was sentenced in October 2010 to eight years imprisonment, with a non-parole period of six years, for aggravated burglary, stealing and two counts of committing an unlawful act intended to cause bodily harm. The sentence was to be served cumulatively to a term of imprisonment of three-and-a-half years.

He has been eligible for parole since October last year.

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In May 2013, Justice Helen Wood dismissed an application by the Director of Public Prosecutions to have McIntosh declared a dangerous criminal. If granted, he would not have been eligible for release from custody until the declaration was discharged by a judge.

During the hearing the Crown relied upon more than 10 of McIntosh’s most violent crimes, which included:

FORCING entry into a home where a couple was sleeping and attacking them with two other men. When the young woman sat up in bed, McIntosh delivered a forceful and direct blow to her head with a metal bar. She was rendered unconscious and had convulsions on the floor, while McIntosh and his two co-offenders carried out a “savage, determined and sustained” attack on the male victim. The woman suffered two lacerations to her head and bleeding to two different parts of the brain. The man suffered a depressed comminuted fracture to his skull, as well as an underlying blood clot, 10 lacerations to his face and scalp, and significant bruising.

DEMANDING money from a female drug dealer before punching her to the face, causing two fractures to her lower jaw and a fracture to the base of her skull. He then set her car on fire and left her.

PUNCHING a woman to the right eye, fracturing an eye socket and cheek bone, as well as causing nerve damage. The victim’s three-year-old daughter was present and screaming at the time. The victim managed to get outside before collapsing.

HITTING a woman across the face with a table leg. She briefly lost consciousness and McIntosh left her alone with her four-year-old daughter. The blow caused substantial damage to her teeth and a soft tissue injury to her face.

STABBING the father of a young man he’d just assaulted during a confrontation. The victim was stabbed once to the face, once to the neck and twice to his abdomen.

BREAKING out of a prison van with several other prisoners and kicking a prison officer in the face twice.

STRIKING the Goodwood Newsagency proprietor on the arm with the blade of a mattock during an armed robbery.

Justice Wood said McIntosh’s history showed he had a propensity to commit serious crimes of violence against vulnerable people and at least three of his victims were “lucky to be alive”.

Despite his rap sheet, Justice Wood said McIntosh’s lengthy sentence, signs that he may have started to reform and the efforts he had made towards his rehabilitation were all considerations in her decision against declaring him a dangerous criminal.

McIntosh will be under the supervision of a probation officer for the duration of his parole order and will have to obey certain conditions, including a curfew.