STATE OF TASMANIA v DAMIEN MATTHEW HENRY FORD
13 DECEMBER 2024
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE ESTCOURT J
The defendant, Damien Matthew Henry Ford, now aged 20, has pleaded guilty to one count of persistent family violence and three counts of interfering with a witness. The complainant is now aged 23 years.
The defendant and the complainant commenced their relationship in October 2022. The initially happy relationship began to deteriorate and became characterised by arguments and angry outbursts by the defendant. As the relationship continued, the defendant started to become manipulative and controlling towards the complainant. His behaviour continued to deteriorate with him becoming physically violent towards her.
The relationship ended in approximately June 2023. There are no children to the relationship, however the complainant had the care of her young daughter from a previous relationship at the time of the offending.
Sometime in April 2023, the pair were together at the complainant’s residence in New Norfolk. The complainant and defendant started to argue and the defendant picked up a basket of easter eggs and threw them across the room. During the course of the argument, the defendant picked up the complainant and slammed her down on a nearby wooden chair. As a result of this, the complainant’s left shoulder blade was dislocated. She screamed in pain. The defendant yelled at the complainant to calm down before realising that she was injured. He attempted to console her by hugging her and rubbing her back. The complainant did not immediately seek medical treatment for her shoulder as she was able to relocate the joint herself.
On 26 April 2023, a police family violence order was issued, protecting the complainant from the defendant. The order did not, however, prohibit the pair from spending time together.
On 14 June 2023, the complainant was at her mother’s address in Glenorchy. The defendant was present at his residence in Glenorchy. He was aware that the complainant was residing at her mother’s address. The complainant and the defendant were arguing with one another over Snapchat. The complainant briefly stopped replying to the defendant’s messages in order to tend to her daughter. Approximately five minutes after sending his last message, the defendant arrived at the complainant’s mother’s address. He entered the property via the unlocked front door and approached the complainant in the loungeroom of the residence. Her daughter was also in that room.
The defendant started to yell at the complainant for not replying to his messages. The complainant walked away from him towards the kitchen, leaving her daughter in the loungeroom. The defendant followed the complainant into the kitchen. She told the defendant to leave. He refused and remained in the kitchen, continuing to yell at her about the messages.
The complainant slumped down on the kitchen floor and started crying loudly. The complainant’s daughter started to walk towards her in the kitchen area. The defendant attempted to approach the complainant, but tripped over the child. The child fell and started to scream and cry. The defendant reached down and grabbed the complainant by the front collar of her jumper and lifted her up towards his face. He yelled at her to “shut up”, to “stop making those noises”, “stop being loud”, “if you’d just calm down and listen to me, I wouldn’t have to do this.” The defendant also called the complainant a “mental bitch”. While holding onto the complainant, the defendant shook her for approximately one minute. At some stage during the incident, he grabbed onto her ear and knocked her head onto the kitchen bench.
The complainant pushed the defendant away and picked up her daughter. She asked him what he had done to her daughter to make her cry and that he had scared the child. The defendant stepped sideways towards the complainant and grabbed her child out of her arms. He yelled at the complainant, stating “Don’t you ever say she’s scared of me because she’s not”. The complainant asked the defendant to return her daughter to her. He initially refused before placing the child on the ground.
The complainant again asked the defendant to leave before her parents arrived home. The defendant refused and again called the complainant a “mental bitch”. The complainant sat down on the couch with the defendant joining her. He attempted to cuddle the complainant and rubbed her back. He eventually left the property, asking the complainant not to leave him as he left.
On 21 June 2023, the complainant caught a taxi to the defendant’s residence in Glenorchy. The parties spent the night together without incident. During the night, the defendant asked the complainant to give him one of her 25 millimetre Seroquel tablets. She gave him one. Seroquel is also known as Quetiapine. The medication is used to treat mood or mental health disorders.
On 22 June 2023, at approximately 8.15am, the complainant’s mother rang her to remind her of an appointment with Legal Aid that morning regarding the parenting arrangements for her daughter. After the phone call ended the defendant asked the complainant to not attend the appointment and to stay with him. The complainant reiterated that the appointment was important and said she needed to attend. The defendant replied, “Well, just listen then, you fucking slut” and grabbed the complainant by the neck and threw her onto a mattress on the ground. He stated, “You try and start a fight with me”. The defendant stood over the complainant and placed his face close to hers and screamed at her to “shut the fuck up”. The defendant placed his right hand on her neck and squeezed tightly. The complainant felt pressure going to her temples as she felt like she could not breathe. The defendant let go of the complainant’s neck and started to cry.
The complainant remained on the mattress while the defendant hugged her. The defendant again placed a hand on the complainant’s neck and squeezed for about 30 seconds. The complainant felt dazed and dizzy once the defendant let go. The defendant asked to look at the complainant’s neck. While doing so, he said, “sorry, I didn’t mean to lash out this morning. It was the Seroquel”. The complainant left the defendant’s residence shortly thereafter. She attended her appointment with Legal Aid and police were notified of the incident that morning. At about 3.45pm in the afternoon, the defendant was located and arrested. He was interviewed and he denied assaulting the complainant that morning. He was remanded in custody as a result of the offending on that day.
While in custody from 4 September 2023 to 26 September 2023, the defendant contacted the complainant via the Ron Barwick Prison’s phone system. He contacted the complainant on 18 separate days, making a total of 91 calls. The complainant answered 11 of those calls and during six of them, two on 7 September 2023, three on 14 September and one on 25 September, the defendant attempted to persuade the complainant not to go to court and give evidence against him, and alternatively, to say that he did not strangle her.
The defendant is a single man with a two year old son to his previous partner, who is not the complainant in the matters before me. His son has been in Child Safety Care since he was an infant, as was Mr Ford himself. The defendant is one of four children and is the child of Mr Damien Ford Senior and Ms Danielle Lutterall. His parents experienced a relationship characterised by family violence, involvement in criminal offending and drug and alcohol abuse. These issues were identified early in life for the defendant, resulting in the intervention of Child Safety Services when he was five months. He was placed in the kinship care of his grandmother, Ms Deborah McCauley, who has been his mother figure and his closest support.
Ms McCauley has also been a kinship carer for his younger sister and, at times, has been overwhelmed with the extent of family responsibilities during the defendant’s life. He also has a sister who has cerebral palsy and is in the fulltime care of his mother. His father is currently incarcerated in Risdon Prison and has been an insidious offender during much of his life. His grandmother is his closest relative and provided support for him throughout his period of offending, but has also been a complainant in youth offending by the defendant. She was granted guardianship of Mr Ford at age 18 due to neglect, emotional abuse and exposure to family violence.
The defendant was diagnosed with ADHD by paediatrician, Dr Geoff Donegan at four years old, and was prescribed Ritalin and Clonidine. He instructs his counsel that he had been suffering from a depressed mood prior to the offending occurring, due to the intervention of CSS in relation to the taking of his child and was using increasing amounts of cannabis at the time of the offending. He instructs his counsel that he has been suffering from depression and anxiety while remanded in custody.
The defendant attended Lenah Valley Primary School until Grade 3 and then moved to Melbourne with his grandmother and extended family, attending school until Grade 5 and then returning to Tasmania where he recommenced primary school, then attending New Town High School for Grade 7. On his return from Victoria with his family, he began to present with behavioural issues and received suspensions for fighting. He attended a number of other schooling environments, finishing at Elizabeth College without fully completing his school prior to his commencement of youth offending and becoming a father at the age of 18.
As a result of limited opportunity, his age and circumstances prior to being remanded in custody in June 2023, the defendant has never been employed. From the age of 15 he used cannabis daily and while in gaol, has been exposed to a number of other illicit drugs which have been a concern for his family. The defendant was remanded in custody on 22 June 2023, as I have indicated, and has been at Risdon Prison since that time. He was sentenced whilst on remand for other matters on 6 December 2023. He received nine months’ imprisonment, three months of which was suspended to commence on 6 December 2023. That sentence was completed on 6 June 2024 and the actual period of remand relevant to the matters before me, is a total of 351 days.
The defendant is convicted of each of the offences to which he has pleaded guilty and I record the convictions of Persistent Family Violence as a Family Violence offence. I note the aggravating features present. The defendant has relevant prior convictions, including two common assaults, one count for the same complainant, five breaches of a family violence order, one as a youth and three as an adult, and one breach of an interim family violence order. Based on those and on his current offending, and on a report that I have received stating that he is at high risk of committing further similar offences, I am satisfied that it is appropriate that I make a serial family violence perpetrator declaration with respect to him, to remain in place for a period of 18 months from today.
I have read a victim impact statement prepared by the complainant. She feels anxious all the time, hardly leaves the house because she is scared and overwhelmed. She avoids people and places and feels like she is always on edge. She reacts to loud voices and sudden movements because they remind her of the violence she went through. She has lost her confidence.
Violence, in particular violence against women, cannot be tolerated. This type of assault, and I refer to strangulation, can easily cause death. This year it is reported that over 40 women died at the hands of their intimate partners in the first half of the year. That is one death around every five days. The Australian community is calling for this to end, and it must. Courts have a vital role to play in giving prominence to general deterrence and denunciation as sentencing considerations.
The attempted interference with the complainant giving evidence offends the course of justice. In sentencing, however, I take into account the defendant’s troubled background and his young age, as well as his pleas of guilty. The defendant is sentenced to a single sentence of two years’ imprisonment, backdated to 18 December 2023, with the balance from today suspended on condition that the defendant commit no offence punishable by imprisonment for a period of two years.