STATE OF TASMANIA v WADE ALAN MACKENZIE and CASSANDRA FISHER
31 OCTOBER 2024
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE ESTCOURT J
The defendant, Cassandra Fisher, aged 23, has pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated burglary and one count of aggravated robbery and the defendant Wade Mackenzie, aged 35, has pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated burglary and one count of aggravated armed robbery.
At approximately 11am on Sunday, 9 April 2023, the complainant left his home in Lenah Valley, locked and secure. The defendant Fisher, was an acquaintance of the complainant and had visited his flat on previous occasions. The defendant Mackenzie, did not know him.
Shortly prior to 4:45pm, the defendants walked down the path leading to the complainant’s flat. Finding no one home, they entered and gained entry via a bedroom window. The complainant returned home at about 4:45pm and noticed that the front door to his flat was ajar. He walked inside and saw the defendant Mackenzie standing in the doorway to his bedroom. He asked Makenzie what he was doing? Mr Mackenzie told the complainant he had “come to pay him a visit”. Ms Fisher remained out of sight in the bedroom of the flat.
The complainant told the defendant Makenzie to leave his house and grabbed a large wooden axe handle from behind his front door. He walked backwards out of his house and up the garden path. The defendant followed him and said, “Don’t you be calling the cops”. The complainant walked onto a raised path area leading to his neighbours’ property upstairs to get away from the defendant, who continued to approach him. The defendant grabbed a tomahawk from where it was stored, in a basket underneath the ramp, and went back inside the complainant’s flat.
The complainant raised the attention of neighbours and asked them to call police. They did, telling police that there was a man with an axe at their property.
The defendants continued to take items from within the complainant’s unit, before exiting with them in green supermarket bags. Mr Mackenzie was still holding the tomahawk. The complainant repeatedly asked the defendants to drop the bags. Mr Mackenzie waved the tomahawk at the complainant. The complainant struck the defendant to the head with his axe handle, causing him to stumble backwards. Mackenzie regained his balance but maintained possession of the tomahawk. The complainant was fearful that the defendant would throw the tomahawk at him, so he struck the defendant with the axe handle again. This time the contact was to the defendant’s neck and shoulder area. The defendant then walked away.
The defendants took with them some $250 in cash, a laptop computer, a laser level and some power tools. The defendant Mackenzie left, still holding the tomahawk axe. Both defendants were later arrested.
The State asserts in respect of the defendant Fisher, that she was a party to the crime of aggravated robbery on the basis that she was a party to a common purpose to commit burglary and stealing at the flat, and aggravated robbery was a probably consequence of the prosecution of that unlawful purpose. The State accepts that the defendant Fisher was not a party to the armed robbery. The weapon was obtained by the defendant Mackenzie from the complainant’s house at a time when she was not immediately present.
The complainant read his victim impact statement to the Court. He has been very significantly affected by these crimes. He noted:
“The whole incident was a turning point in my life. I went from being very tolerant and accepting of people to being suspicious and angry. I am much less patient with people than I used to be. I used to assume that people were generally good and now I assume that everyone has an agenda and mean me harm.
I am a carpenter by trade and I haven’t worked since this all happened. I have lost my confidence and my sense of purpose. I lack motivation and find it difficult to get interested in anything. I am currently on a mental health plan and am seeing a counsellor.
When I realised who his accomplice was, I felt betrayed. She was a person whom I had welcomed to my home and been generous and hospitable to. I had been concerned for her wellbeing and had showed her kindness, yet, she had returned with a stranger to stand over me and rob me.”
The defendant Mackenzie has numerous prior convictions for dishonesty and violence, including common assault and attempted aggravated carjacking for which he was sentenced to 1 year and 11 months’ imprisonment. He has served other terms of imprisonment.
The defendant Fisher has a lesser number of prior convictions, mainly for offences of dishonesty and breaches of court orders. She has not been sentenced by this Court before.
Both defendants have spent time in custody attributable to these crimes.
I make a restitution Order directed to Tasmania Police in favour of the complainant in respect of the sum of $250 in cash.
The defendant Mackenzie was raised in a dysfunctional family environment, including witnessing an attack by his father upon his stepfather, which impacted him significantly. Nonetheless, he managed well at school and in employment until he was introduced to drugs prior to reaching age 18, something which has plagued him ever since and which has caused a downward spiral in his life. Since 2018 he has spent more time in prison than out. I take into account his plea of guilty, although it came only on the day his trial was due to commence and with a jury panel assembled.
The defendant Fisher is an aboriginal woman whose mother was injured in a car accident and suffered an acquired brain injury. This left her being raised by her father, which was not ideal. I have a psychologist’s report which notes her IQ as 65 and that she has a moderate intellectual disability. She entered a relationship with an older man when she was 15 and was introduced by him to illicit drugs. She moved with him interstate and led a transient life for some years, including living on the streets. That relationship has now ended. She has had two children, one of whom died as an infant. The other, a two year old, is in foster care and the defendant is keen to reconnect with her after her release from custody. The defendant has an NDIS package which will assist her in that regard.
In prison she is on a medical program to wean her off illicit drug use, however she has medical and psychiatric issues which she needs further treatment for. I also take into account her age and her plea of guilty.
These crimes are serious and in the case of the defendant Fisher, all the more so because of the terrible breach of trust committed against the complainant, compounded by her post offence conduct in threatening him with violence. Nonetheless, the robbery was not premeditated, the defendant Mackenzie did not go armed, neither were disguised and there was no actual physical violence – in fact the only injury was to Mr Mackenzie.
In all of the circumstances, the defendant Mackenzie is sentenced to three years’ imprisonment, backdated to 24 August 2023. He is not to be eligible for parole until he has served half of that sentence. The defendant Fisher is sentenced to two years and three months’ imprisonment, backdated to 18 June 2024, with nine months of that sentence suspended on condition that she commit no offence punishable by imprisonment for a period of two years from her release from prison. She is not to be eligible for parole until she has served half of the period of actual imprisonment imposed.