STATE OF TASMANIA v MARCUS JOHN WILLIAMS 1 JULY 2021
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE PEARCE J
Marcus Williams, you plead guilty to possession of a firearm in contravention of a firearms prohibition order. I also agreed to deal with a number of summary offences which arise from the same circumstances. On 26 March 2021 the police went to a home in Launceston and found you in a rear shed. You had with you a shortened 12 gauge Boito shotgun loaded with two cartridges. The shotgun had been stolen in a home burglary in Latrobe in 2016. Of course you had no licence for your possession of it. You had two other shotgun cartridges in your pocket. Another cartridge was in the bag in which the shotgun was found, along with five .22 cartridges. You also had possession of a small quantity of methylamphetamine and an IPad which the police reasonably believed was stolen, and was in fact stolen earlier the same month. By your plea you admit that you are unable to provide a satisfactory account of your possession of the iPad.
Your possession of a shortened weapon of this nature was serious, but particularly so because you were prohibited from possessing or using a firearm by a Firearms Prohibition Order served on you on 25 April 2016. Firearms prohibition orders are made if the Commissioner of Police forms the opinion that a person is unfit, in the public interest, to possess or use a firearm. Your possession of the firearm and ammunition was also in breach of a condition of a family violence order made in September 2020.
It is obvious that the firearm prohibition order was made and served on you because of your lengthy criminal record including for firearms. You are now aged 35. You experienced a disadvantaged upbringing. You were estranged from your father and your mother died when you were 14. You began to use illicit substances and turned to criminal behaviour. You have since served many periods of detention and imprisonment. Until 2017 your record was mostly for dishonesty driven by addiction to illicit drugs. However, your offending also concerned firearms. On 11 March 2010 you were found in possession without a licence of an unregistered shortened .22 rifle. On 3 May 2012 you had possession of a shortened 12 gauge double barrel shotgun and on 24 May 2012 you had possession of an unregistered 12 gauge double barrel shotgun and ammunition. On 16 May 2013 you were found in possession of a .44 calibre magnum pistol. Since then there have been no other convictions for firearm offences. However, in 2015 you were imprisoned for using a carriage service to make threats to kill and cause serious harm. The firearms prohibition order was made in 2016. You have been the subject of two drug treatment orders. The first was made in 2013 but was quickly cancelled. Another drug treatment order was made at the end of 2016 again without success. Since 2016 you have served further terms of imprisonment, mostly for increasingly serious family violence offences. In September 2020 you were sentenced to imprisonment for a total of 240 days from 13 January 2020. Most recently you were sentenced to a three month term from 23 March 2021 for breaches of a non-contact condition of the same family violence order which prohibited possession of firearms.
It is in your favour that you quickly pleaded guilty to these offences. The quantity of methylamphetamine was small and related to personal use. You did not make sufficient enquires about the stolen IPad before you purchased it. There was no use of, or threat made with, the firearm against the person to be protected by the family violence order, although it is control of the risk that that may occur to which such conditions are directed. It is relevant to the risk posed by your possession of a firearm that you were, at the time, also apparently using methylamphetamine. It was submitted that since your imprisonment in March 2021 you have been held, through no fault of yours, not at Risdon Prison but in the more onerous conditions at Launceston Reception Prison. However I am informed that the sentence I impose will be served at Risdon. I take into account that you have been in custody since March, but the offences I am dealing with involve separate criminality.
Breach of a firearm prohibition order may be prosecuted either summarily or as a crime. In this case I am dealing with the Criminal Code provision. Possessing a stolen firearm may also be prosecuted as a crime or summarily. Even if prosecuted summarily, it may attract a maximum sentence of 100 penalty units or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years. Parliament has provided for such harsh penalties because of the strong association between stolen firearms, especially shortened firearms of this nature, and crimes of violence or dishonesty. You claim to have not been in possession of the shotgun for very long, but there could have been no innocent reason to have such a weapon. Those who possess stolen firearms, particularly when in breach of an order intended to prevent any contact with firearms, must understand that punishment will result.
Marcus Williams, you are convicted on the indictment and on counts 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, and 8 on complaint 31321/2021. Count 5 is subsumed in the indictment. I have already made an order dismissing count 9. Count 4, possession of the ammunition, is not an imprisonable offence. In light of the sentence I will impose for the remaining matters I make no other order on that count. In the circumstances I also make no further order on count 6, unlawful possession of the IPad, and count 7, possessing the methylamphetamine. Pursuant to s 13A of the Family Violence Act, I direct that count 8 on complaint 31321/2021, contravention of the family violence order, be recorded on your criminal record as a family violence offence. On the indictment and on the remaining counts on the complaint, counts 1, 2, 3 and 8, I impose one sentence. You are sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 11 months from 22 June 2021. I order that you not be eligible for parole until you have served six months of that term