Bone v The Queen

[1987] TASSC 120

Serial No B50/1987
List "B"

COURT:                 SUPREME COURT OF TASMANIA

CITATION:            Bone v R [1987] TASSC 120; B50/1987

PARTIES:  BONE
  v
  R

FILE NO/S:  LCA 107/1987
DELIVERED ON:  20 November 1987
JUDGMENT OF:  Neasey J

Judgment Number:  B50/1987
Number of paragraphs:  1

Serial No B50/1987
List "B"
File No LCA 107/1987

BONE v THE QUEEN

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT  NEASEY J

20 November 1987

1. This motion to review was heard together with that concerning the applicant Robert Devine. The circumstances in which the two men escaped whilst being part of a working party at the Hobart Botanical Gardens has been set out in the judgment dealing with Devine's case, to which reference is made. The only way in which Bone's case differs from Devine's is in respect of his previous record of offences. He is a man in the same age bracket as Devine, that is, in the 30s, and like Devine he has a long record of previous offences. Devine's record, however, contains some crimes of violence; which Bone's does not. Devine, also, was serving a longer period of imprisonment at the time of escape than Bone was. However, these differences do not provide a proper basis for discriminating between the two men in respect of sentence. Virtually all of the applicable factors relating to the gravity of the offence, set out in the judgment dealing with Devine, apply also to Bone. That being so the course I shall take will be the same in Bone's case. The sentence of 12 months' imprisonment imposed by the learned magistrate will be quashed, and a sentence of six months' imprisonment imposed in lieu thereof.