Vandals await sentencing

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By Molly Taylor

TWO young Mount Gambier men face sentencing after pleading guilty to using rocks to damage a dozen vehicles across the Blue Lake city during a spontaneous joyride.

Tyler Sedman, 20, and Shaun Butterfield, 21, appeared in the Mount Gambier Magistrates Court this month facing 12 charges of damaging a motor vehicle.

Prosecution said overnight between January 3 and January 4, 2019, Butterfield drove Sedman and a youth, who was summonsed to the Mount Gambier Youth Court, around the city and they threw rocks and caused damage to several motor vehicles.

Information received from the public led investigators to several service stations where video surveillance identified the three defendants together.

The prosecutor said they were also located in Port MacDonnell earlier in the evening, where they were spoken to and as a result became persons of interest.

Ten of the 12 victims are seeking compensation.

Sedman’s defence counsel Dylan Walsh gave an approximate travel log of the defendants, which started with rocks being collected from the Mount Gambier Railway Lands.

The trio drove towards the Mount Gambier Showgrounds, past Harvey Norman and St Martin’s Lutheran College, back down Pick Avenue and finished near the Mount Gambier Visitor Centre.

It was revealed Butterfield had prior relevant history, which had been dealt with without conviction.

His defence council Kate Annells said her client had admitted he was the driver and took part in the offending.

“He had not consumed alcohol or illicit substances, but he was part of the group and it was something of a peer pressure situation, however my client accepts he should not have participated.”

Butterfield has been an active member of the Country Fire Service, regularly attending incidents in the area and spent the start of 2020 fighting bushfires in the Adelaide Hills and New South Wales.

Ms Annells submitted given her client’s age, ongoing health issues and volunteer service, it was appropriate to not impose an immediate term of imprisonment and asked for a conviction to be recorded, compensation to be ordered and to place her client on a good behaviour bond.

Mr Walsh said Sedman had admitted to the facts and at the time of offending was single, without a home and was experiencing family issues.

“He ultimately found himself homeless and sleeping on couches and in the end, stayed with his grandmother until he could find his own accommodation,” he said.

“He also assisted and took police around to show them what had taken place and gave a full breakdown of what happened, he did that out of his own fruition.

“There is no excuse for behaviours such as this, convictions are appropriate in the circumstances, he is able to pay for compensation, but will take some time as he’s becoming a father.”

Magistrate Maria Panagiotidis was not satisfied the offending would not reoccur and ordered pre-sentence reports to be presented during the next court hearing scheduled on March 12.

“This is no spur of the moment, small incident, this is very well planned and executed crime spree over a period of time, which effected a lot of people in the community,” she said.

“It is not like they were suddenly in one place, threw a punch at someone. They collected rocks, drove around the streets and targeted some people possibly.

“I will not be dealing with it by imposing a good behaviour bond.

“They are only in their 20’s, they’ve really started with a bang haven’t they.”