Dylan Downes was initially facing 51 charges but they were consolidated during a hearing in Shepparton Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, September 12, when he pleaded guilty to the remaining allegations.
Those charges included assaulting a police officer, theft, dangerous driving while pursued by police, possessing a controlled weapon without excuse, unlawful assault, abusing an animal, making a threat to kill, and assaulting an emergency worker.
The charges relate to a spree of behaviour by Downes in January, February and August this year.
One of the incidents involved Downes failing to stop the vehicle he was driving in Seymour when instructed to by police, who abandoned their chase due to the dangerous nature of his driving.
Later that evening, Downes filled up his car with unleaded petrol from the BP petrol station on Anzac Ave and drove off without paying the $131.31 owed.
Police were later called to a Delatite Rd address in Seymour where Downes was displaying erratic behaviour, punched a police officer and escaped on foot.
He later returned to the house and locked himself in a bathroom, saying he had a weapon.
After negotiations, Downes became compliant and he was arrested and taken to Seymour police station.
In another incident about 1am on February 21, Downes forced his way into a Keilor residence by smashing the window of a front room.
When confronted by people inside the house, he made threats to kill and was restrained.
He was violent and made threats towards police after they arrived on the scene, and had to be subdued by ambulance officers.
Downes’s defence counsel, Travis Brown, told the court his client’s mother had been a violent alcoholic and went to jail when he was five, and at the time, his father did not want him, so he went to live with his sisters.
“They provide a significant amount of support and continue to provide a significant amount of support,” Mr Brown said.
He said his client was expelled from school in Year 8 and around that time began “living in druggos houses”, being exposed to people injecting morphine.
In applying for a sentence that included a corrections order, Mr Brown said Downes had worked consistently since the age of 15 and that previous orders hadn’t addressed his drug issues.
“My instructions are that alcohol has been the real issue of late,” Mr Brown said.
“There hasn’t been any treatment condition on those previous orders.
“He’s obviously reoffended on bail and gone back into custody, but he has made some attempt to address those issues.
“A lot of this offending comes in the context of the drug use and the alcohol use and perhaps the mental health issues.”
Mr Brown said there had been a gap in Downes’s offending between 2013 and 2018, but periods of stress relating to the loss of a baby and not having access to two children had caused further trauma.
Mr Brown said Downes had completed the first sessions of a men’s behavioural program, had support from his sisters when he was released from jail and had already served 92 days in custody.
The prosecution accepted that a combination sentence of jail and a community corrections order was within range, but also described Downes’s behaviour as “a serious spree of offending”.
Magistrate Peter Mithen said he saw Downes spending more than the 92 days he’d already served in prison.
“In my mind a serious sentence is called for,” he said.
“I’m not satisfied that 92 days is near enough for this kind of behaviour.”
Downes was remanded in custody for a corrections order assessment and will reappear in court in October.
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