Victoria’s Chief Magistrate has defended the court ruling which spared a man who bashed two paramedics from serving jail time. Chief Magistrate Peter Lauritsen said the magistrate who handed down the sentence of treatment, monitoring and community orders to 22-year-old James Haberfield made the appropriate decision within the constraints of the law. “Whether there is an appeal or not, it is clear the magistrate applied the law (as he saw it) to the facts to reach the sentence he imposed,” Mr Lauritsen said. “It would have been wrong for him to do otherwise.” He acknowledged there was some controversy surrounding the decision and added that the sentencing magistrate, Simon Zebrowski, used to work as a principal solicitor for the Office of Public Prosecutions. Haberfield’s case was the first test of Victoria’s new mandatory sentencing legislation for offenders who assault emergency service workers. Haberfield avoided the mandatory minimum six-months jail term because Magistrate Zebrowski determined it “would have a disproportionate and catastrophic effect” on his future. While high on a “cornucopia” of drugs on January 29, he attacked two paramedics, punching one in the face and wrapping his arms around her. That paramedic, Monica, was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety, and has not been able to return to work. She said on Thursday that there had been no recognition of the catastrophic affects the assault had on her. “I think he has been treated like the victim here. I too have had catastrophic effects of all this on myself.” He had major depressive and pre-existing autism spectrum disorders. The magistrate apportioned some of Haberfield’s impaired mental state at the time of his offending to his disorders in handing down a sentence of an 18-month community corrections order and mandatory treatment. Emergency services unions, Ambulance Victoria and Premier Daniel Andrews have called on the Director of Public Prosecutions to appeal the sentence. However, the Office of Public Prosecutions has not commented on whether it would do so. Mr Andrews said he would consider tightening the legislation if Haberfield was not jailed on appeal. “If we have to further tighten these laws then we will,” he told reporters on Thursday. The legislation passed by the Andrews government in October was an effort to close loopholes that allowed offenders who assaulted emergency services workers to walk free in special circumstances. While not opposing the bill at the time, the Opposition warned it would still enable some offenders to avoid prison.
