Keith Carberry jailed for seven years over home invasion, 'destructive rampage' at Canberra prison

Keith Ernest Frank Carberry, 24, was sentenced on Wednesday to seven years in jail for crimes committed during last year's revolt and the home invasion that landed him behind bars in the first place.

Acting Justice Richard Refshauge, of the ACT Supreme Court, ordered the Indigenous father to serve a minimum of three-and-a-half years before becoming eligible for parole.

The judge said in sentencing that Carberry's offending had begun in August 2020, when the drug-affected 24-year-old tried to break into a Narrabundah home with Marley Hall and Garang Dau Deng.

The trio, all armed and wearing face coverings, were spooked by one of the home's occupants and fled when this man told them police had been called.

The group then headed to Gordon and entered a unit, startling a woman who had been asleep in bed.

Hall and Dau Deng threatened the woman, who was housesitting for an aunt, and demanded she tell them where to find money and drugs.

Carberry, who was carrying two knives, searched the unit and eventually stole several valuable items. He placed these in two cars, including the victim's $25,000 vehicle, which were driven from the scene.

The 24-year-old was later identified after police found his fingerprints on a box that had been disturbed during the robbery.

He was granted bail when he first faced court, but after failing to appear on a subsequent occasion he was arrested and remanded in custody at the ACT's Alexander Maconochie Centre.

While on remand, in May 2021, Carberry and Dau Deng were among a group of inmates who threatened guards, threw objects at them and started fights while drunk on so-called "prison brew".

The pair's belligerence escalated throughout the afternoon and evening in question, when they lit several fires and damaged parts of the jail in various other ways.

The initial blaze, started with toilet paper, melted the roof of an officers' station, which was "engulfed by large flames" as Carberry and Dau Deng fed the fire with a microwave oven and other objects.

"All in all, it was a destructive rampage," Acting Justice Refshauge said.

"The destruction was obviously wanton and deliberate."

Carberry also committed four assaults on fellow prisoners during the disturbance, which lasted several hours.

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Acting Justice Refshauge said the most serious of these involved Carberry throwing a mug at another inmate, hitting him in the head and causing him to bleed.

Carberry ultimately pleaded guilty to charges of arson and property damage over the prison riot, and an aggravated robbery charge in relation to the Gordon incident.

He asked Acting Justice Refshauge to take a further five crimes, committed on the same dates as the primary offences, into account when deciding the appropriate punishment.

The judge said in sentencing that Carberry had written a letter to the aggravated robbery victim, who had penned a "very distressing" victim impact statement, apologising to her and expressing remorse.

Acting Justice Refshauge also indicated that Carberry had told the author of a drug and alcohol treatment order assessment report that "he had consumed a prison brew of unknown ingredients, that he did not remember the riot and [that] he had blacked out".

Carberry was ultimately deemed ineligible for a treatment order because his total sentence exceeded four years, which was the maximum jail term that could incorporate one.

With his sentence backdated to January 2021, when he was taken into custody, Carberry will become eligible for release on parole in July 2024.

Dau Deng was sentenced last week to seven years and three months in jail, while Hall received a prison term of five years and one month in February.

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