A man who threw a small dog down a flight of concrete stairs and "shattered" its leg did so to "distress and cause emotional harm" to its owner, a magistrate has ruled.
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"An extremely cruel act ... the dog presented no threat to the defendant," magistrate Jane Campbell said during her sentencing remarks on Monday.
Daniel Grech, 34, has been ordered to pay a total of $15,000 in reparation to the victim for the three surgeries the dog required following the incident.
The man has pleaded guilty to a number of charges, including aggravated cruelty to an animal, choking and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Grech, who the court previously heard had spent most of the past eight years in custody, was formerly a known member of the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang and was on parole at the time of his offending.
His current gang status is unknown.
"The offences display a complete disregard for the conditional liberty he had been given," Ms Campbell said.
On Monday, the man was handed an approximately one-and-a-half-year jail sentence for his most recent offending.
Grech is now eligible to apply for release after the magistrate reset his non-parole period, which began in 2015 for multiple series of unrelated offending and which has been cancelled numerous times.
According to agreed facts, the man started "going off" when the dog's owner attempted to get his attention by throwing a small pebble his direction while at her home late last year.
Grech eventually pushed that woman and caused her to fall down while he argued with another, before he ripped a television off a wall and smashed it on the ground.
The offender then picked up the dog, which weighed about seven kilograms, placed it in one hand at shoulder height, and "proceeded to hurl [the dog] in a downwards motion down the flight of concrete stairs".
The magistrate said an X-ray showed the dog's femur was "completely broken in half".
"The act endangered the animal's life," Ms Campbell said.
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About a month later, Grech sought out and again assaulted the victim, choking her with two hands and later punching her in the mouth, causing her lip to split.
The court did not hear a victim impact statement but Ms Campbell said she could infer the offences "very likely caused significant emotional harm" to the woman, as well as physical harm.
The victim was "clearly fearful" of the man, and she was "completely justified" in her fears of retribution.
With Grech's time spent in custody, Ms Campbell said the man was "at risk of becoming institutionalised".
The court previously heard he had paid $2116 worth of the dog's surgeries but was ordered to pay the remainder of the "very significant bill".
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Tim Piccione
Tim is a journalist with the Canberra Times covering the ACT courts. He came to the nation's capital via the Daily Advertiser in Wagga. Contact: tim.piccione@canberratimes.com.au.
Tim is a journalist with the Canberra Times covering the ACT courts. He came to the nation's capital via the Daily Advertiser in Wagga. Contact: tim.piccione@canberratimes.com.au.
