Drug-addict ram-raider threatened to 'chop' victim into 'a million bits' during prison phone calls

A drug-addicted man committed a car theft and a ram raid then, while in prison, made several vile and abusive phone calls to one of his many victims.

Joshua William Slattery, 35, already had a “long and depressing criminal history” before he had to be sentenced on his most recent crime spree, a recently released judgment from the ACT Supreme Court says.

He committed 20 offences before ending up in custody by December 2024, when he was recorded making eight highly threatening and expletive-laden phone calls to a victim.

“You need to get this through your f-g dumb f-g big ugly f-g baboon head c-t. I’m the boss,” he told them.

“I know Canberra like the back of my hands ya f-wit. I’ll stalk ya and I’ll prey ya and I’ll f-g grab ya and I’ll grab ya by the neck and slam your jaw that hard in the concrete s-t.

“I’m going to chop you up into a million bits, you know that. I’m gonna kill ya.”

He had been in custody due to a series of offences that occurred over five months in 2023.

In one instance, he and an associate visited a car rental company in Fyshwick on 7 March, where they hired an MG SAS under the associate’s name.

While he later told the associate he had returned the car, he did not, and it was reported stolen before being found in Wright two weeks later.

Slattery admitted he had been driving the car and he did not have a driver’s licence. In fact, he had never held one.

Then on 18 June, Slattery and another man forced their way into a number of storage cages underneath an apartment complex in Kingston, stealing about $6800-worth of various items, including a $2700 mountain bike.

On the same day, he filled a stolen Toyota Corolla up with petrol at a 7-Eleven service station in Phillip before driving away without paying.

Early on the morning of 19 June, he drove a stolen Toyota Celica through the doors of the Friendly Grocer in Garran before he and others entered the store and stole almost $20,000-worth of items, including cigarettes and alcohol.

The damage he caused to the store was estimated to be $10,000.

When Slattery was arrested on 20 June, still wearing the same clothes he’d worn during the burglary in Kingston and ram-raid in Garran, he had a taser in his pants.

He pleaded guilty to charges that included using a carriage service to threaten to cause serious harm, burglary, theft, damaging property, dishonestly obtaining property by deception and driving a vehicle without consent.

Slattery spent about one year and four months in custody before he was sentenced.

He had already been sentenced to a Drug and Alcohol Treatment Order (DATO) in 2021, but again asked to be sentenced to such an order over these most recent offences.

Acting Justice Rebecca Christensen SC said he achieved about four years of abstinence from substance dependency after the earlier DATO. But after a period in a treatment program in Western Australia, he came back to the ACT and returned to substance use and dependency.

“Inevitably, a return to criminal offending followed,” Acting Justice Christensen said.

“This offending involved a concerning rapid return to the deception and disrespect that criminal offending involves.

“Equally, though, it demonstrates the pernicious nature of long-term substance dependency.”

Slattery said he wants to “get it right this time”.

“I’ve got a lot of guilt, shame and remorse about the offending, as it just shows the type of person I am when I’m using, but when I’m clean, I do give back to the community,” he said.

Acting Justice Christensen said she had an “appropriate level of confidence in Mr Slattery’s capacity to finally achieve rehabilitation”.

Slattery was convicted and sentenced to a total of five years and four months’ jail, but one year and five months of this period did not apply to a DATO. He was also fined $1000.

He was then handed a three-and-a-half-year DATO, which was to end in October 2028, meaning he was released from custody.