Jett Black, 28, remonstrates with media after his sentencing in May. Photos: Albert McKnight.
A prison rioter who gang-bashed a man with an intellectual disability on the street before clawing at a police officer’s eye was spared a return to jail when he was sentenced.
Jett Black, 28, remonstrated with media taking his photograph after he was allowed to walk out of the ACT Supreme Court on 29 May, calling one reporter a “c-t” and saying, “Suck a d-k”.
“Get a proper job, bro,” he told the reporter.
Black was one of the detainees who joined in the riot at the Alexander Maconochie Centre on 10 November, 2020, during which fires were lit and the facility was damaged.
Justice Louise Taylor said while he didn’t light the fires himself, he helped those who started and maintained them.
The judge said Black was on bail when he and two others started “causing a ruckus at night on a residential street” in Gungahlin on 25 August, 2023, which included jumping on parked cars.
A nearby resident, who lives with an intellectual disability that impacts his speech, went out onto the street and asked the group to move on.
“Do you want to get f—ing stabbed or something?” Black told him.
The man tried to walk away from the group, but Black followed him and knocked him to the ground, then all three members of the gang assaulted him after he fell, including with a kick to the face.
The group fled and the man was left with a broken nose as well as cuts and bruises to his face and body.
“It was cowardly conduct,” Justice Taylor said.
Police arrived and found Black and the others nearby, who told the officers they had been drinking alcohol.
The three were arrested, but Black pushed against the police, who took him to the ground to try to control him. He then clawed at an officer’s face and eye, leaving scratches that started bleeding.
Black pleaded guilty to charges of arson, damaging property, assault and assaulting a frontline community service provider.
The author of a pre-sentence report said Black thought the victim of the gang-bashing provoked him and the actions of police made him lash out.
Justice Taylor said he had started drinking alcohol when he was 11 and began using meth when he was 13.
He said he was injecting one gram of the drug ”ice” a day before he was arrested for the assaults.
The judge said he had written a letter for the court in which he said he wanted to take full responsibility for his actions, but she noted he didn’t acknowledge the harm he inflicted on his victims.
He spent 187 days in custody over his offences.
Justice Taylor said Black had made significant progress towards his rehabilitation against a background of entrenched drug addiction and thought a return to custody would disrupt the progress he’d made.
He was sentenced to more than three years and 11 months’ jail, partially suspended to account for the time served, which allowed him to leave court that day. He must comply with a good behaviour order until November 2028.
Black’s sentence can now be reported as a non-publication order on the proceedings has been revoked.
Tony McKillop he only cares about Gungahlin the tram and rainbow roundabouts View