A VIOLENT offender who kicked a dog with ‘good-sized jaws’ in the head after it bit his scrotum has had his appeal dismissed.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Shane Barry Olsen, 45, argued the 22-month sentence for an incident on October 11, last year, was ‘too severe’.
Found guilty of animal cruelty, malicious damage and intimidation, Olsen drank a bottle of rum before he went on a tirade that saw him kick a bull mastiff called, Tank, threaten his friend and destroy her car.
Judge Jeffery McLennan refused the appeal for a shorter sentence and pointed out Olsen’s extensive criminal record on Monday.
“He’s old enough to know better than to behave like this,” Mr McLennan said.
“If he kicked a child in the head the way he kicked the dog in the head there would be no conversation about whether it [the sentence] was too severe.”
Defence solicitor Rae Parker argued her client had acted in an “oafish” manner but drank as his childhood friend had died.
“I saw the brief and it is a dog with good-sized jaws - a bull mastiff called, Tank, for obvious reasons, and he nipped Mr Olsen, he had bitten him on the scrotum,” Ms Parker said.
“It took three people to in fact get the dog off him.”
Read also:
The dog became agitated when Olsen began screaming at the victim and bit him as a result, the court heard.
Olsen then kicked the dog in the head before he went outside and kicked and punched the victim’s car door, pulled off the handle, ripped off the windscreen wipers and smeared his blood all over the rearview mirror.
He then told the victim: “I’m coming back, you’re dead.”
The offence occurred just four months after Olsen was released on parole for a previous incident. Judge McLennan said he did not find special circumstances at all.
“In my view the sentence while stern is not too severe, you are dismissed,” he said.
Olsen, who is being held in Tamworth prison, is eligible for parole in December.