Australasian Biker News
Off to jail? Simmonds, Keen sentenced today
CONFESSED drug dealers and members of the Rebels motorcycle group, Aaron
Paul Patrick Simmonds and David Lee Keen have been told they will go to
jail today. The only question is “for how long?”
District court Judge Toner yesterday heard sentencing discussion in
Tamworth and adjourned the hearing to hand down sentences for Simmonds
and Keen at 9.30 this morning.
He remanded Keen in
custody and continued bail for Simmonds – but warned him the
consequences would be serious if he failed to attend the district court
to receive his custodial sentence.
Simmond’s legal representative Geoff Nicholson QC assured Judge Toner
that Simmonds was prepared to go to jail even to the point where he had
worn rubber shoes in anticipation of going into custody yesterday
afternoon.
Simmonds and Keen pleaded guilty to a number
of charges of supplying prohibited drugs.
Simmonds also pleaded guilty to possessing cash he knew was the proceeds
of crime.
When Simmonds was arrested he was found in possession of about $15,000
in cash of which $2850 was in marked bills that had been given to Keen
by an undercover police operative to buy drugs.
Judge Toner described the two men’s actions as demonstrating a planned
and pre-meditated – “in the colloquial sense” – drug trafficking
organisation.
The picture that emerged yesterday was one of two men who were
neighbours, childhood and school friends since the age of four, who fell
into apattern of “substantial substance abuse from a young
age”, in the case of Keen.
In Simmonds’ case, damage to the frontal lobe as a result of a motor
vehicle accident in 1995 had led to “pre-morbid attention deficit
disorder and, substance and alcohol abuse”, Mr Nicholson QC told the
court.
Both of the defendants took the stand to express their remorse and to
take full responsibility for their actions.
Simmonds expressed regret, responding to questions from Mr Nicholson QC
and the Crown prosecutor Mark Ferguson.
Mr Ferguson asked Simmonds if he accepted responsibility for his actions
in selling drugs and the resulting damage drug use had caused in
Tamworth.
Simmonds sighed deeply and said, “I am truly sorry for what I have been
charged with ... if I could turn back time ... I am truly sorry for it”.
Keen also took the stand and told the prosecutor that, “doing drugs” had
ruined his life from an early age.
“What type of drugs did you take?” Mr Ferguson said.
“Anything ... amphetamines, ecstasy,” Keen said.
“I took whatever I could get hold of; whatever worked ... it got me to
where I am (now)”.
Keen said drug use reduced him to “skin and bone” and when he used drugs
he was on “cloud nine”.
“Drugs really wrecked my health,” he said.
Mr Nicholson told Judge Toner that Keen’s incarceration had been “the
best thing” for him.
The QC said Keen had become free of drugs and was well on the way to
getting back on track.
Mr Nicholson proposed to Judge Toner that Keen be sent to an Aboriginal
drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility at Alstonville to continue
treatment to kick his drug habit before serving his custodial sentence.
However, Judge Toner declined to adopt that course of action,
considering it could do Keen more harm than good.
Mr Nicholson QC also presented a submission to Judge Toner that neither
Keen nor Simmonds had a criminal history for drugs and their guilty
pleas and contrition should be considered when the sentences were handed
down.
However, Mr Ferguson described Keen and Simmonds as being involved in a
“very serious crime enterprise and they should be treated as such”.
Judge Toner adjourned the hearing and will pass sentence on Simmonds and
Keen with an assurance that both men will be “going to jail”.