Illawarra Mercury court reporters Natalie Croxon and Grace Crivellaro discuss some recent stories they covered in Illawarra courts. Video by Maddy Fogarty
00:00So last week I went to Wollongong District Court to cover the sentencing of a Winoona barber who pleaded guilty to supplying a commercial quantity of cocaine as well as dealing with the proceeds of crime.
00:11Now he was sentenced to a term of imprisonment but he actually was able to walk free from the court because the judge decided to impose it by way of an intensive correction order, which is a jail sentence but just one that people get to serve in the community.
00:26The reason for this, the judge said, was because of the extraordinary efforts the man had made towards his own rehabilitation.
00:34So he was sentenced to, as I said, a jail sentence of two years, 11 months. During that time he'll have to do 400 hours of community service.
00:46He'll also have to continue his rehabilitation efforts, continue psychological treatment and abstain from drugs and alcohol.
00:55And what was found in his till?
00:58Oh, so it was in a drawer under his till. It was $16,000 in cash and they also found nearly $7,000 in cash in his wine cellar at his Mangaton home.
01:12We learned more about a serious incident in which a man crashed his land cruise into another man on a roundabout in the Illawarra.
01:19So this happened last year in November.
01:22Gregory Fretwell pleaded guilty to recklessly causing grievous bodily harm to his ex-partner's brother.
01:30So what happened before this crash was that documents in the court show that Fretwell sent a relentless barrage of text messages and voice notes to his ex-partner.
01:41So there was DV that led up to this event and in those messages he basically professed his love for the woman, asked for her back, then accused her of cheating and switched between angry and crying.
01:53So on the afternoon of the crash, the woman and her brother were driving to Big W when they noticed Fretwell driving behind them.
02:05They entered a roundabout and the woman's brother pulled the handbrake and got out of his sister's car to confront Fretwell.
02:14As he did this, Fretwell accelerated and hit the man.
02:19Basically, the impact caused the man to essentially roll around the passenger side of his sister's car and land in front of it.
02:28He sustained some really gruesome injuries, actually, and he ended up spending five months in hospital because of those injuries.
02:36And sadly, he still can't walk today.
02:39So in those court documents, it also said that pieces of bone fragment were found on the road at the crime scene and also body matter.
02:48Fretwell initially lied to police and said he didn't hit anyone at the scene and that it was a stranger who jumped out to confront him.
02:56But this week, he pleaded guilty to recklessly causing grievous bodily harm to the man and he'll be sentenced at a later date for that.
03:03Is there any indication as to what kind of sentence Fretwell will receive?
03:07Well, at this stage, Fretwell has been behind bars on remand since his arrest last year
03:15and the maximum penalty for the events of recklessly causing grievous bodily harm is seven years.
03:20But we won't know what he gets until his sentencing later on.
