The Rebels bikie from Adelaide who confessed to bashing a sex offender in prison has won seven months off his sentence for leading police on a 170km/h chase – thanks to a “technical error of law”.
In a judgment published online, SA’s top judge overturned Rebels bikie Bradley Daniele’s 13-month penalty for aggravated dangerous driving along the Copper Coast Highway.
Chief Justice Chris Kourakis also urged Daniele, pictured, to break his ties with the notorious gang, saying it is no way to honour his beloved late father nor his ailing grandfather.
“Minds might well differ as to whether the Magistrate’s sentence itself was too long, or whether my sentence is too low,” he said.
“You have been given some opportunity to get out and get on with your life a little bit earlier … what use you make of it is up to you.
“You taking responsibility is the best way that you can honour those two important men in your life.
“Associating with organisations like that whose colours you were wearing on this occasion, is no way to honour them or help yourself.”
Daniele, 26, is awaiting sentencing for repeatedly punching Hamzeh Bahrami in the Adelaide Watch House’s shower block in April last year.
Bahrami, who sexually assaulted a young girl in a public toilet block in Blair Athol, had been arrested the day before the incident.
Daniele posted video footage of the attack online saying he would not stand for the abuse of children.
In January, Daniele was pursued along the Copper Coast Highway – on both sides of the road – by police after he sped through Kadina on his Harley Davidson.
Counsel for Daniele, who was unlicensed at the time, asked the court for mercy in sentencing given his father’s death and his grandfather’s rapidly declining health.
However, Magistrate Derek Sprod imposed a 13-month term, noting Daniele’s “shocking record for someone so young”, with an eight month non-parole period.
In his judgment, Chief Justice Kourakis said Mr Sprod had referred to a “rule of thumb” that first-time offenders should serve 20 per cent of the maximum penalty available at law.
“There is no such sentencing principle,” he said.
He said Mr Sprod had failed to give adequate reasons for this final sentence, and for denying Daniele 40 per cent off his penalty for pleading guilty.
He imposed a six-month prison term.
“Your appeal has been successful basically because of what might be described as a technical error of law in the way the magistrate proceeded,” he told Daniele.
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Source: The Advertiser