'Callous cruelty': Remorseless attempted killer loses appeal against 27-year sentence

CONTENT WARNING: This article refers to graphic violence.

An attempted killer’s appeal against his jail sentence, which he said labelled him a “laughing stock” among his fellow inmates due to its length, has been quickly dismissed.

Daryl Allan Robertson, 54, must now serve the 27-year jail sentence he received for attempted murder after his appeal that was heard in the ACT Court of Appeal less than two weeks ago was unanimously dismissed on Friday (30 August).

On 28 September 2022, he stabbed a woman 11 times in her home, with one stab leaving a 10 cm-deep wound in her chest before she fled outside and screamed for help.

Over the next 10 minutes, Robertson set the spray from aerosol cans alight and used it to burn her across her body. When the first can ran out, he grabbed several others to continue the attack, then also burnt her with a burning rag.

Police arrived to hear the woman screaming in pain. She had burns to 21 per cent of her body and needed life-saving treatment at hospital.

She died earlier this year after Robertson was sentenced.

When sentencing him in late 2023, the ACT Supreme Court’s Chief Justice Lucy McCallum said the circumstances of his crime meant it was in the “worst category” of such offences and would have warranted life imprisonment, except for the fact Robertson pleaded guilty.

“There is not the smallest indication on the part of the offender of his having any feeling for the victim, whether jealous rage or otherwise,” the chief justice said.

“The body-worn footage [of police at the scene] shows the immense suffering of the victim at that time.”

When arguing his appeal, Robertson claimed his sentence and non-parole period were manifestly excessive.

However, the Court of Appeal’s Justices David Mossop, Belinda Baker and Verity McWilliam found no errors in the sentence.

“This is a clear case where, because of the gravity of the offending, a sentence of imprisonment that was proportionate to the severity of the conduct was inevitably one of considerable duration,” they said.

They said Chief Justice McCallum made it “very clear” that but for the guilty plea, the term imposed would have been life imprisonment.

The trio also said “the suffering of the victim was extraordinary”.

“The physical, emotional and psychological harm caused by the appellant’s offending had a devastating impact on the victim,” they said.

On the other hand, they said Robertson had “little to no mitigating circumstances” and was a recidivist violent offender.

“As for the appellant’s lack of remorse, it is difficult to find the words to address or explain the apparent absence of regret, or indeed any genuine feeling approaching it, by a human being who has inflicted so much harm on a victim,” the three justices said.

“The callous cruelty that emerged on the evidence made it plainly open to the primary judge to find that the appellant had no remorse.”

While Robertson argued there were murderers serving sentences that were shorter than his, the three justices said both attempted murder and murder attract the same maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

“Whilst it is often the case that an attempt will attract a lesser sentence than if the offence had been committed, this is not an invariable rule,” they said.

They also noted that due to the nature of the offence and Robertson’s antecedents, it would have been open to the chief justice to decline to set any non-parole period.

Robertson had been handed a non-parole period of 20 years.

With time served, he will be eligible for parole in December 2042, when he will be 72.

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