'Coward' Mercanti cops 7 years

BACK YOU GO: Bikie Troy Mercanti, pictured leaving Casuarina Prison in August 2011, will spend at least the next four years behind bars. Picture: Richard Polden Source: PerthNow

VICTIM: Tammy Kingdon, who was repeatedly bashed by former partner, bikie Troy Mercanti. Picture: Kerris Berrington Source: PerthNow

NOTORIOUS Perth bikie Troy Mercanti has been jailed for nearly seven years for bashing former partner Tammy Kingdon during 15 years of physical abuse.

Mercanti, 45, was sentenced to six years and 10 months jail by District Court judge Simon Stone, eligible for parole after four years and 10 months and back dated to March 3, 2012.

Mercanti pleaded guilty on Monday morning after two weeks of the three week trial, to one count of grievous bodily harm and three counts of aggravated assault causing bodily harm.

A charge of assault occasioning bodily harm was dropped by the prosecution.

In his sentencing remarks, Judge Stone said Mercanti's late guilty pleas to four of the five charges against him did not warrant him any leniency for his term of imprisonment because the court had already gone through two weeks of the trial and Ms Kingdon and even his own mother Sybil Mercanti had to give evidence.

It is understood that it was his mother's evidence against him, confirming she saw a Christmas Day punch to Ms Kingdon's face in 2006, that led to Mercanti's change of plea.

Judge Stone said there were aggravating factors to the assaults, including that they were done within a domestic relationship, were deliberate beatings, humiliating for Ms Kingdon and their children were at times near by.

In his sentencing remarks, Judge Stone also referred to eight other instances of violence by Mercanti against Ms Kingdon that were not charges, but gave "context" to the bikie's "pattern of behaviour" to his partner.

"I'm satisfied your late pleas of guilty were a result ... of a realisation of conviction was inevitable," he said.

He also said Mercanti's pleas were not made as a desire to "administer justice" and before handing down his sentence, said "you are a coward".

In her victim impact statement, Ms Kingdon said all she wanted was a family unit for her children and hoped Mercanti's previous terms of imprisonment would stop him from beating her.

Prosecutor Justin Whalley called for the maximum terms of imprisonment on all four of the charges.

"He should be punished as a criminal offender who enacted a series of cowardly, brutal and unprovoked assaults on a defenceless woman smaller than himself," Mr Whalley said.

During his closing submission this morning, Mercanti's counsel Colin Lovitt QC continued to try to argue the assaults were not as extensive as Ms Kingdon said they were, at times coming to loggerheads with Judge Stone over the matters.

Mr Lovitt said his client had said to him on the first Friday of the trial after Ms Kingdon started giving evidence that he wanted to change his plea, but changed his mind over that weekend.

He then changed his mind again last Friday after his mother gave evidence and Mr Lovitt said one of the reasons for his change of plea was so that other witnesses, including Ms Kingdon's sister, Brooke Lewis, did not have to experience giving evidence.

He also apologised to the court for the time and effort spent on the trial on behalf of his client.

After more than two hours, Mr Lovitt closed his submissions by describing the relationship at the centre of the trial as one of "fatal attraction".

"They're two peas in a pod, they both abused alcohol and drugs, they both were addicted to sex, they both were party animals," he said.

On the charge of grievous bodily harm, Mercanti was sentenced to two years and 10 months prison, on count three - the first charge of aggravated assault - he was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment.

For the other two counts of aggravated assault, Mercanti was sentenced to two years and two years, six months in prison respectively.

The sentences for counts one, three and five were accumulated for the total sentence of six years and 10 months, with the two years sentence for count four to run concurrently.
 

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