A disgraced Supreme Court judge who “lost everything” after being convicted of assaulting and intimidating a woman has been sentenced for breaching a restraining order.
Former Tasmanian justice Gregory Geason was sentenced on Friday after admitting to breaching the AVO in November 2023 in Sydney.
The 63-year-old, who lives in Hobart’s Battery Point, received a conviction and 12-month community corrections order at Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court.
Geason recently resigned from his role on Tasmania’s highest court after being convicted of separate assault and intimidation offences.
Defence barrister Fabiano Cangelosi told the court his client had “essentially lost everything” and at the time of the latest offending had become a hermit.
“He is a person who has risen high and has fallen very low,” he said.
“His position in the community – lost.
“His position in his chosen profession – lost.”
An AVO was imposed by Tasmania Police following a complaint of assault, for which Geason was ultimately convicted.
But he breached the order by messaging a woman as many as 12 times over a period of nine days, although the magistrate accepted the contact was not aggressive or threatening.
“On one occasion she accidentally called him so he called her back, that sort of thing,” Mr Cangelosi said.
Geason was convicted and sentenced in November over an incident in October 2023, in which he grabbed, shook, punched and pushed a woman at a Hobart home.
The woman fell backwards and hit her head on a mantelpiece, suffering concussion and bruising, a court was previously told.
Geason denied the allegations, claiming the woman had tripped, but was found guilty of assault and one count of emotional abuse or intimidation.
In sentencing the former judge for those offences, Magistrate Susan Wakeling noted he had not demonstrated any remorse.
“Your moral culpability … is high,” she said.
Geason avoided a jail term despite prosecutors arguing in favour of a period in custody and was instead sentenced to 100 hours of community service with a conviction recorded, as part of a 12-month community corrections order.
Among several conditions of that sentence, he was ordered to continue mental health treatment and not to leave Tasmania unless permitted by a probation officer.
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