A quadriplegic man has avoided jail time for drug trafficking after a Supreme Court judge ruled his case called for mercy and a personalised approach to sentencing.
Jesse Dean Moore, 29, was handed a fully suspended two-year sentence this week after pleading guilty to trafficking cocaine, ice, MDMA and ketamine between September 2022 and February 2023.
Acting Justice Shane Marshall said that while the offending was “particularly serious” and would normally result in a prison term, Moore’s circumstances were unique.
The court heard Moore became a quadriplegic in 2018 at age 22, after a “horrific” near-fatal diving incident.
He began using drugs in 2021 to self-medicate and eventually started dealing to support his addiction.
Since his arrest, the judge said Moore had “turned his life around in ways that would have been unimaginable”.
He now lives in supported accommodation in Queensland and works with the CEO of Men of Business, a program helping at-risk young men. He also volunteers as a mentor for troubled youth.
Justice Marshall said Moore was a potential candidate for stem cell treatment and was “genuinely remorseful” for the crimes.
“He is not the person he was when he started using illicit drugs and started his drug trafficking enterprise,” he said.
He also warned that sending Moore to prison would be “counter productive”.
“Incarceration in Tasmania may see him reconnect with undesirable people from the past. It will also prove especially burdensome for him, given his special needs,” Justice Marshall said.
Moore was ordered to pay $13,186 in drug analysis costs and forfeit $28,500 in drug proceeds, along with other items seized by police.
The court also finalised several summary charges, including drug possession and possessing prohibited material – specifically, a viral explicit video involving a Tasmanian pair and a trout.
Moore said the video had been sent to him by his brother-in-law and that he believed he had deleted it before police examined his phone during their investigation. He pleaded guilty to all charges.
