Brodie Graham Champion, 22, was jailed for two years after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of Grant Jopson but the Court of Appeal, in a judgement released this morning, substituted the sentence for one of seven months’ home detention.
“We accept that significant weight had to be given to the harm caused by the offending and the need to denounce and deter others from committing such offending.
But we are unable to agree that the purposes and principles of sentencing are best served by a sentence of imprisonment in this case,” Justices Thomas, Whata and Osborne said.
In the weeks leading up to October 15, 2022, Champion was driving in Mosgiel and mistakenly believed Mr Jopson’s son was involved in a road-rage incident with him.
He later confronted the victim’s partner as she walked a dog.
Champion gave her a "threatening message" to pass on and when she told Mr Jopson what had happened he left the house.
On seeing the man and his son arrive, Champion dashed inside his home and grabbed a 20cm kitchen knife.
“He had the option to remain inside, lock the doors and call the police,” Crown prosecutor Robin Bates stressed at the appeal hearing.
A heated argument ensued between the defendant and victim.
When Champion backed off, waving the knife in front of him, the father and son followed.
Mr Jopson armed himself with an aluminium broom and hit Champion a few times, during which the head of the implement fell off.
His son threw a terracotta pot.
After being cornered, Champion was "swinging the knife around wildly", and lunged two or three times, fatally wounding Mr Jopson.
Mr Bates said it was not the defendant’s only option; he could have left the property through one of two gates or over the back fence.
The Court of Appeal accepted that but focused on Champion’s mental-health issues which included PTSD and severe clinical depression.
“He was a person with clear deficits in terms of his ability to cope with the threatened and actual violence that unfolded. A sentence of imprisonment is disproportionately severe,” the court ruled.
“The circumstances of the offending are unusual, and the risk of reoffending presented by Mr Champion is low.”
The Jopson family, in a statement after sentencing last year, voiced their anger at the fact a murder charge had not been pursued and at the possibility of home detention.
"Sentencing is supposed to denounce the criminal, hold him to account for the harm he has caused, and deter others from committing the same offence.
"We don’t believe any of this has been achieved in this case."
