Armed attacker Tristan James Lee loses bid to cut jail time in NSW Supreme Court appeal

Turvey Park man Tristan James Lee, 33, appealed against the severity of his November 2021 sentence for one count of intimidation, one count of specially aggravated detain and one count of wounding.

The intimidation charge relates to an incident that took place in Mount Austin in 2020.

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About 12.20am on July 31, a 29-year-old man attended a house in Hunter Street, Mount Austin where he was robbed at knifepoint. He was then taken to a house in Phillip Avenue, where Lee threatened the victim with a blow torch before leaving with a co-offender in the victim's vehicle.

The victim managed to escape and found his way home, contacting police.

In relation to the specially aggravated detain offence, Lee and four others were involved in detaining two men at a George Street property in Junee on October 24, 2020.

During that attack, Lee woke one of the victims after delivering a blow to his face with a piece of timber.

Lee then took the victim's mobile phone, held it to his face and demanded he transfer money and said "just give me some money, even if it's only a couple of hundred just give me some money".

The offenders also searched the house, and demanded money and drugs from the victim.

About 90 minutes after the incident began, the offenders left and the victim reported it to police.

In November 2021, Judge Gordon Lerve sentenced Lee over both matters in the Wagga District Court to a combined total of six years and three months' imprisonment with a non-parole period of four years and three months.

At the time, Judge Lerve found that although the applicant's criminal history was "not particularly extensive", it did "not entitle him to any particular leniency".

However, Lee lodged an appeal in the NSW Supreme Court on the grounds that the sentencing judge's findings of the objective seriousness of the principal offences were not open on the facts of the case.

The applicant also argued that the sentence was "manifestly excessive" given the circumstances.

Weighing up the first matter of objective seriousness, a panel of three Supreme Court justices noted at the time of sentencing Judge Lerve found the intimidation offence was in the "lower end of the mid-range" of objective seriousness, and the detention offence was "within the mid-range of seriousness".

The justices ruled the matter of objective seriousness was "quintessentially a matter for the sentencing judge" and ruled that, given the circumstances, it was not necessary to depart from that "consistent line of authority".

As to Lee's contention that the sentence was "manifestly excessive", the panel found that the combined sentence imposed on him was "not unreasonable or plainly unjust".

Lee's sentence will expire on September 11, 2027 and he will be eligible for parole on September 11, 2025.

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