A 33-year-old man embarked on a terrifying 50-minute rampage through a suburban town on the outskirts of Adelaide after a failed visit to his mum.
Raymond James Beatty had breached bail to visit his mother’s home address in Adelaide’s O’Sullivan Beach on August 29 last year, screaming from the front lawn that he would “hurt someone or myself” in the first act of a wild, drug-fuelled rampage that saw him attack multiple innocent victims, crash cars and lead police on a dangerous high-speed pursuit through busy streets.
During his sentencing on Friday, Adelaide District Court heard his family had called the police on him after the concerning act, with Beatty, 33, then fleeing the property and heading to a supermarket on Gulfview Road, intent on stealing a car to evade police.
Beatty’s first victim, David Osborne, went to the supermarket just after 7am on a small errand.
The court heard Beatty saw Mr Osborne enter the shop and went in after him.
Beatty stole a knife from the aisle and unwrapped it from its package, before assaulting Mr Osborne in the supermarket aisles, running at him with the raised knife and a bottle, shoving him into the shelves.
The supermarket owner bravely intervened, the court heard, but Beatty could not be contained.
Mr Osborne ran out of the shop and Beatty chased after him, stabbing him in the back in the carpark.
Mr Osborne fell to the ground and Beatty stabbed him again.
The court heard Beatty demanded Mr Osborne’s car keys and Mr Osborne threw his keys to him, and Beatty drove away.
The frenzied assault, captured on CCTV, lasted 90 seconds.
“Your conduct was nothing short of horrific,” Judge Michelle Sutcliffe said in her sentencing remarks on Friday.
The court heard Mr Osborne suffered a collapsed lung and struggled to breathe after the assault.
He spent a week in hospital in intensive care and went into a coma.
In his victim impact statement, Mr Osborne said he lived with ongoing pain and felt embarrassed by the disfigurements Beatty inflicted on him.
And Beatty’s rampage did not end with Mr Osborne, the court heard.
He sped away from the scene, driving up to 138 km/h across the suburban streets and at times on the wrong side of the road.
Beatty collided into a woman driving on O’Sullivan Beach Rd at Lonsdale about five minutes later.
The woman suffered bruising and severe whiplash and in her victim impact statement, she said suffered from PTSD and was depressed after the collision.
Beatty fled the scene and the court heard some insight into his psychological state at the time, with the man saying his heart had told him to stay and help, but his head had told him to run.
He then confronted employees at three businesses in Lonsdale, threatening workers with a knife and demanding a car.
At one business he chased a worker into his office, who the court heard held the door shut as Beatty tried to push through.
At another store, he told a worker: “I have f**ked up”.
The worker armed himself with pipe tubing to defend himself against Beatty’s approach.
At Lonsdale Engine Worx, he pointed a knife at an employee and stole a white Corolla, driving away at twice the speed limit, the court heard, where he then collided with two vehicles and drove on the wrong side of the road.
A police officer spotted him on Dyson Rd in Christies Beach and initiated a pursuit, which lasted 40 minutes.
At points during the chase, Beatty had gunned the Corolla to 150km/h in a 80km/h area.
The police set up road spikes to bust his tyres and Beatty went through two of them before a police officer deliberately rammed him with his cop car and took him into custody.
The police searched Beatty and found a syringe in his pocket.
Beatty had methamphetamines and amphetamines in his system and a blood alcohol reading of 0.087.
The carnage all took place within a 50-minute time frame, from 7am to 7.50am.
The court heard Beatty was a “serious repeat offender” with assault and dangerous driving offences, with the man’s legal team arguing he had suffered a tough life.
The father-of-three was abused by his stepfather and lost his brother to a heart attack two years ago.
He left school after Year 9 and started using drugs at 17.
Before his brother’s passing, the court heard Beatty had gotten his life back on track but following his brother’s death, he lost his job and house and fell back into drug use.
Beatty, who had pleaded guilty, wrote a letter of apology to his victims and said he did not expect forgiveness.
Judge Sutcliffe said Beatty’s remorse was genuine.
Beatty told the court he was grateful he was arrested and hoped to do some good in the world in the future.
Judge Sutcliffe said Beatty would pose a high risk to the public if he did not get his drug problem under control and for his multiple offences, which ranged from aggravated assault and robbery to theft and aggravated dangerous driving, she sentenced him to 10 years and nine months in prison, with a non-parole period of eight years and seven months.
Beatty has already served 304 days, or about 10 months, in custody.