RSS Feed
October 27th, 2011 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
AAP
A man who broke into the home of former NSW treasurer Michael Costa and terrorised his wife and young children has been sentenced to at least four years in prison.
Deborah Costa was ordered to get on the floor and lie on her stomach, while she pleaded for her children, aged two and four, who were screaming nearby.
Mark Noel Sheehan, 39, told her to put her hands behind her back and tied them with wire.
“Where’s your money, where’s your wallet?” he demanded.
Mr Costa had left early on April 14 to attend a meeting and Ms Costa and her children were alone at their isolated rural property in the Hunter Valley.
Ms Costa had been making breakfast for Mikos and his older sister Valentina when Sheehan broke in wearing a black balaclava and brandishing a 30cm carving knife.
Justice Robert Toner described the invasion of their Millfield home as “terrifying”.
“The offence was undoubtedly of the utmost seriousness,” he told Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court.
“(Ms Costa) was confronted by a man wearing a balaclava, gloves, dark clothing and armed with a large kitchen knife.
“She was forced to lie on the floor, her hands and feet were bound by wire.
“All this in the presence of her two young children and without any real hope of meaningful rescue.
“Understandably she immediately feared for her own life but, more particularly for her, for that of her children.”
Sheehan pleaded guilty to charges related to the invasion, tying up Ms Costa and the theft of items from the home.
Justice Toner handed down an eight-year sentence, with a minimum term of four years, making Sheehan eligible for parole in May 2015.
Outside the court, Mr Costa said he was glad the ordeal was over.
“As far as I’m concerned this is a case where the system has worked, … we’ve just got to deal with the consequences,” he told reporters.
Justice Toner said the emotional harm caused to Ms Costa was substantial.
“She has flashbacks of the terror and distress that she felt at the time,” he said.
“Her belief was that she was facing her final moments with her children before she was killed.”
The court heard that Sheehan, from Kincumber, had been brought up in a strict Christian environment, had felt alienated from his family and suffered from mental illness and depression.
The father of one had run a business as a bricklaying contractor but ran into financial difficulties in 2010.
According to psychologist reports given to the court, Sheehan was scheduled under the Mental Health Act at Maitland hospital on January 29.
In sentencing, Justice Toner noted Sheehan’s guilty plea but found “there was an obvious degree of planning and premeditation involved in this crime” and that Sheehan had “staked out” the house beforehand.
Sheehan stole a wallet, credit cards and a car from the property, but police also later found wine bottles similar to those taken from the Costa house at the Watagan Forest campsite where Sheehan was arrested in June.
At the time of the crime, Sheehan was living as a recluse at a bush camp and consuming large amounts of alcohol.
Posted in 
Tags: 
