Appeal court replaces Martin Kennedy’s community sentence with prison term

Martin Kennedy had been allowed to serve his sentence for wildlife offences in the community. On 18 October 2019, the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal replaced that punishment with a four-year maximum prison term. The former Sydney Roosters and Brisbane Broncos prop had pleaded guilty to six offences; the appeal court found his original sentence manifestly inadequate.

The case began with animals packed for international postage. In July 2016, customs officials x-rayed four packages bound for Sweden and found 24 live shingleback lizards and 10 live turtles, held in cloth bags inside plastic food containers. Another shipment of shinglebacks bound for Sweden was intercepted that October. Kennedy had recruited others to post the reptiles.

That month, Kennedy travelled to Bangkok and posted live animals back to Sydney hotel addresses. The intercepted parcels contained turtles, snakehead fish, stingrays, chameleons and sugar gliders. Many animals died during the journey; the surviving specimens were later destroyed. The agreed facts presented at his plea hearing recorded 22 intercepted packages across three occasions between July and October 2016.

Court documents also described two meetings with an undercover officer at a Darling Harbour bar. At a January 2017 meeting, Kennedy used the name Ben and spoke about the profits available from selling wildlife overseas. He acknowledged that some fish died in transit but said the profit margin remained high. His account of the risk was dismissive: “If you get busted it's a $500 fine and (warning) don't ever do that again,” he said, according to the documents.

Officers searched his Sydney home in March 2017. They found two pythons in a container in the hallway and $43,550 inside his freezer, suspected of being the proceeds of crime. In March 2018, Kennedy pleaded guilty to six offences, including attempting to export shingleback lizards to Sweden, importing alligator snapping turtles and neotropical stingrays from Thailand, and illegally possessing the two pythons.

At sentencing on 7 June 2019, District Court Judge Sean Grant accepted that Kennedy was genuinely remorseful and had excellent prospects of rehabilitation. He imposed three years’ imprisonment to be served in the community through an intensive correction order, with a requirement to complete 700 hours of community service. Kennedy was then working as a traffic controller.

Grant warned that the conduct had the potential to cause “substantial and permanent harm” to ecosystems in Australia and overseas. But he rejected the prosecution’s submission that the smuggling involved “undue cruelty”, finding that this required something beyond the risk of death during transportation. He found Kennedy financially motivated while accepting that he had wanted the animals to survive.

On appeal, Kennedy argued that he had completed more than 500 hours of community service, taken significant steps towards rehabilitation and posed a low risk of reoffending. The court nevertheless agreed with prosecutors that the original sentence was manifestly inadequate. It imposed a four-year maximum term, with a non-parole period of two years and six months. Justices Anthony Payne and Elizabeth Fullerton called it “some of the most serious offending of its kind which has come before the courts”.

Justice Christine Adamson emphasised deterrence: “I consider general deterrence to be a highly significant factor in the present case.” Kennedy was taken into custody minutes after the decision.