A murderer who robbed two banks with a sawn-off shotgun felt justified inflicting pain and suffering, a judge has found.
Alexander Robert Macdonald came face-to-face with two victims in Port Macquarie District Court on Wednesday after admitting to robbing two regional NSW banks at gunpoint in the 1990s.
The 76-year-old was sentenced to eight years in prison, adding to the 28 years he's already spent behind bars for a raft of crimes, including multiple armed robberies and murder.
“He committed a very large number of offences over the years and these are but four of them,” Acting Judge Michael King said.
“There are so many of them I have not bothered to count them up.”
Macdonald escaped from a Queensland jail while serving 22 years for armed robbery when he entered a Commonwealth bank branch in Coonabarabran in October 1996.
The wanted man was wearing a balaclava, gloves, and carrying a sawn-off shotgun he pointed towards bank staff, according to agreed facts.
After they put nearly $19,000 cash into his bag, Macdonald grabbed a 22-year-old woman and used her as a human shield to reach his motorbike.
"No alarms, no police. I will let her go when I am free," he said before releasing her without injury.
About two months later, Macdonald donned sunglasses and a wide-brimmed hat, picked up a sawn-off shotgun and entered the ANZ branch at Laurieton on the NSW mid-north coast.
Staff this time handed over $78,000 before the career criminal took a 36-year-old hostage to exit.
The hostage, unharmed during the robbery, attended court on Wednesday alongside another of Macdonald’s victims.
Judge King acknowledged being held up at gunpoint must have been terrifying for the bank staff and customers, and would have caused significant anxiety and distress “for years, if not life”.
Macdonald’s use of the shotgun to intimidate staff into complying with demands showed he wasn’t concerned about causing them fear or anxiety, he said.
“He was only interested in obtaining large sums of money for his own benefit,” the judge determined.
“(He) personally felt justified in inflicting pain and suffering on others and stealing the property of others.”
Macdonald pleaded guilty to the robberies as soon as he could but there was no significant evidence of genuine remorse, Judge King said.
He took into consideration the career criminal’s age and medical issues but noted they didn’t preclude him from reoffending, despite the fact that “bank robberies have gone out of style”.
Macdonald, who had represented himself and advocated for a non-custodial sentence, will be eligible for parole when he is 82 years old.
The sentence closes the door on a varied criminal history that spanned all except two Australian states, in which he once assumed the identity of a man he murdered while on the run.
Macdonald shot Ronald Joseph Williams twice in the head in early 1996 and buried his body at a beach in Western Australia so he could avoid detection as a prison escapee, the court was told.
