A 28-YEAR-OLD man with a violent criminal history, who has spent more than a quarter of his life in jail, is fighting an extended supervision order application being made against him in the Supreme Court.
The crimes of Brian William Costigan include the "horrific" torture of a child during a drug-fuelled "ice" rage and a savage attack on a Good Samaritan who was flagged down, bashed and nearly run over in his own car.
The three-year extended supervision order would include electronic monitoring as well as search an seizure provisions, allowing authorities to randomly search premises and devices, on a list of more than 40 conditions.
Costigan's offending began in 2009 with relatively minor driving offences, but escalated from 2011 to include more serious offences such as assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and recklessly causing grievous bodily harm in company.
On June 29, 2014, Costigan was in the grips of an ice addiction when he and another man flagged down a passing car at Tenambit in the Hunter Valley about 12.45am.The victim saw the two men standing by the side of the road waving their hands "like they needed help", so he pulled over and got out of the car. He ended up with a broken jaw and multiple loose teeth, as well as cuts and bruises and mild head injury.
Costigan also committed domestic violence offences against three partners, including an incident in 2014 involving a woman and her eight-month-old baby during which Costigan kicked the baby several times, jammed his fingers down her throat, and placed the lit end of a cigarette onto her forehead. Despite the defendant's partner yelling at him to stop, he picked the infant up by its shirt collar and threw it onto a bed, before continuing to punch his partner to the face.
The combination of sentences for the 2014 matters landed Costigan in jail for seven years. He was released on parole on April 7, 2020, but since then had been in the community for no longer than a few months at a time, having twice been returned to custody with respect to further offences and breaches of parole conditions. In approving interim orders for 28 days ahead of a hearing, Justice Hament Dhanji cited a risk assessment which identified Costigan as functioning 'in the range of intellectual disability' and at 'high range' risk for committing further violence.
