Bradley Pen Dragon
Address: WA, Australia
Sex: Male
Convictions
Date: 11 December 2012
Charges: Assault
Category: Assault
Court: Western Australia Supreme Court
Judge: Judge Jenkins
Penalty: 5 years' imprisonment
The Western Australia Supreme Court convicted Pen Dragon of assault.
A convicted pedophile, Dragon attacked a mother and her 11-month old baby in Mt Lawley in August 2012.
The victim, only to be known as Shannon, described her terror as Dragon attacked her from behind with a butcher's knife as she sat in her car with her baby outside a suburban hospital.
She suffered significant cuts to her hands as she fought off the 52 year-old, who fled without stealing any money or property, and was arrested at a nearby train station.
As he pleaded guilty and was sentenced by Justice Lindy Jenkins in the Supreme Court of Western Australia, Dragon's lawyer Simon Watson said he had been acting out of desperation because he was virtually "on the run'' from vigilantes.
"He was told his throat would be cut ... he was threatened that bikies would find him and have him killed,'' Watson said.
In a victim impact statement tendered to the court, the victim said her life had been turned upside down by the attack.
She said her family had sold the car she was attacked in, sold its house and moved to a different area in order to feel safe.
Speaking outside court, she said she was happy Dragon was behind bars, but was still feeling the impact of the attack.
"In five years time my little girl is still going to be very young, and it would have been nice to see him released when she was all grown up,'' Shannon said.
"It was a like a scene out of a movie, and I still don't believe I could be so unlucky as to run into a character like that.
"He has a very, very long history, and he is a very frightening man. The community needs to be kept safe.''
Dragon's conviction of assault with attempt to rob was the latest in a criminal past that began when he was 14.
He was released from Bangkok's Klong Prem prison in 2006 after serving 10 years of a 15-year sentence for the violent child sex offences, which dated back to 1993.
He moved from NSW to Western Australia after he was deported back to Australia, and then in 2008 and 2009 was convicted of several counts of possessing child pornography.
It was just 10 weeks after his release from prison on the latest child porn charge that he committed the assault for which he received the five-year jail term.
Dragon was sentenced to 5 years' imprisonment.