A FORMER bikie who fled to New Zealand in the days after repeatedly assaulting a woman in 2017 and was then left languishing in jail for years awaiting extradition will not spend any more time behind bars.
Austin, who was granted strict conditional bail last year after spending more than five years behind bars in New Zealand and Australia, was on Friday jailed for a maximum of two-and-a-half years, with a non-parole period of 15 months.
The jail term was the equivalent of time served in NSW since his extradition, after prosecutors conceded he should not spend any more time behind bars.
In the days after the assaults in 2017, Austin boarded a flight to Auckland and "fled the jurisdiction", prosecutors said.
The NSW District Court heard on Friday that Austin was "stressed and anxious" about rising tensions within the OMCG and had been trying to extricate himself from the gang when he fled.
But by October, 2017, he had been arrested in Whakatane and charged with arson, assault and damaging property.
He was later jailed for a maximum of four years and nine months, with a non-parole period of two years.
But after his non-parole period expired in October, 2019, Austin was denied parole at least 10 times and was left languishing in jail, his lawyers told the Newcastle Herald in 2022.
Despite his lawyers submitting to extradition and petitioning the New Zealand government to fast track his deportation to Australia to face the shooting and assault charges, Austin remained behind bars, a situation his lawyers said was a breach of his human rights.
It appeared the New Zealand parole board wouldn't release Austin while he had an active extradition warrant.
But the warrant, which was granted in September 2020, did not seem to be a priority for Australian authorities and by March 2022, before authorities finally acted to extradite Austin to NSW, he was getting close to serving his entire sentence - four years and nine months - behind bars in New Zealand.
After he was extradited and formally charged over the shooting, Austin spent another 15 months behind bars in NSW before he was granted bail in 2023 because his trial was going to be delayed by another year.
He ultimately pleaded guilty to the assaults on the eve of the trial after prosecutors agreed to drop the shooting charges.
In finding that Austin should not be returned to jail, Judge Nanette Williams said he had since left the gang, gained employment and the assaults were "opportunistic" and unplanned.
