A serial criminal has been jailed for five years over a raft of offences that included driving over the top of a "motionless" woman while fleeing from police.
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Jermaine Troy Goolagong, 27, was spotted "dragging" the woman along her front lawn in Rivett one evening in March 2020, prompting witnesses to phone triple zero.
When police arrived, Goolagong jumped into a stolen BMW and drove over the woman's leg and thigh area to escape as officers tried to block his path. Fortunately, the woman only suffered minor injuries.
Goolagong sped away and rammed a pursuing police vehicle at least three times, rendering the officer behind the wheel unconscious, before an officer in a second car stopped the chase because of safety concerns.
Not long after, the 27-year-old and an unidentified co-offender brandished knives while trying to carjack a woman who had stopped on the side of a road in Narrabundah.
Goolagong "bashed at the windscreen" and "kicked at the driver's door" during what was ultimately an unsuccessful robbery attempt.
Roughly a week later, the 27-year-old yet again fled from police in a different stolen car, which he went on to use in a series of smash and grabs to varying degrees of success.
He was arrested on March 19 last year and later pleaded guilty to 16 charges.
In a victim impact statement, the victim of the attempted carjacking told the ACT Supreme Court the incident had happened across the road from the Victims of Crime Assistance League.
She said there used to be "something reassuring" about parking so close to such a place, but the attack on her had violated any "illusion of safety".
"That nearby bubble of sanctuary had been breached," she said.
"This irony has given me feelings of extreme mistrust, as if nowhere is now safe."
The woman said her work had suffered to the extent she had to leave a job before the end of her contract.
The police officer rammed by Goolagong made a statement as well, saying he had needed to make changes to his lifestyle and was now regularly consumed by "what if" questions.
Goolagong also penned a letter of apology to the court, writing: "I so sorry for want I done and if I could say sorry to them one's who I scary on the out side I would [sic]."
The 27-year-old said he wanted to become "a new man", with the experience of hearing his son had been hospitalised during his incarceration having "really woken me up this time".
In sentencing last week, Justice Chrissa Loukas-Karlsson said she acknowledged the "serious and significant impacts" of Goolagong's offending on his victims.
She ultimately imposed a five-year jail term, with a non-parole period of two years and seven months.
Having been in custody ever since his arrest, Goolagong will become eligible for release in October 2022.
