by Cam Lucadou-Wells
A Hallam teen has been jailed in adult prison after slicing a 52-year-old shopper’s arm with a machete at Fountain Gate shopping centre and a wild police pursuit in Greater Dandenong.
Daniel John Batsanes, 19, pleaded guilty at the Victorian County Court to charges including recklessly causing serious injury, three car thefts, burglary and dangerous driving while pursued by police.
A drug-binging Batsanes was on bail and disqualified from driving during the crime spree in late 2023.
On 19 October, he and a teen co-offender were in a stolen ute trying to steal a spare tyre from a victim’s vehicle in the top-storey of Fountain Gate’s car park.
The victim tried to unsuccessfully remove keys from the ute’s ignition. As he backed away, Batsanes brought down a 50-centimetre machete into the top of the victim’s forearm, slicing it open to the bone.
The two offenders sped away in the ute.
The victim went back inside the shopping centre for help. He was given first aid by a security guard and treated by paramedics at the scene.
He was taken to Dandenong Hospital with multiple fractures to his forearm, a 15 centimetre laceration and multiple damaged tendons.
In a later police interview, Batsanes said of the victim that “some c*** tried to be a hero”.
“If you see something happening, unless you wanna f***ing get some – unless you want something to happen to you … keep your mouth shut.
“Anyone that f***ing wants to jump in the way and try to be a hero is gunna get f***ing hurt.”
He told police he was affected by meth at the time. With “drug and adrenaline”, he “didn’t know my own strength” and “turned out worse than I wanted it to be”.
After multiple surgeries, the victim still suffers PTSD, a loss of function and movement in his finger and thumb and the loss of substantial income.
All as a result of Batsanes wanting to steal a spare tyre and the victim having the “temerity to call you out”, sentencing judge Marcus Dempsey noted on 25 October.
Batsanes was also involved with a petrol drive-off in Endeavour Hills and three stolen cars over about a month.
On 29 November, he smashed a window of an Audi parked at Sandown Park railway station, found the victim’s address on paperwork and took a garage remote.
He went to the victim’s home, got inside via the garage, stole the Audi’s spare key from a kitchen drawer and then ultimately the Audi.
Five days later, a police car tried to box in Batsanes in the Audi in a service lane at Princes Highway Dandenong.
A drug-affected Batsanes drove away over the nature strip and down the wrong side of the road into traffic, slamming into the front passenger side of a Hilux ute and closely missing other vehicles.
Police Air Wing followed him driving erratically in Endeavour Hills, Dandenong, Keysborough and Noble Park.
He was arrested after abandoning the Audi near Sandown Park station. He was found with a knife, 1, 4-butanediol, cannabis and quetiapine pills.
Meth, a tomahawk and various stolen bankcards and ID were found in the Audi.
Sentencing judge Marcus Dempsey on 25 October noted Batsanes’s “tragic history” who grew up in deprivation, instability and grief.
He’d been “shaped in the most unfortunate way possible”, dropping out in Year 6, extensively using drugs, prolifically offending and living in residential care units.
Batsanes was assessed as unsuitable for youth detention, and seemed to respond better to structure and rehab programs in adult remand, Judge Dempsey noted.
As a youth, he still had “reasonable” but “guarded” rehabilitation prospects.
He was jailed for up to four years and 10 months, with a non-parole period of two years and 10 months.
His term included 326 days of pre-sentence detention – meaning his earliest possible release is October 2026.
Batsanes was disqualified from driving for two-and-a-half years.
