Bunbury coronavirus quarantine breacher Katrina Lauren East narrowly avoids jail

A quarantine breacher who skipped out from her home three times — once to attend an 80th birthday party — has been given a suspended jail term with a magistrate blasting her for playing with the “safety of West Australians”. Katrina Lauren East, 29, was sentenced to a suspended eight month term Bunbury Magistrate’s Court yesterday after pleading guilty to three charges of fail to comply with a direction. The court was told the cystic fibrosis sufferer left coronavirus quarantine three times, the most recent of which was to attend the 80th birthday party of a friend. East returned from Victoria, where she was studying Christian ministry, on June 30 and was instructed by police to self-isolate for 14 days at her family home in Millbridge. On July 3, East broke quarantine to buy allergy medication and again on July 10 when she attended a playground in Australind. Her total lack of regard for her self-isolation only came to an end when guests at an 80th birthday party at the Bunbury Italian Club reported her to police. While East narrowly avoided jail, the same couldn’t be said for fellow quarantine breacher, Asher Vander Sanden, who was earlier this week jailed for six months for sneaking across WA’s border hidden in a truck. It was the toughest penalty handed down for a WA breach, but the 28-year-old plans to appeal against that sentence. In a verbal pre-sentence report for East, the court was told the 29-year-old said “If I could turn back time I would and would not make the decision to leave home”. Factors that contributed to her actions were “naivety, depression and the instinct of fight or flight”, the court was told. Magistrate Joe Randazzo said it was a “very serious matter” and was adamant there needed to be a general deterrent of these types of actions. “There needs to be a clear, loud message sent to those in the community and afar that if you travel to Western Australia, you do so on conditions,” he said. “You cannot play with the safety of West Australians.” Mr Randazzo said he took into consideration East’s cystic fibrosis condition, which has given her a predicted life expectancy of 37 years. He said there was a significant distinction between East and the woman who was recently sentenced to jail for breaching her quarantine and said she had been a person of otherwise good character. “This hangs over your head ... you came close to going to jail but mercy has been extended,” he said.