Kane Sean Watson: Meth courier eligible for parole as 21-year combined prison sentence reduced

A meth courier described by a judge as an “administrative assistant” rather than a decision-maker in a large-scale drug dealing enterprise has won an appeal to have his 21-year combined prison sentence reduced. Kane Sean Watson was facing more than two decades behind bars for stashing a backpack of meth in a Dianella park in 2020, as well as for his role in the attempted transport of nearly $6 million of cash to NSW just months later. That cash was ultimately intercepted by police who had been watching Watson and intercepting his communications before his eventual arrest, with the haul declared as the State’s biggest single seizure of dirty money in history. Watson faced court in 2021 and 2023 on two separate indictments for those events, and was ordered to spend 13 years and eight years behind bars cumulatively. However Justice Stephen Hall ruled on Friday that the sentence was disproportionate, reducing it by four years. “As serious as the appellant’s offending was, it did not justify a total sentence of 21 years’ imprisonment,” Justice Hall said. “Indeed, when viewed as whole, and having regard to the appellant’s role in the drug dealing enterprise, sentences imposed in comparable cases and the appellant’s personal circumstances, the total sentence is clearly disproportionate to his criminality.” Before finding himself involved in the criminal underworld, Watson had been working at a Baby Bunting warehouse, before his lawyer said he decided to “essentially become a criminal”. James Jackson said his client had declared himself a “hapless person being used by this organisation who’s cannon fodder for the police”. “(He’s) a first offender who’s gone from zero to 100 instantaneously, in terms of seriousness of offending,” Mr Jackson said. Watson’s successful appeal follows a 2022 appeal against the 13-year sentence, which was rejected. Following the resentencing, Justice Hall ordered Watson was eligible for parole.