A man acquitted of the 1998 murder of a Sydney schoolgirl has walked free from court a second time after being sentenced for carrying a knife when he walked into a police station saying he'd killed her.
Vinzent Tarantino was last week found not guilty of abducting and murdering 12-year-old Quanne Diec, who disappeared after leaving her Granville home to go to school.
The former nightclub bouncer was on Thursday back in the same courtroom, where he pleaded guilty to possessing a 35cm knife in a public place on November 20, 2016.
The now 52-year-old had gone into Surry Hills police station, telling police he had killed Quanne and was carrying a knife, which he produced.
Justice Robert Beech-Jones, who presided over the Supreme Court murder trial, imposed a fixed three-month jail term for the knife offence.
The sentence was backdated to when Tarantino first went into custody after his arrest on November 20, 2016.
He was bail refused from that date until his acquittal when he walked free from court with his girlfriend.
Tarantino told the jury his murder confession was made falsely after he'd spent almost two decades on the run from bikies and feared for his safety.
He suggested he wanted to be locked up for protection.
He'd been working at Sydney's Blackmarket Cafe when three senior Bandidos bikies were shot dead in 1997.
Justice Beech-Jones said in sentencing for the knife offence that he was bound to deal with Tarantino in a manner consistent with the jury's verdict.
The jury must have accepted that he had a basis for a fear of reprisals or at least a genuine fear in that regard.
"Moreover, a significant volume of psychiatric evidence illustrated he was suffering from a schizoaffective disorder, although he strenuously denied this," he said.
The judge noted he himself in an earlier ruling had concluded Tarantino's fears were genuinely held, albeit based on delusional beliefs related to his psychiatric condition.
"The possession of a knife is of serious concern that is heightened by the reasonably large size of the knife in question," he said.
He took into account Tarantino's psychiatric condition and also his criminal history which involved three sets of relevant matters involving weapons.
Australian Associated Press
