CDirector of Public Prosecutions v Cartledge

[2024] VCC 1280

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

AT MELBOURNE

CRIMINAL DIVISION

Revised
Not Restricted
 Suitable for Publication

Case No. CR-24-00198

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS
(CTH)

v

STEVEN LEONARD CARTLEDGE

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE MOGLIA
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	10 July 2024
DATE OF SENTENCE:	20 August 2024
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	CDPP v Cartledge
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2024] VCC 1280

REASONS FOR SENTENCE

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Subject:Criminal Law – Sentence – guilty plea – Failure to Comply with Sex Offender Registry – Sentence of two years ten months imprisonment – Repeat Offender – CAM Possession – Small Quantity Drug Possession – Weapon Possession - Substance Abuse.

Catchwords: Sentencing – Repeated Failure to Comply with Sex Offender Registration Act

Legislation Cited:      Crimes Act 1958 (Vic); Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic); Sex Offender Registration Act 2004 (Vic); Child Protection (Offender Reporting and Prohibition Order) Act 2004 (Qld); Criminal Code1995 (Cth); Drugs Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981 (Vic); Firearms Act 1996 (Vic); Crimes Act1914 (Cth).

Cases Cited:

Sentence:Total effective sentence 2 years 10 months  

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Commonwealth DPP	Dr D. Gang	Office of Public Prosecutions
For Accused	C. Wareham	Hugh Middleton

HIS HONOUR:

1Steven Cartledge, you have pleaded guilty to failing to comply with Sex Offender Registration Act reporting obligations between 2-12 October 2023, possessing child abuse material and possessing cannabis, both on 12 October 2023.

2You have also pleaded guilty to summary offences of possessing ammunition and a prohibited weapon.

Summary of offending

3The agreed basis for your guilty plea is set out in the prosecution opening dated 4 June 2024.

4In summary, on 27 August 2020, you were sentenced in Queensland and thereby became a registrable offender under that State’s Child Protection (Offender Reporting and Prohibition Order) Act 2004 (Qld).

5When you moved to Mildura on 4 May 2023, you attended the local police station on 9 May 2023 as required for interview under the Victorian Sex Offender Registration Act. You signed a notice acknowledging your reporting obligations.

6On 24 September 2023, you commenced employment with a local landscaping service and failed to report that to police within the required seven days. On 2 October 2023, you moved to a new residence and failed to report that to police within the one day required. Upon investigation, it was established that you had also failed to report two email addresses and one Internet username within the time required (Charge 1).

7Police executed a search warrant at your new home on 12 October 2023. There, they found a mobile phone that contained 26 images, and 3 videos of child abuse material linked to one of your email accounts. You cooperated with investigators by giving them access codes to your phone and its contents. The child abuse material depicted girls seemingly aged between 10 and 16 years in sexual settings or poses. It all fell within category 2 according to the Interpol baseline system (Charge 2).

8Police also seized a small quantity, 8.6 grams, of cannabis (Charge 3), a total of 59 rounds of various ammunition (summary Charge 6) and a double-edged hunting-type knife (summary Charge 8).

9Police arrested and interviewed you following the search.

10You cooperated and answered their questions. You admitted your attraction to young girls when you are affected by methamphetamine. As to the other items, you admitted they were all yours and that you possessed the knife for camping not knowing it was prohibited.

11You have remained in custody since your arrest and indicated your intention to plead guilty to these charges at an early mention of the case in the Magistrates Court.

12I accept that your plea indicates an acceptance of responsibility for your offending and your willingness to facilitate the course of justice. It also saves the community the time and cost of conducting a trial.

Personal circumstances

13You were 45 years old at the time of the offending. Your parents divorced when you were very young. You and your brother were raised by your father. You left home when you were around 15 or 16 and moved into a share house with a friend. You have had two significant intimate relationships but have no biological children.

14During your time on remand, you have regular calls with your mother. You have not spoken to anyone else or had any in-person visits.

15You attended school up until Year 10 and recalled a number of suspensions, which you said were caused by 'drugs, fighting and alcohol'.

16From about 1998 or 1999, you have worked consistently as a painter including on high rise building sites. You reported that sometimes you would be dismissed from work for your conduct, but never for sub-standard work.

17You reported that you started using alcohol, methylamphetamine, cannabis and heroin consistently from around age 15. You reported that you started using GHB from age 22 and oxycodone from age 25. You stated that you have never participated in drug or alcohol rehabilitation or counselling.

18Notably, on 30 July 2023, you were found unconscious on the side of the road following alcohol, methamphetamine and GHB consumption. You were admitted to the intensive care unit at Mildura Base Hospital but discharged the same day. Hospital staff strongly encouraged you to engage with alcohol and drug services in the community (Exhibit 2).

19You have now been in prison for more than nine months. You had to move prisons once because you were involved in a fight. You have not completed any programs but have been employed with factory work. You are not currently prescribed any medication.

20Psychologist Christine Kennedy assessed you and provided a report dated 23 April 2024 (Exhibit 1). She diagnosed you with a range of substance use disorders and antisocial personality disorder.

21She observed that you did not display any psychotic symptoms during the interview, but she observed that you present as being socially immature, hyperactive and restless.

22You reported to her that your offending occurred in the context of substance abuse. She stated that you lack an ability to properly think through the consequences of your actions, to plan, to remember things, to order things mentally and to keep your focus. When questioned regarding sexual matters, you did not provide any clear answers. You admitted that you are highly impulsive and have struggled with gambling in the past.

23Ms Kennedy observed, and I accept, that you have no insight into your offending and minimal insight into your substance abuse and general psychological functioning. You told her that '[you] are an addict … [you] will use again … [you] like getting high'.

24You have a lengthy criminal history dating back to 1997 when you were about 20 years old. Most of it occurred in Queensland and for many years it consisted of low-level offending. In 2003, you were imprisoned for nine months by way of intensive correction for a serious assault and related offences. In 2015, you received six months suspended for assaults. In 2016 you received nine months suspended for breaching domestic violence orders. In 2017, you were imprisoned for two years and four months for sexual, and other, assaults and then for three months for using a carriage service to menace harass or cause offence.

25In 2019, you were imprisoned for 12 months for possessing child exploitation material and distributing it. These two prior convictions hold particular relevance to the sentencing exercise in this case.

26You have prior convictions for failing to comply with reporting and were imprisoned on two occasions in 2022 for a total of five allegations resulting in a three-month and a two-month sentence.

27Throughout this period and since 2019, you have been sentenced on numerous occasions for low-level drug and dishonesty offences. The nature and extent of your criminal history in total is relevant in assessing the need for specific deterrence, community protection, and your rehabilitative needs.

28I accept Ms Kennedy's opinion that you are at significant risk of further offending, especially in the context of your significant criminal history, and a lack of social supports or stable housing.

29There are several challenges you will face upon your release if you are to lead a positive and productive life in the community. I find that your personality features and impulsivity mean that you will likely struggle.

Sentencing issues

30The maximum penalty for Charge 1, contrary to s 46(1A) of the Sex Offender Registration Act is five years imprisonment. For Charge 2, contrary to s 474.22A of the Criminal Code (Cth) it is 15 years, and for Charge 3, contrary to s 73 of the Drugs Poisons and Controlled Substances Act for a small quantity, it is 5 penalty units. For summary Charge 6, contrary to s 124 of the Firearms Act it is 40 penalty units and for summary Charge 8, contrary to s 5AA of the Control of Weapons Act it is two years.

31Charge 2 is the most serious offence in this case. It involved a number, albeit a relatively small number, of relatively young children being exposed to sexual conduct in images and footage. I accept that this involves harm being caused to those children, although it is not suggested you had anything to do with creating those images or footage.  I accept that there was no suggestion of organisation or sale or distribution of the material by you, and that your offending on this charge was unsophisticated and falls at the lowest end of the scale of seriousness.

32Charge 2 does however constitute your second or subsequent child sexual abuse offence as defined by the Crimes Act (Cth), s 16AAB. Accordingly, this offence carries a statutory minimum sentence of four years imprisonment.

33On Charge 2, your cooperation with law enforcement is a factor I am required to consider pursuant to s 16A(1) of the Crimes Act (Cth).

34Your counsel submitted, and I accept, that you have long struggled with drug abuse. You started using as a teenager. Your admission to the Mildura Hospital in 2023 demonstrates this.

35You admitted to police that your accessing of the child abuse material occurred in the context of methamphetamine use. I accept that early exposure to drugs has had a significant impact on your life. I am not able to find that this reduces your moral culpability for this offence, but I take it into account when assessing your prospects and whether you can be eligible for parole at an earlier stage in the sentence or release on recognisance to engage in targeted and supervised therapeutic interventions in the community.

36In relation to Charge 1, given that the Sex Offender Registration Act obligations are designed, in part, to protect the community from people convicted of sexual offending against children, general deterrence and denunciation are important considerations in sentencing you on that charge.

37Other offenders subjected to reporting obligations need to understand that repeated breaches will result in significant punishment, that is, prison. Your counsel concedes that some measure of general deterrence and community protection is necessary but emphasised that this should not overwhelm the sentencing process. I agree.

38In relation to Charge 1, I accept that given your prior convictions for failing to comply with such obligations, specific deterrence attracts more than nominal weight in your case, however.

39I note in relation to Charge 2, s 16AAC of the Crimes Act provides that the mandatory minimum sentence on Charge 2, of four years, may be reduced by up to 25 per cent, that is one year, if you entered an early plea of guilty. You have done so, and I will make that reduction in full.

40Similarly, the Act provides that a further 25 per cent reduction in the minimum sentence applies if you have cooperated with investigators. I accept that this kind of cooperation contemplates a wide range of circumstances, at the highest involving informing on other offenders or providing significant information to permit the prevention or prosecution of like offending.

41In your case, you have assisted by making admissions in your case. This is not a minor matter, but it is not cooperation at the upper end of the spectrum that I have just described. I will reduce your sentence commensurately.

42I will apply the principle of totality and make orders such that your total sentence in this case represents the separate criminality in Charge 1 over and above that in Charge 2.

43I find that your prospects for rehabilitation are guarded, particularly in light of your history, your future risk of offending including repeat drug use, your personality features and impulsivity.

44Your way through your engagement in the criminal justice system will be a difficult one, but with effort, you are capable of building an offence-free future. I will make orders that give you a chance, with support, to do so.

45The prosecutor concedes that in all the circumstances, including the reduction in sentence due to your cooperation and early guilty plea, a sentence of three years or under attracting a recognisance release order would be appropriate. Your counsel agrees, and on reflection, I do as well. 

46I sentence you as follows.

(a)   On Charge 1, failing to comply with reporting – I impose 3 months' imprisonment.

(b)   On Charge 2, possessing child abuse material, I impose two years and nine months.

(c)   On Charge 3, possession of cannabis, you are convicted and discharged.

(d)   On summary Charge 6, you are convicted and discharged.

(e)   On summary Charge 8, you are convicted and discharged.

47I make the forfeiture order, as sought.

48The Commonwealth sentence on Charge 2 is to commence one month after the commencement of the sentence imposed on Charge 1.  So that the total effective sentence across both State and Commonwealth sentences is two years and 10 months.

49I make a recognisance release order on Charge 2, providing for your release from custody after one year and nine months.

50The sum of the recognisance is $500 and the period of the recognisance during which you must be of good behaviour is one year following your release.

51I declare that you have served 306 days and direct that that be reckoned as a period already served under these sentences. 

52The effect of the sentences I have imposed today is that you are to serve one year and 10 months in prison in total, before you will be released on the recognisance release order that you are about to be shown – that is, one month if you like on the State offence and one year and nine months on the Commonwealth offence.

53Once you are released, if you offend again or you do not comply with the conditions of the release order, as well as being sentenced for any new offending, you face penalties for breaching my order today and I may revoke that order and resentence you in relation to these offences.  Do you understand?

54OFFENDER:  Yes, Your Honour.

55HIS HONOUR: In accordance with s6AAA of the Sentencing Act 1991, but for your guilty plea on Charge 1, I would have imposed five months.

56I decline to give an indication under s6AAA in relation to the Commonwealth sentencing.

Ancillary orders

57On Charge 2 in this case, it is a class 2 offence under the Sex Offender Registration Act. Your previous offending in Queensland included two other offences that, had they been committed in Victoria, would also have constituted class 2 offences. So, you have now been sentenced to three class 2 offences. Therefore, under s34 of the Act, you must comply with reporting obligations for the remainder of your life.

58I note that the Act provides for you, having lifelong reporting obligations, to make an application to the Supreme Court for a suspension of those obligations if, for example, after 15 years of reporting you have not been sentenced again for relevant offending.

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