CDirector of Public Prosecutions v Ingles
[2017] VCC 693
•26 May 2017
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA AT MELBOURNE CRIMINAL DIVISION | Revised (Not) Restricted Suitable for Publication |
Case No. CR-16-00793
| COMMONWEALTH DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| JAMES ARTHUR INGLES |
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JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE RYAN | |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 10 May 2017 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 26 May 2017 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | CDPP v Ingles | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2017] VCC 693 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject: CRIMINAL LAW
Catchwords: Sentence – Use a carriage service to groom
Legislation Cited: Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth); Sex Offenders Registration Act 2004;
Crimes Act 1914 (Cth)
Sentence: 12 months imprisonment released immediately upon entering into a recognisance of $1,000 to be of good behaviour for 24 months. Section 6AAA declaration.
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Department of Public Prosecutions (Cth) | Ms Holmes | Ms E. Linfoot Solicitor for the Office of Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions |
| For the Department of Public Prosecution (Sentence) | Ms E. Linfoot | |
For the Accused | Ms M. Tittensor | Ms V. Ash |
HIS HONOUR:
1 James Ingles, on 11 May 2017 you pleaded guilty to one charge that between 1 September 2014 and 11 October 2014 you did use a carriage service to groom a person who is, or who the sender believed to be, under the age of 16 to engage in sexual activity contrary to s.474.27(1) of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth).
2 The maximum penalty for this offence is 12 years’ imprisonment. Additionally, the offence to which you have pleaded guilty is a Class 2 registrable offence as identified in Schedule 2 of the Sex Offenders Registration Act 2004. Accordingly, you will were required to comply with the reporting obligations under the Sex Offender Registration Act for a period of eight years.
3 You are 33 years of age and a man without prior convictions.
4 Tendered as Exhibit A on the plea was the summary of prosecution opening, together with an appendix that summarises your communications with a person who turned out to be a member of the Queensland police service. In summary, over a period of six weeks you believed you were communicating via the internet with a 14-year-old girl named Ashley, who lived in Brisbane. From the outset, you told Ashley that you were 31 years of age and that you were living in Australia. You sent a photograph of yourself to Ashley in the initial chat conversation. You stated that you liked "naughty girls as they were more fun" and when Ashley told you that her parents would kill her if they knew she was chatting online, you told her "bet they would, that is why it has to be a secret." Thereafter, and predictably, you directed your conversations, increasingly, to matters sexual, inviting Ashley to run around her bedroom naked, and during one chat session you told her that you were playing with "my cock". Later you expressed a desire to see Ashley naked.
5 On 6 September 2014, you suggested that you would travel to Brisbane during the school holidays to meet Ashley. Later, on 17 September, you told Ashley that you were looking for hotels in Brisbane and that you would meet her in your hotel room, and kiss, and have sex.
6 On 18 September, you exchanged telephone numbers with Ashley. Thereafter, until your last communication that occurred on 11 October 2014, while the issue of you meeting with Ashley in person remained a chat topic, to my mind, you were distancing yourself from an in-person meeting ever becoming a reality.
7
Ms Holmes of counsel, who appeared for the Crown, referred me to internet searches conducted by you on 6 September 2014 in respect to school holidays in Australia, and Jetstar cheap flights, to found a submission that, at least, on
6 September 2014, you contemplated travelling to Queensland to meet Ashley.
8 Ms Holmes did not submit that on the material I could find as a fact that you did intend to travel to Queensland to meet Ashley. In my view, Ms Holmes was correct to leave those enquiries as neutral, that is, not an aggravating feature of your offending.
9
You were arrested and interviewed under caution and charged on
20 August 2015, some 10 months after your last chat with Ashley. In your interview, you made a number of substantial admissions in respect of your conduct, namely, that you targeted girls around 13 years of age, and that you used user names being "candy cock", "Mr J" and "Mr Jiggy", the username used during the instant offending. When taken through the chat logs with Ashley by police, you admitted trying to get Ashley to talk about sexually explicit things.
10
You were initially charged with a number of offences under the Commonwealth Code and after a contested committal on 19 May 2016 you offered to plead guilty to the instant offence, but this offer was rejected by the Crown. On
27 January 2017, immediately prior to trial, the matter resolved on the basis of your May 2016 offer. Accordingly, I regard your plea of guilty as being made at an early stage in the proceedings.
11
Tendered as Exhibit 1 on the plea was a bundle of documents that included a plea outline, references from each of your mother, father and sister, as well as two reports from Dr David List, psychologist, dated 25 January 2017 and
9 May 2017.
12 In September 2015, a month or so after your arrest, you consulted Dr List for treatment. You were referred to Dr List in respect to the charges you faced and your self-report of depression and a desire in you to understand the nature of the charges and your behaviour.
13 As at the date of your plea, you had undertaken 38 sessions with Dr List. You described to Dr List your family as providing you with a normal, happy, stable early childhood. However, when you were about fifteen years of age, your sister was sexually abused by an uncle, who until that time had been a trusted and much loved member of your extended family. At about the same time, the same uncle introduced you to internet pornography and specifically, child pornography. You were instructed by him in the use of chat rooms.
14 Two years later you entered into a relationship with an age-appropriate young girl. This relationship lasted seven years. You instructed Dr List that during the period of the relationship you did not look at girls. I take this to mean looking at young girls on the internet.
15 The breakdown of your relationship naturally caused you to feel depressed and you seemed to have sought to bolster the consequent lack in confidence that you felt as a result of the breakup by recourse to chatting online to young girls. You told Dr List you felt unable to communicate with women of your own age. You felt that the use of the internet was a safe way to communicate to females without risk of rejection.
16 It is plain, when you first consulted Dr List, that you had little understanding of the harm that could be caused by your illegal activities and you seemed not to understand that your conduct was illegal. However, over time, because of your treatment and, to my mind, a drawing of the obvious connection of the harm suffered by your sister at the hands of your uncle and another, that you came to realise that your conduct was not right and why this was so, and that you resolved not to "want to do those things anymore."
17 Dr List opined that you have progressed in therapy and that you are acclimatising yourself to increasing social interaction and the potential of relationships.
18 In the report of 9 May 2017, Dr List refers to your use of adult pornography for the purposes of sexual self-gratification. To my mind, you still have unresolved issues that need to be addressed and although Dr List stated that your therapy with him finished some three months ago, you would be well advised to maintain your therapeutic relationship with him. To my mind, the continuance of this relationship would assist you in your plans for living independently away from your family and dealing with the issue of developing relationships in the future.
19 By reference to the letters written by your family in support of you, it is apparent that your uncle’s conduct towards your sister and you compounded to adversely affect your development. Your mother refers you to you being bullied at school, while your sister writes that you compensated for this by attempting to gain acceptance at the all-boys’ school that you then attended by demonstrating the skills taught to you by your uncle to the extent that at the time, you became known as the "porno king". Further, your sister writes of your strong work ethic, which is reflected in the various places that you have worked since gaining your qualification in IT and multimedia at the Chisholm TAFE (see paragraph 3b of plea outline).
20 You are 33 years of age. You have a loving and supportive family. You are without prior conviction. You have always been in employment. Prior to your offending, you had always participated in normal social activities like cubs, cricket, mountain biking and the like.
21 You entered your plea at an early stage in proceedings and you are entitled to the benefits that flow to you from that plea, being that it is some evidence of your remorse and that it has utilitarian benefit. I am satisfied that you are remorseful and that you have endeavoured to gain insight into the reasons for your offending and are determined not to reoffend again.
22 An aspect of your offending is, at the time you were working shift work on a fast rotating roster. This in part caused you to retreat into the world of the "chat room." Fortunately your offending was of limited duration and is unlikely to be repeated because of the therapeutic treatment that you undertook.
23 I regard your prospects for rehabilitation as good, as you have re-engaged in normal social activities with the intention that they increase and diversify over time.
24 The offence that you have pleaded guilty to is a serious one, punishable by a maximum penalty of 12 years’ imprisonment. General deterrence must play an important role in the exercise of my sentencing discretion and you are an appropriate vehicle for the application of that sentencing principle.
25 By this sentence, I must denounce your conduct. I must punish you and deter you and others from committing crimes of the same or similar kind. I must look to your rehabilitation. Taking into account the circumstances of your offending and their effects, your personal circumstances and antecedents, and endeavouring to produce a sentence which reflects and promotes the purposes of sentencing in a manner appropriate, you, I sentence you to 12 months’ imprisonment and I order that you be released immediately upon entering into a recognisance in the sum of $1,000 to be of good behaviour for a period of 24 months. Are you prepared to enter into such a recognisance?
26 OFFENDER: I am, Your Honour.
27 Pursuant to s.6AAA of the Sentencing Act 1991, I declare that but for your plea of guilty, I would have sentenced you to a term of imprisonment of 18 months and ordered that you be released on a recognisance release order for a period of 24 months after having served nine months’ imprisonment.
28 MS TITTNESOR: As Your Honour pleases.
29 MS LINFOOT: Your Honour, I do have a form for the recognisance. It will just take me a minute or so to fill that out.
30 HIS HONOUR: Just take your time please.
31 MS LINFOOT: Your Honour, I will hand up this draft order.
32 HIS HONOUR: Thank you. Mr Ingles, would you go to the prosecutor's end of the Bar table. Mr Associate, would you see to the execution of the document please. The prosecutor's end please, Mr Associate. Madam Prosecutor, if you would oversee this please? If you would just remain there please, Mr Ingles. No, if it could be returned to me please, thank you. Now, Mr Ingles, you are subject to the provisions of the Sex Offender Registration Act for a period of eight years. My Associate will bring a series of documents to you. You are to sign them on the basis that you are acknowledging receipt of these documents.
33 Mr Ingles, you must understand what has taken place here today. You have been sentenced to a period of imprisonment of 12 months. You are released immediately, having entered into that recognisance. That period of 12 months' imprisonment is effectively suspended for a period of 24 months. You need to be of good behaviour during that period of 24 months. If you are not and you breach your recognisance, the $1000 is forfeited but you come back to me for sentencing. I suggest you do not come back to me for sentencing. Are there any other matters that need to be attended to?
34 COUNSEL: No, Your Honour.
35 HIS HONOUR: Thank you very much. I would like to thank you for your assistance in this matter.
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