Cocks v The Queen

The applicant, Natasha Cocks, appealed against a sentence imposed by the District Court for drug trafficking offences. The appeal concerned the supply of illicit drugs to a man named Brad Cooper, who subsequently died of an overdose.

The central legal issues before the Full Court of the Supreme Court of South Australia were whether the Sentencing Judge had erred by sentencing the applicant on an incorrect factual basis, and whether the sentence imposed was manifestly excessive. Specifically, the applicant argued that the Sentencing Judge had proceeded on the erroneous assumption that she had supplied both methylamphetamine and MDMA to the deceased, when she had only pleaded guilty to supplying MDMA.

The Court found that the Sentencing Judge had indeed sentenced the applicant on an incorrect factual basis. While the deceased had methylamphetamine and MDMA in his system at the time of death, and the forensic pathologist opined that either drug could have caused death, it was common ground on appeal that the applicant had only supplied MDMA. The Court noted that the Sentencing Judge's remarks, referring to "drugs" in the plural and the transaction whereby the applicant supplied "drugs he took which then killed him," indicated a misapprehension of the facts to which the applicant had pleaded guilty. Consequently, the Court held that the sentence imposed was manifestly excessive.

The Court granted permission to appeal on the relevant grounds, allowed the appeal, set aside the sentence imposed in the District Court, and resentenced the applicant. The new sentence was suspended on the condition that the applicant enter into a bond to be of good behaviour, subject to specified conditions.