Director of Public Prosecutions v Abdala

[2016] VCC 935

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA Revised
Not Restricted
Suitable for Publication

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 15-00583

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

IRKO ABDALA

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JUDGE:	HER HONOUR JUDGE HAMPEL
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	1 July 2016
DATE OF SENTENCE:	4 July 2016
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Abdala
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2016] VCC 935

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:
Catchwords:
Legislation Cited:
Cases Cited:
Sentence:

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr M. White	OPP
For the Accused	Ms N. Georgianni	Melasecca Kelly & Zayler

Pages 1 - 6

 

 

HER HONOUR: 

1Mr Abdala, can you stand up for a minute?  I am finding the breaches, both by reason of non-compliance, not turning up to your three scheduled appointments, and by committing further offences, proven.

2As I have just been discussing with the lawyers, what I am going to do is simply confirm the existing CCO you are on.  I am not going to cancel it.  I am not going to resentence you for the original offending, and I am not going to vary the CCO by extending the time for compliance.

3But I want you to understand that you are still subject to all of the conditions of that community correction order that I imposed on you in December of last year, and so under that you will have to go and attend for a supervision appointment on Wednesday.  That is 6 July.

4So as I understand it, you are to be released tomorrow, and the very next day you must go and see Ms Nassialis at the Sunshine CCO.  She will then make arrangements to transfer your CCO to the Community Corrections office that is closest to your address in Flemington.

5And you will be subject to every one of those conditions, both the general conditions, the core conditions and the special conditions that you were on from the start.  That means that you will remain under the supervision of a Community Corrections officer for the balance of the period of the order, up to 9 December.

6You are still subject to the assessment and treatment for drug abuse or dependency as directed by the regional manager.

7I am impressed with the fact that whilst you were on the CCO, and up until the time you went into custody, you went to and properly engaged in so many of your drug rehabilitation counselling sessions, and I am impressed that you have gone back onto Methadone whilst you have been in custody, and you have made arrangements for your Methadone to be administered to you in Footscray upon your release.

8The combination of those things show me that you are keen to try and address your substance abuse, and that you understand the connection between the substance abuse, your poor mental health, and offending behaviour.  So you have done well in trying to manage that, you are still subject to a condition about that, and I hope that will help you remain drug free on your release.

9You are also still subject to the condition in relation to mental health assessment and treatment, and so that means specifically re-engaging with Warringah, where you must go upon your release in accordance with the arrangements that have already been made for you in custody, and that you, through that, accept the assistance from Forensicare Community Integration Program of the caseworker who will assist in monitoring you, taking you to Warringah for your appointments, and also probably assisting to take you to Corrections for your supervision and other appointments.

10You do need supports around you.  It is clear from Dr Cunningham's most recent report that you need that, and I am really pleased that Forensicare has accepted you into the Community Integration Program and understood you need extra help, and hope that you will take advantage of that as best you can.

11You must also participate in programs or courses that address factors relating to your offending, as directed by the regional manager of Corrections.  They will decide what programs would be good for you, and they will no doubt do that in consultation with Forensicare, with your drug counsellor, and with Warringah.  So whilst they will not overload you, they will be looking at things that will support and tie in to those other things you are doing, to try and keep you safe and keep other people safe as a result.

12The judicial monitoring condition that I imposed still applies, and I am going to fix the next date for you to come back to this court before me for judicial monitoring in a month's time, so that is on Tuesday 2 August.

13You are subject to the core conditions, still, of any community correction order, and so that is that you must not commit any other offences whilst you are on the order, and you know what happens if you do; they bring breach proceedings and bring you back before me, and I have got to decide what to do with the order.  All that does is extend your appearances before courts, and make it more difficult for you to try and get on top of your drug problem, deal with your mental health, and be able to live safely and drug free.

14So as well as that, you must comply with any obligation or requirement under s.17 of the Sentencing Regulations.  That means you must not be impaired by drugs or alcohol when you go for any supervision appointment, or to any other program that Corrections directs you to go to.  And you must submit to drug or alcohol testing if you are directed to do so by anyone from Corrections.

15You must report to and receive visits from the Secretary or delegate.  Do you understand that?  And you must let Corrections know within two clear working days if you change your address.  So I am now going to note your new address, and no doubt Ms Nassialis has also noted your new address of Unit 2 No.60 Farnham Street, Flemington.  I am told that you are still engaged with the Salvation Army, and they are looking for permanent accommodation for you; this address that you have given me is your uncle's.  Once the Salvation Army give you your own accommodation, you must let Corrections know within two days of taking up that offer.  Do you understand that?

16OFFENDER:  Yes.

17HER HONOUR:  It is really important that they know, so that they can keep in touch with you.  And as you know, they are doing their best to try and assist you.  They understand the difficult life you have had, and the complex needs that you have, and they are trying to help you, not to punish you.  So you must keep them informed.

18If you get a job, you have got to tell them about that, and if you lose a job you have got to tell them about that, too.  Do you understand that?  And again, you have got to do that within two days of getting a job or losing a job.  All right, so that is even if you get a one day casual work, you have got to tell them you have had that work, and you have got to do it within two days of getting the work.  Do you understand?

19OFFENDER:  Yes.

20HER HONOUR:  All right.  And you are not allowed to leave Victoria without permission from the Secretary or the Secretary's delegate at Corrections, so that means if you want to go interstate, you must go to Corrections, tell them that you want to go, ask their permission, and you are not allowed to go unless you have got permission.  Do you understand?

21And finally, you must obey all lawful instructions from and directions of the Secretary or delegate.  So if you go in for supervision and they say, "We want you to go straight to Warringah to see a mental health worker there", you have got to do that.  Do you understand?  Or if they say, "We want you to give us the contact number of the person who is your case support worker from the Salvation Army so we can talk to them", you must do so.  Do you understand that?

22OFFENDER:  Yes.

23HER HONOUR:  And do you understand that all of these conditions on the order are designed to keep you from further offending, to try and keep your mental health stable and keep you connected with Warringah or any other mental health authority you are connected with, so that you take your medication and stay well, to stop you from committing further offences so you are not going to put back into gaol, and you are not risking or interfering with the rights and freedoms of other people in the community.  Do you understand all of that?  All right.

24Mr Abdala, I hope that the progress that you have made in getting your mental health back to stable, of getting onto the Methadone program so you are stable on that, and of having the assistance from Forensicare in being admitted into the Community Integration Program, and the assistance from the Salvation Army particularly in relation to accommodation will put you in a better position to be able to comply with your CCO on your release tomorrow, so that when you come back before me for your judicial monitoring, you will be able to give me again a positive account of how you are going, and we can see where there are any problems that need to be ironed out.

25I do not want to see you going back into gaol.  I want to see you supported and living safely in the community, and so all of this is designed to do that.  All right?  Do you understand?

26OFFENDER:  Yes, Your Honour.

27HER HONOUR:  All right, thank you, take a seat.  That is all I need to say?  Orders made, reasons sufficient?

28MR WHITE:  Thank you, Your Honour.  Very detailed, thank you.

29HER HONOUR:  Can I thank you particularly, Mr White?  I know you have been doing a lot of work behind the scenes to keep this going.  You, Ms Nassialis, I know he is not one of your lowest maintenance clients, but he is, as I said, one of the people in our community who is in most need of support and assistance, and I am very conscious of how much Corrections has tried to date to assist him, to understand his needs and to work with that, rather than to take simply a monitoring or punitive approach, or an inflexible one.  I think the approach today has been very understanding of his needs and I hope that continues.

30And thank you, you have obviously had a long history with him too, and I hope that with your support too, he can help navigate his way through this so that we try and keep him out of the criminal justice system and living as safely and as well as he can in the community.

31All right, see you in a month, Mr Abdala.

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