Director of Public Prosecutions v Adhel
[2017] VCC 1888
•8 December 2017
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL DIVISION
CR-17-02049
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| ADHEL ADHEL |
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JUDGE: | His Honour Judge Grant | |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 17 November 2017 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 8 December 2017 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Adhel | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2017] VCC 1888 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the DPP | Ms C. Foot | OPP |
| For the Accused | Mr M. Kozlowski |
HIS HONOUR:
1 Mr Adhel, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of attempted aggravated burglary. The maximum penalty for this offence is 20 years' imprisonment.
2 You have also pleaded guilty to two related summary offences, namely committing an indictable offence on bail and dealing with property, suspected to be the proceeds of crime. The first of these offences carries a maximum penalty of 30 penalty units or three months' imprisonment. The second carries a maximum penalty of two years imprisonment.
3 The prosecution presented a summary of your offending and I do not intend to repeat the whole summary. It is Exhibit A in these proceedings.
4
Briefly, at 2.37 am on 31 March 2017, you travelled to 8 Bingalong Court,
St Albans, in a stolen Lexus with five other young men. All of you got out of the car and approached the house, armed with sticks, bricks and stakes. You were armed with a wooden stick. One of your co-offenders, Mongrag, used a brick to smash the window beside the front door. All six of you then attempted to gain entry to the house by smashing windows and banging and kicking at the front door.
5 The people inside did what they could to resist your entry. The two male victims were showered with broken glass while defending the front door. At one stage, the female victim was looking out of a window, when one member of your group approached and smashed the window with a stick. After a minute or so of this behaviour, you and four others ran away from the driveway. Mongrag stayed and picked up a brick, which he threw at the front door. He then also left the scene.
6
As a result of this offending, three windows in the house were broken and
a small cabinet damaged by one of the bricks that went through a window.
7 I have read the victim impact statement made by the female victim. She details the emotional harm she has suffered. She feels unsafe, fearful and insecure. She is unable to stay home alone and her sleep has suffered. In addition, she has had the expense associated with turning her home into a fortress. Although the other two victims have not made impact statements, I am satisfied that they also must have suffered emotional distress as a result of these terrifying events.
8 This is serious offending. You and five other young men targeted a residential home and endeavoured to force your way into that home. You did so in the early hours of the morning. You were armed with sticks and bricks and you tried to disguise yourselves. You continued, even when it was obvious that people were inside the house. Your intention, it seems, was to enter the home and steal car keys and then use those keys to steal a vehicle (or vehicles) parked at the premises. Although the offending was over within a minute or so, you left a legacy of damage and at least one victim with ongoing emotional distress.
9 Given the serious nature of this offending, general deterrence, denunciation and just punishment are all relevant sentencing considerations.
10 It is also significant that when you committed this offence, you were on bail for other matters.
11 I also need to say something about the summary offence. When the police executed a search warrant on your home on 31 March 2017, they seized two laptops computers that were suspected of being the proceeds of crime.
12 I now move to matters relevant to your background and those matters in mitigation.
13 You are 20 years old. You were 19 when you committed the offences. You are a young offender. You have no prior criminal history. In your case, the principle of rehabilitation is an important consideration in sentencing. That does not mean that the other purposes of sentencing, such as general deterrence, denunciation and just punishment have no role to play. Clearly, the serious nature of this offending requires me to give appropriate weight to those principles.
14 You are the eldest of six children. You were born in South Sudan. Your parents left that country and moved to Australia when you were five years old.
15 In 2011, when you were 13 years old, your mother and father separated, with you and your siblings remaining in your mother’s care. I was told that your father moved to Shepparton and you only had intermittent contact with him during your teenage years. Your mother did her best to support the family with the modest financial means at her disposal. She continues to offer you her support. In addition, your father has come forward to offer his support. I will say a little more about this shortly.
16
You attended Derrimut Primary School and then Sunshine College. You completed Year 11 and left school mid-way through Year 12. You were not
a high achiever academically. In 2016, you attended St Joseph’s College and attempted to complete Year 12. You left halfway through the school year. Apart from two weeks' work experience at Coles Supermarket, you have not had any paid employment.
17 You have been an active and successful basketball player with the Longhorns Basketball Club in Braybrook and players from that club attended court to support you.
18 You do have very strong support from various organisations within the South Sudanese community. A number of references were tendered on your behalf, testifying to your previous good character. The referees offer the ongoing support of their organisations upon your release from custody. A draft program of support was prepared by the South Sudanese Australian Youth United organisation. It proposes a regime of monitoring and mentoring by community members after your release.
19 In addition, I was told that your father has moved recently back to Melbourne and he offers you his full support. He gave evidence that he has been visiting you regularly whilst you have been in custody. He said that you were remorseful for your offending and that you were determined to stay out of trouble in the future. He explained to the court that he now owns and operates a café in Sunshine and that upon your release, you would live with him and work at that café.
20
Mr Adhel, the support offered to you by your family and the community is
a strong matter in your favour. This, coupled with your previous good character, supports your counsel’s submission that you do have good prospects for rehabilitation.
21
You pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity. The plea is an acceptance by you of responsibility. The plea has also saved the victims from the trauma of giving evidence and saved the community the expense associated with
a criminal trial. You will be given credit for all of these matters.
22 You have been on remand for 252 days and you have used that time constructively, by completing a number of programs.
23 Your counsel told me that, as a result of the recent fire at Port Philip Prison, your time in custody had been very difficult over the last nine days. You have been held in lockdown and that situation is likely to continue into the future. This is a matter that I also take into account.
24 This is not an easy case. You have committed a very serious offence. However, you are a young man with no prior criminal convictions. You have strong family and community support. You have good prospects for rehabilitation. These matters in combination have persuaded me that the appropriate order in your case is a sentence of imprisonment, coupled with a community corrections order.
25
You are sentenced on the aggravated burglary charge to ten months' imprisonment, together with a community corrections order for
18 months. The order will have the following conditions attached:
· You are to be under supervision;
· You are to attend for assessment and treatment in relation to alcohol abuse; and
· You are to participate in programs to reduce re-offending.
26 Given that you will have spent ten months in prison by the time you are released, I have determined not to order community work as part of the corrections order.
27 On the summary charge of possessing property, suspected of being the proceeds of crime, you are sentenced to be imprisoned for one month and on the charge of committing an indictable offence whilst on bail, sentenced to be imprisoned for one month. Both of these sentences are to be served concurrently with each other and concurrently with the sentence imposed on the attempted aggravated burglary.
28 I make a declaration that you have served 252 days by way of pre-sentence detention.
29 Had you pleaded not guilty and been found guilty after trial, I would have sentenced you to an effective term of two years' and six months' imprisonment, with a minimum term of 18 months.
30 I make the forfeiture order sought by the prosecution.
31 Now, Mr Adhel, this is what has happened. You are sentenced to ten months' imprisonment and from that ten months, 252 days will be deducted. Upon your release you will be on a community corrections order for 18 months and that order requires you to remain out of trouble and to participate in the programs and conditions on the order.
32 It is also important that you understand that upon your release from prison, you will need to report to Community Corrections within two days. Do you understand that?
33 OFFENDER: Yes.
34 HIS HONOUR: And that will be the Sunshine office.
35 Well, Mr Adhel, just take a seat there for a moment. You will have to sign the forms. But you understand what has happened?
36 OFFENDER: Yes.
37 HIS HONOUR: All right.
38 MR KOZLOWSKI: May I assist my client, Your Honour?
39 HIS HONOUR: Yes, certainly.
40 MR KOZLOWSKI: Thank you, Your Honour.
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