Director of Public Prosecutions v Allen
[2025] VSC 219
•29 April 2025
| THE SUPREME COURT OF VICTORIA | Not Restricted |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL DIVISION
S ECR 2024 0278
S ECR 2024 0294
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS | Crown |
| v | |
| KLOUD ALLEN | Accused |
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JUDGE: | KAYE JA |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne |
DATE OF HEARING: | 23 April 2025 |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 29 April 2025 |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Allen |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2025] VSC 219 |
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CRIMINAL LAW – Sentence – Manslaughter by unlawful and dangerous act – Separate charge of armed robbery – Early pleas of guilty to both offences – Serious offences – Armed robbery in company – Accused armed with knife and co-offender with machete – Accused threatened to kill victim – Manslaughter – Accused and co-offenders confronted victim and associate in enclosed space – Accused stabbed victim with knife – Accused fled to Queensland after offence – Substantial criminal history – Childhood deprivation resulting in drug and alcohol dependency – Reduced culpability – Difficult circumstances in custody – Remorse – Significant utilitarian value of pleas.
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Prosecution | Ms K. Churchill | Solicitor for Public Prosecutions |
| For the Accused | Mr A. Chernok | Melinda Walker |
HIS HONOUR:
Kloud Allen. You have pleaded guilty to one charge of the armed robbery of Thomas Reid at Port Melbourne on 10 January 2024. You have also pleaded guilty, on a separate indictment, to the manslaughter of Andrew Sullivan at Parkville on 16 January 2024.
In order to determine your sentence, it is necessary, first, to set out the relevant circumstances of each of those two offences, which are outlined in the prosecution opening for your plea in these matters.
At the time of the offences, you were 23 years of age. You were residing in an apartment in Bath Place, Port Melbourne. The apartment was next door to the communal laundry, that served the residents of the apartment block.
On 10 January 2024, at approximately 8:00 pm, Thomas Reid was in the laundry with a friend, PM,[1] who also resided there. They were using the power point in the laundry to charge their mobile telephones, while they waited for some friends.
[1]A pseudonym.
At about 8:30 pm, you entered the laundry with your co-offender, AB,[2] and an unidentified female. AB, who was then 14 years of age, and the female, were each holding machetes, and you were holding a kitchen knife, which was about 15 centimetres in length.
[2]A pseudonym.
After the three of you entered the laundry, AB stood over Reid as he knelt on the floor. AB pointed his machete at Reid, and demanded that Reid empty his pockets and hand over his mobile phone. As he did so, he struck Reid to the face with the side of the machete. Reid remained kneeling, looking petrified, so much so that he twice crossed himself in silent prayer.
At the same time, you were holding PM by the shoulder in the corner of the room, while pointing your kitchen knife at him. As you waved your knife around, you asked PM if he was going to ‘snitch’ on you, and you twice asked AB, ‘Should we kill him?’. At this time, you were holding your foot against the wall, thereby blocking PM in the corner of the room.
In response to the threats, Reid handed over his mobile phone and his Nike Air Jordan sneakers. In the course of the incident, you threatened Reid that if he told the police, or anyone, about the incident, you would find him and kill him. You made that threat at least twice. On one of those occasions, you said, ‘If you snitch you will die, you die, you die, you die’. You and AB and the unidentified female then left the area. The armed robbery was video-recorded on a mobile phone, and the recording of it formed part of the depositions in this matter.
On the next day, 11 January 2024, Reid telephoned his girlfriend, CJ,[3] and told her that he had been robbed on the previous evening. CJ went to PM’s home in Port Melbourne to meet with Reid. As they were leaving, they encountered you walking along the balcony towards them with a kitchen knife in your hand. In response, Reid and CJ fled up the nearby stairs and returned to the apartment, where they called the emergency telephone number, 000.
[3]A pseudonym.
Those, then, are the circumstances of the armed robbery, to which you have pleaded guilty.
Six days later, on 16 January 2024, you were in company with some youths, including AB, at the Housing Commission flats at 478 Drummond Street, Carlton. Earlier that evening, an associate of yourself, RW,[4] had been involved in a physical altercation with some residents at those premises. That altercation had started when RW threw a punch at the head of one of the residents, Mohamad Abdullahi, inside an elevator at the housing complex.
[4]A pseudonym.
On the evening of 16 January 2024, you were captured on CCTV footage, riding the elevators in the complex between about 9:40 pm and 10:30 pm. You were then in company with AB, RW (who was then 15 years of age), and two other associates, NK[5] and your half-sister, ZD.[6]
[5]A pseudonym.
[6]A pseudonym.
You exited the building with your associates at about 11:00 pm, and then wandered around in Lygon Street for about half an hour, before returning to the complex in Drummond Street.
In the meantime, shortly before 11:30 pm, Andrew Sullivan arrived at the main entrance of the premises. He had his electric scooter with him. You, together with RW and ZD, returned to the premises a short time later, and you had a conversation with Sullivan. A few minutes later, Surafel Tessemer arrived at the premises on his scooter. You wrapped a tartan scarf around your head and face, and then entered the elevator, together with RW and ZD. Tessemer and Andrew Sullivan also entered the elevator. Andrew Sullivan pressed the button for level 19, and RW pressed the button for level 17.
An animated discussion then ensued in the elevator, relating to the earlier altercation that RW had had with Abdullahi. Surafel Tessemer tried to calm the situation down, and he told you and your colleagues that he was not a friend of Abdullahi. When the elevator arrived at level 17, AB was waiting at the door. Tessemer tried to push past him to exit the elevator, but he was unable to do so. Tessemer then pressed level 17 again, as the conversation between himself and RW remained quite heated. About one minute later, the elevator stopped, and ZD exited it. You then lunged towards Tessemer with a large kitchen knife you were holding in your left hand. Tessemer stumbled backwards, believing that he had been stabbed in the stomach, before realising that you had in fact missed your mark.
ZD then attempted to get you out of the elevator, while also attempting to prevent AB from entering it. She entered the elevator as RW tried to block Tessemer and argue with him. Andrew Sullivan reached out to Tessemer with his hand, and told him to ‘call someone’. Tessemer tried to quieten Sullivan, because he could see that Sullivan was angering RW. At the same time, RW turned his attention to Sullivan and yelled at him.
The elevator arrived again at level 17, and Andrew Sullivan tried to exit it. However, RW blocked his path, by grabbing hold of the handlebars of his scooter and pushing him back. RW and Sullivan then grappled with each other, as Sullivan continued to try to leave the elevator. At that point, you, still holding the kitchen knife, circled behind RW. As Sullivan tried to escape, you stabbed him once in the abdomen. That blow later resulted in his death, and is the basis of the manslaughter charge to which you have pleaded guilty.
After you struck that blow to Sullivan, AB entered the elevator, holding a machete. Tessemer slipped past him and exited. You and ZD also stepped outside the elevator.
RW then grabbed Andrew Sullivan in a headlock, and AB swung the machete down, in a chopping motion, onto Sullivan’s back and shoulder. AB then left the elevator, as RW continued to grapple with Sullivan. At that point, you again lunged at Tessemer with the kitchen knife, as ZD intervened, saying to you, ‘He’s ok’.
At that point, Andrew Sullivan was lying on the floor of the elevator. RW tried to remove his scooter, and Sullivan got to his feet and prevented him from doing so. You then re-entered the elevator. Sullivan managed to wrestle a glass bottle from RW, and he tried to use it to strike RW, but, by then, he was bleeding heavily. RW overpowered him, and Sullivan again fell to the floor. You then went towards him, with the kitchen knife exposed. You leant over RW and Sullivan as they grappled on the floor, and, as they did so, you made a further thrusting motion towards them.
When the elevator doors opened at level 19, RW removed the scooter from the elevator, and you exited the lift, leaving Andrew Sullivan lying on the floor, fatally wounded. You propped the door open, and you and RW gesticulated and yelled at him, while he was writhing in pain on the floor, clutching his abdomen. You then re-entered the lift to retrieve a bottle. RW also re-entered the lift and stood over Andrew Sullivan. He pressed level 18 and exited the lift, sending Sullivan in the elevator down to that level on his own.
In the meantime, Andrew Sullivan’s partner, Desiree Schmidt, had heard the commotion. She and Tessemer removed Sullivan’s body from the floor of the elevator when the door opened at level 18. Emergency services were summoned, and Andrew Sullivan was transported, by ambulance, to Royal Melbourne Hospital for emergency treatment. However, he succumbed to his injuries, and died from the stab wound that you had inflicted to his abdomen. In the meantime, you fled the apartment complex with your friends, and boarded a south-bound tram, away from the area. You exited the tram near Crown Casino at Southbank at 12:19 am. You subsequently fled the jurisdiction and went to Queensland.
On the next day, a post-mortem was conducted on the body of Andrew Sullivan. The cause of death was determined to be the stab wound that you had inflicted to the abdomen. The wound was approximately three centimetres in length, with a depth of approximately ten centimetres. It had penetrated the liver, and severed a major blood vessel, which resulted in substantial internal bleeding in the abdomen and pelvis.
Andrew Sullivan had also suffered a stab wound to the upper arm, and four stab wounds to the left posterior shoulder and left upper back region, that had been caused by AB.
Subsequently, on 22 January 2024, you were arrested by Queensland Police at premises in Woodridge. On 17 February 2024, you were extradited back to Victoria and you were interviewed by police in respect of the death of Andrew Sullivan. In the course of the interview, you admitted that you had stabbed Andrew Sullivan. You told police that you were then heavily affected by various substances, which caused you to have gaps in your recollection. You said that the motive for the attack on Sullivan was related to the altercation that had occurred earlier in the day involving RW. You admitted that you had intended to stab Andrew Sullivan, but you said that you had been aiming for his arm, and not his abdomen.
Following your arrest, you were remanded in custody on a charge of the murder of Andrew Sullivan.
Subsequently, you were also charged with the offence of armed robbery. On 25 September 2024, you were interviewed by police in relation to that charge, and you exercised your right not to respond to the questions asked of you.
On 20 November, at a committal mention hearing, the charge of murder resolved to a plea on a charge of manslaughter, and you were committed for trial on that charge. On 6 December 2024, you were arraigned in this Court on that charge, and you pleaded guilty.
On 12 December, you were committed for trial on the armed robbery charge. Subsequently, on 18 December, you were arraigned in this Court on that charge, and you pleaded guilty to it.
The two offences, to which you have pleaded guilty, are serious criminal offences. The maximum prescribed sentence for each offence is 25 years’ imprisonment. There were particularly serious aspects attaching to each of the two offences committed by you.
The armed robbery was committed by you in company with two other offenders, each of whom were armed with bladed weapons. You used your knife to threaten and terrify your victim. The offending was accompanied with threats to seriously harm your victim, including threats to kill him, in circumstances in which he must have been truly terrified. In all, it was a violent armed robbery, in which you played a significant role. Viewed objectively, your offending constituted a serious instance of the offence of armed robbery.
As I have stated, the offence of manslaughter, which you committed just six days later, is a serious criminal offence. You have pleaded guilty to that offence on the basis that you caused the death of Andrew Sullivan, by an unlawful and dangerous act, being an act, which a reasonable person, in your position, would have realised was exposing Andrew Sullivan to an appreciable risk of serious injury.
There were a number of serious aspects attaching to your commission of that offence. The initial violent confrontation in the elevator with Andrew Sullivan and Surafel Tessemer, in which you participated, was quite clearly pre-planned and premeditated. Your attack on Andrew Sullivan, and your action, in stabbing him, was entirely unprovoked and unjustified. Andrew Sullivan was a complete stranger, who was simply going about his lawful business when you and your associates attacked him. Your assault on him involved the use of a dangerous weapon. At the time, Andrew Sullivan was unarmed and outnumbered. He was in the enclosed space of an elevator, from which he could not escape. As such, he was entirely vulnerable and defenceless. He posed no threat to you or your co-offender.
Further, your action in stabbing Andrew Sullivan was not an instantaneous reaction on the spur of the moment. Rather, as I have described, you circled behind RW, and, as Andrew Sullivan attempted to leave the elevator, you stabbed him with the knife. Later in the incident, when RW and Sullivan were wrestling on the floor, you returned to the lift and thrust your knife towards him and RW. Further, and in aggravation of your offending, you left him helpless on the floor of the elevator, bleeding heavily and fatally wounded by you. You then left the scene, without summoning or arranging any assistance for Andrew Sullivan, and you fled the jurisdiction, thereby at least temporarily avoiding taking responsibility for your criminal actions.
By your unlawful and dangerous action in fatally stabbing Andrew Sullivan, you have taken the life of an entirely innocent person, who was quite clearly a decent, and much loved member of his family. The victim impact statements, which were read to Court, describe Andrew Sullivan as a person who was kind, gentle, generous and good-natured, and who was a loyal, close and supportive member of his family and a good friend to others.
While Andrew Sullivan was the primary victim of your criminal actions, there are also a number of other victims of your crime, who have suffered, and will continue to suffer, grievously as a result of them. I have read, and re-read, the victim impact statements of Andrew Sullivan’s mother, Beverley Krieger, his longstanding partner, Desiree Schmidt, his three sisters, his two brothers-in-law, three aunts and five cousins, together with the witness statement of his close and longstanding friend, Scott Bowmaker. Those victim impact statements were read on your plea and were tendered as part of the plea evidence. The statements describe, in very moving terms, the profound grief, anguish and trauma that each of those persons have suffered as a result of the death of Andrew Sullivan, and as a result of your criminal actions in taking his life from him.
Although the victim impact statements were read in court on the plea, it is appropriate that I briefly refer to, and repeat, in these sentencing remarks, a short extract from the statements of Andrew Sullivan’s mother, Beverley Krieger, and his partner, Desiree Schmidt.
In her statement, Beverley Krieger described the close relationship that she had always had with her son, Andrew, since his birth. Her statement makes plain the immeasurable loss, which she has suffered, and continues to suffer, as a result of his death. Ms Krieger stated:
Losing Andrew has changed my life in ways I never imagined. The grief is unbearable. The thought of never seeing his smile again, never hearing his voice, never feeling his hug, it is an agony I carry with me every day.
In her statement, Desiree Schmidt said the following:
I have lost my partner, my best friend, my sense of security, my future, my joy. I’ll never get to grow old with Andrew. I’ll never get to fall asleep in his arms or wake up next to him. I’ll never get to hold his hand again. And I’ll never again hear him say my name … …. All of our dreams, all of our plans … just gone. I don’t know who I am without him. I don’t know how to keep going or what that might look like.
The victim impact statements are a salutary reminder of the extent and depth of the grief and suffering, which have been, and which will continue to be, the direct consequence of the offence, which you committed. While you are to be sentenced on a rational analysis of the facts of the case, and the application of relevant sentencing principles, it is important not to lose sight of the profound grief and pain, caused to so many, as a direct consequence of your offending.
In that respect, I note that there is no victim impact statement on behalf of Thomas Reid. Nevertheless, taking into account the confronting circumstances in which you and AB committed the armed robbery, and the look and reaction of utter terror of Thomas Reid, as depicted on the video recording of the incident, it is clear that the incident must have been a horrifying experience for him. It could be readily inferred that the trauma, resulting from the actions of you and your co-offenders, may well have had an ongoing effect on Thomas Reid and his life.
In respect of your antecedents, you have a relevant, and quite substantial, criminal history in Queensland, where you have lived for most of your life.
You first came before the Children’s Court in Queensland in 2015, when you were 15 years of age. Since then, you have been dealt with by the courts on a number of occasions for offences, which, relevantly, included attempted armed robbery, assault occasioning bodily harm, threatening violence, and common assault. You have also been dealt with for offences involving wilful damage, theft, and burglary.
For that offending, you have been accorded a variety of sentencing dispositions, including non-custodial sentences, community service orders, a suspended term of imprisonment, and imprisonment. Most recently, on 9 February 2021, you were sentenced by the Richlands Magistrates’ Court to 12 months’ imprisonment on a number of charges, that included assault occasioning bodily harm, common assault, committing a public nuisance, and obstructing a watch-house officer.
I also note that, subsequent to the offending in the present case, and after you had departed for Queensland, you came before the Beenleigh Magistrates’ Court on 16 February 2024. On that occasion, the court imposed a suspended sentence in respect of a number of offences, including unlawful possession of weapons, obstructing police, possession of a knife in a public place, and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle while adversely affected by an intoxicating substance. It appears that those offences were committed by you in October and November 2023.
I turn, then, to your personal circumstances that are relevant to the determination of your sentence.
In short, your background circumstances were marked by the early separation of your parents, your exposure to family violence, and, subsequently, from the age of 12 years, periods of homelessness. In those periods, you became associated with similarly situated youths, and in that context you commenced to abuse alcohol and drugs, and become involved in gang-related conflicts and violent incidents.
You were born in Brisbane in August 2000, and you are now 24 years of age. You are of Indigenous heritage, your father being a member of the Yuggera people. Your parents separated when you were four years of age, and you then lived with your father for the next eight years, as your mother apparently struggled with alcohol and substance addictions. During that time, you did not have any contact with your mother until you were ten years of age.
During your early years, you witnessed family violence between your mother and your father, and subsequently, between your mother and your stepfather. When you were 12 years of age, your father commenced a relationship with a new partner, and, in effect, you were excluded from their home. During the ensuing period, you became homeless. You initially couch-surfed with friends for a short time. You then travelled to Melbourne on a number of different occasions, to reside with your mother for periods of between one month and six months. Your mother welcomed you to her home, but you were unable to stay there for lengthy periods, because on each occasion you had outstanding legal matters in Queensland, which required you to return to that State. As a consequence, you were effectively homeless for almost half of the time between the ages of 12 years and 17 years, sleeping on the streets, on beaches and in abandoned buildings.
During that time, you became attached to a peer group of similarly displaced youths. In that context, you were introduced to the significant abuse of alcohol and drugs. From the age of 12 years, you commenced drinking a cask of wine each day. You also engaged in the daily use of cannabis, and, from the age of 13 years, you used methamphetamine, cocaine, MDMA and ecstasy. You significantly reduced your consumption of those substances at the age of 15 years, when you entered into your first relationship, but you then resorted to the intravenous use of methamphetamine from the age of 17 years in the context of difficulties that arose in that relationship.
As a result of your unsettled upbringing, and also the circumstance that your father was required to frequently relocate for work, you attended approximately 15 different primary schools and three secondary schools. From the time that you were in Grade 5, you exhibited a number of behavioural problems, and you were suspended on a number of occasions from primary school and secondary school. When you were in Grade 9, you were expelled from school, and, subsequently, you attended a flexible learning school between the ages of 15 years and 17 years.
After leaving school, you have only had sporadic employment. At one point, you worked as a scaffolder for eight months at the age of 21 years, and you also worked as a supervisor in a container logistics company, between the ages of 21 years and 23 years. You have had a number of periods of unemployment, due to your homelessness, alcohol and drug use, and periods of incarceration.
You have had two reasonably substantial relationships. At the age of 15 years, you entered into a relationship, which lasted until you were 18 years of age. It appears that that relationship was quite turbulent, and your partner was unfaithful to you. Subsequently, at the age of 19 years, you commenced a four year relationship with another young woman, by whom you have two sons, who are now aged four years, and two years, respectively. In the latter stages of the relationship, you frequently argued with your partner, and you ultimately separated after a significant argument, following which you departed for Melbourne in October 2023.
It appears that, after you commenced the second relationship, and following the birth of your first child, you abstained from drug use between the ages of 20 years and 23 years. However, when that relationship began to break down, in about August 2023, you returned to the heavy consumption of alcohol, and then to consuming drugs, including methamphetamine, MDMA, cocaine and Xanax, together with prescription drugs, Seroquel and Valium. After you relocated to Melbourne in October 2023, your alcohol and drug use escalated even further.
For the purposes of your plea, you underwent a psychological assessment by Ms Sandra Cokorilo on 25 February last. The assessment was thorough, and was undertaken over a period of four hours. It is relevant to some considerations that are to be taken into account in determining your sentence.
In essence, Ms Cokorilo concluded that the cumulative impact of your difficult early life has played a material role in the development of a Persistent and Major Depressive Disorder and a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Ms Cokorilo, at the time of assessment, diagnosed you to suffer severe levels of depression, anxiety, and PTSD. She noted that you have never received any psychological or pharmacological treatment for your mental health conditions, and that lack of treatment has compounded the severity of your conditions.
In respect of your offending, Ms Cokorilo considers that your pre-existing hypervigilance, which was heightened by your recent exposure to gang-related violence, effectively primed you to react in such a disproportionate manner, in which you resorted to fatally stabbing Andrew Sullivan. Ms Cokorilo also considers that your intoxicated state would have further weakened your control mechanisms, and that the combination of your PTSD hyper-reactivity, and your impairment due to substance abuse, created conditions that led to the overreaction that resulted in Andrew Sullivan’s death.
Ms Cokorilo is also of the view that your depression was relevant to your involvement in the armed robbery offence, in that it is a condition that is a significant risk factor, particularly in young adults, for engaging in aggression and violence. Nevertheless, Ms Cokorilo considers that your psychological condition did not preclude you from understanding the nature and quality of your conduct.
In assessing your risk profile, Ms Cokorilo noted that your upbringing was marked by instability, parental neglect, and prolonged periods of homelessness. You do not present with any psychopathic traits, and she considers that your resort to violence was largely situational, rather than compulsive. Ms Cokorilo cautions that future risk management is critical to the reduction of your risk factors, as the likelihood of you reoffending will be largely dependent on your personal situation when you are ultimately released from prison. In that respect, your history indicates that you are highly vulnerable to external stressors, and, in particular, the breakdown of relationships and homelessness.
Thus, Ms Cokorilo considers that, in the absence of appropriate treatment while you are in custody, your risk of violent recidivism remains high. However, with adequate treatment, that risk could be substantially reduced. Ms Cokorilo therefore recommends that, while you are in custody, you engage in violent offender programs, which will address the factors that have impelled your offending, including substance abuse, lack of emotional control, and the need for appropriate victim awareness.
Ms Cokorilo also considers that it would be beneficial for you to engage in education and vocational training programs. She concluded that, although you are assessed as high risk for both violent and general recidivism, nevertheless, your young age, your demonstrated ability to desist from offending when you are living under stable conditions, and your recent positive conduct in custody, suggest that, with intensive and targeted interventions, you might be meaningfully rehabilitated, so that your risk of recidivism could be substantially reduced.
Finally, Ms Cokorilo considers that, in view of your symptoms of depression, anxiety and PTSD, it is likely that a sentence of imprisonment would be more onerous for you than for a person who does not suffer from those conditions. In addition, Ms Cokorilo has expressed the view that your reduced access to adequate mental health treatments while in custody may increase the risk of you suffering further deterioration in your psychological condition.
The features of your background and upbringing, to which I have referred, and the views expressed by Ms Cokorilo, are relevant to an evaluation of your moral culpability — that is, your subjective personal responsibility — for the two offences to which you have pleaded guilty.
As I have earlier discussed, objectively each of those offences were serious. Indeed, your counsel, Mr Chernok, quite correctly accepted that each of those two offences may be classified as being in the middle to upper range of objective seriousness of such offences. On the other hand, your difficult upbringing and your dysfunctional teenage years, and the effect that those experiences had on your psychological wellbeing, were such that your subjective culpability, for the offending, could not be equated with that of a person who committed the same offences, but who has had the advantage of a normal, stable and regular home environment during his childhood years. In that way, the circumstances of your early teenage years constitute a relevant mitigating circumstance in determining the sentences to be imposed on you.
I also accept that, more specifically, those factors would have affected your capacity to desist from engaging in the two violent incidents, which have brought you before this Court. However, in that respect, it must be noted that each of the two offences, that you committed, were the subject of some premeditation by you, and they were not the product of some instantaneous impulse, in the heat of the moment, that caused you to resort to violence in each case.
In addition to those considerations, there are a number of other mitigating factors, which are to be taken into account in determining your sentence.
In particular, your pleas of guilty to each of the two offences should be considered as early pleas. As such, they have a significant utilitarian value, both in terms of sparing the Court’s resources, but, more importantly, in saving the victims and their families from the trauma and inconvenience of contested trials. The utilitarian value of the pleas is enhanced by the circumstance that they have enabled the charge of armed robbery to be heard in this Court, and be dealt with at the same time as the charge of manslaughter.
I also accept that your pleas have demonstrated a willingness by you to facilitate the course of justice. In that connection, I note that you have expressed some genuine remorse for your offending in each case. In your appointment with Ms Cokorilo, you specifically expressed remorse for your involvement in the armed robbery. You told Ms Cokorilo that you ‘felt bad’ for the victim (Mr Reid), and that you recognise the emotional impact, which it had on him.
Importantly, you have also expressed remorse, which Ms Cokorilo assessed as being genuine, for your violent conduct, which resulted in the tragic death of Andrew Sullivan. Ms Cokorilo noted that you said that you think about the event each day, describing it to her as ‘the worst 30 seconds of your life’. You told Ms Cokorilo that you think about it all the time, that you feel bad and guilty for what happened, and that you frequently cry about it.
Allied to that, and in further mitigation, it is apparent that you have taken positive, constructive steps towards your reform and rehabilitation while you have been in custody in Port Phillip Prison, to which you were transferred on 29 February 2024.
In an email to your solicitor dated 30 July 2024, which was tendered on your plea, Ian Grasby, the Youth Coordinator of the Salamander Unit of Port Phillip Prison, noted that you self-managed well. You presented as respectful and responsive to staff, and interacted with other prisoners without difficulty. Relevantly, you have sought engagement with Port Phillip Prison’s Cultural Support workers, and have been positively engaged in First Nations Art and Cultural Development programs. You have been employed as a billet, and have participated in unit-based programs and educational sessions. In particular, you have gained a number of certificates in cleaning, which will assist you in your rehabilitation when you complete your term of imprisonment. Ms Cokorilo has also noted that you have remained abstinent while in custody, and that you have recently completed an alcohol and other drug program.
As Ms Cokorilo has stated, it is important that you continue take such steps, in order to address the risk of re-offending on completion of your term of imprisonment. In accordance with the views expressed by Ms Cokorilo, I would assess that, with appropriate treatment, the risk of you re-offending on your release from custody, which would otherwise be high, would be substantially reduced.
In addition, based on the report of Ms Cokorilo, I accept that, as a result of your psychological condition, and, in particular, your reported severe symptoms of depression, anxiety and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, it is likely that a term of imprisonment will be more difficult for you than for a person who is in otherwise normal mental health. I also accept that your reduced access to sufficient targeted mental health treatment while in custody may increase the risk of a deterioration in your mental health.
I also take into account, as a mitigating factor, your relative youth, both at the time of the offending and at the time of sentence. In that respect I do note, however, that the offences, for which you are to be sentenced, are of a kind that are not uncommonly committed by other youthful offenders. To that extent, the mitigatory effect of your youth is reduced, in order to ensure that sufficient weight is given to the sentencing purposes of general deterrence and denunciation.
In summary, then, each of the two offences, to which you have pleaded guilty, are, of themselves, serious criminal offences. As I have discussed, there were a number of serious aspects attaching to the commission of each of the two offences. On the other hand, there are a number of mitigating circumstances, which I take into account in determining your sentences. They include your disadvantaged and dysfunctional upbringing and early teenage years, your early pleas of guilty, your youth, your genuine remorse, the constructive steps, which you have taken, to reform while in prison, and the circumstance that it is probable that, as a consequence of your psychological conditions, a term of imprisonment will not only bear more heavily on you, but it may also result in a deterioration of those conditions.
In determining your sentence, I have had regard to current sentencing practices, particularly in respect of the offence of manslaughter. In that respect, I have been assisted by the sentencing decisions to which the prosecution has referred me, namely, R v Gurlu,[7] R v Volpe,[8] DPP v Hocking,[9] DPP v Yasmin,[10] and DPP v Harrison.[11] I have also been assisted by the sentencing decisions to which your counsel has referred me, namely, R v Garrard,[12] R v Oakley,[13] DPP v Manuel,[14] R v Smart & Ors,[15] and DPP v Clifford.[16]
[7][2022] VSC 820.
[8][2021] VSC 353.
[9][2022] VSC 608.
[10][2021] VSC 780.
[11][2021] VSC 601.
[12][2020] VSC 154.
[13][2021] VSC 430.
[14][2021] VSC 568.
[15][2023] VSC 469.
[16][2025] VSC 199.
In considering those decisions, I bear in mind that, for any criminal offence, the range of factors, relating to the offending itself, and to the circumstances of the offender, necessarily vary significantly, so it is never a straightforward task to identify the appropriate range of sentence. Nevertheless, the decisions, to which I have been referred, have, in a broad sense, assisted to indicate the current sentencing practices that are relevant in respect of the offence of manslaughter, committed by you. As the High Court has emphasised, it is important to keep in mind that current sentencing practices are but one factor, out of many, which are relevant to be taken into account in the determination of your sentence.[17]
[17]DPP (Vic) v Dalgliesh (a pseudonym) (2017) 262 CLR 428, 434 [5]–[9] (Kiefel CJ, Bell and Keane JJ) 453–4 [82] (Gageler and Gordon JJ).
The principles, that apply to the determination of your sentence, are well established. It is necessary that the sentences, that I impose on you, be sufficient to express the condemnation by the Court, and the community, of your violent offending, and, in the case of the offence of manslaughter, to vindicate the value of the life of each individual member of our community.
In addition, the sentences must be sufficiently severe to constitute a general deterrent, by sending a clear message to any person, who might be minded to engage in violent conduct of the kind resorted to by you in each of the two offences, that such conduct will be met with a stern sentence, involving the deprivation of the offender’s right to remain at liberty within our society for a significant period of time.
The purpose of general deterrence is of particular relevance in the present case, given the proliferation of cases, which have come before the courts in recent times, involving the indiscriminate use of knives, and other such weapons, by young persons to commit serious criminal offences in our society. Such persons must understand that, upon apprehension and being brought before the Court, their offending will be met with stern sentences, involving a significant deprivation of their liberty.
In addition, it is important that the sentence, that I impose on you, is sufficient to ensure that you yourself understand that any further conduct, of the kind to which you resorted in each of the two offences in this case, will be met with severe consequences to you.
The two offences, for which you are to be sentenced, are separate offences. Nevertheless, the requirement, that the total effective sentence not exceed that which is appropriate in the circumstances, has the effect that there should be a reasonably substantial degree of concurrency between the sentences imposed on each of the two charges. Furthermore, in the interests of the community, it is important that there be a sufficient potential period of parole available to you to enable your successful rehabilitation into the community while you are subject to supervision.
Taking the matters that I have discussed into account, I now sentence you as follows.
On the charge, on indictment 278 of 2024, of the manslaughter of Andrew Wilhelm Sullivan on 16 January 2024, I sentence you to 9 years and 6 months’ imprisonment.
On the charge, on indictment 294 of 2024, of the armed robbery of Thomas Reid on 10 January 2024, I sentence you to 4 years’ imprisonment.
I direct that 18 months of the sentence on the charge of armed robbery be served cumulatively on your sentence on the charge of manslaughter. Thus, your total effective sentence is 11 years’ imprisonment.
I direct that you serve a minimum of 7 years and 4 months before you become eligible for parole.
Pursuant to s 18(4) of the Sentencing Act, I declare that the period of 464 days, not including today’s date, be reckoned as already served under the sentence which I impose. I shall cause a notation to be made in the records of the Court that that declaration was made.
As I have stated, I have taken into account, in your favour, in sentencing you, the fact that you pleaded guilty to each of those two charges. For the purposes of s 6AAA of the Sentencing Act, but for your pleas of guilty, I would have imposed a sentence of 11 years and 6 months’ imprisonment on the charge of manslaughter, I would have imposed a sentence of 6 years’ imprisonment on the charge of armed robbery, and I would have directed that 2 years and 6 months of the sentence on armed robbery be served cumulatively on the sentence for manslaughter, so that your total effective sentence would have been 14 years’ imprisonment. I would have directed that you serve a minimum of 10 years before you became eligible for parole.
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