Director of Public Prosecutions v Baldwin

[2025] VCC 28

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

Revised

Not Restricted

Suitable for Publication

AT BALLARAT

CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR-24-01215

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

JASON BALDWIN

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE MOGLIA
WHERE HELD:	Ballarat
DATE OF HEARING:	21 and 23 January 2025
DATE OF SENTENCE:	23 January 2025
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Baldwin
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2025] VCC 28

REASONS FOR SENTENCE

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Subject:  Criminal law - Sentencing

Catchwords:  Guilty plea – extortion – threat to damage property – possess   methamphetamine – breach intervention order – criminal   history – drug abuse – offending occurred against friend –   remorse – childhood trauma – reasonable prospects for  rehabilitation

Legislation Cited:

Cases Cited:  Brown v R (2017) VSCA 268; La Rosa v R (2019) VSCA 152

Sentence:  Total effective sentence 18 months; non-parole period 12   months; 292 days reckoned as served; s 6AAA: 2 years 3   months; non-parole period 18 months

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	F. Cameron	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	J. Miller	Adrian Paull Criminal Lawyers

HIS HONOUR: 

1Jason Baldwin, you have pleaded guilty to extortion, threatening to damage property, and possessing methamphetamine, all occurring on 7 January 2024.  Also you have pleaded guilty to a summary charge of breaching an intervention order.

2The agreed basis for your guilty plea is set out in the summary of prosecution opening dated 22 January 2025.

3In summary, you arranged for a friend to pick you up in his car and he did so, and you spoke with him and, in a low act for a friend, you ultimately threatened him with a knife in order to take the car with an indication you would return it later in the morning (Charge 1, extortion).

4During the same interaction you threatened to burn the vehicle if the friend called police (Charge 2, threaten to damage property).

5After waiting for some hours the friend started looking for you and with help, found the car being driven around later that morning but could not get close enough to see if it was you.  He quite reasonably went to police.  They looked for the vehicle and found it at an address in Winter Valley that you are familiar with.  They searched it and found you hiding in the roof.

6The friend whose car it was has not made a victim impact statement.  Nevertheless, I accept he is affected by a betrayal of friendship.  He also experienced the anxiety of losing an expensive asset and having to risk going to police in the face of a threat not to do so.  No friend should have to put up with any of that.

7Procedurally, you were arrested on that day, 7 January 2024, and you have been in custody since.  During your interview with police, to your credit, you apologised for what had happened.  You assured police that you would never have actually hurt the friend or damaged the vehicle, which you described as a valuable asset.  These are significant admissions and it demonstrates, in my view, that at an early stage you expressed remorse for your conduct.

8During your remand since then you have engaged in courses.  Those courses commendably have been tailored to your needs, particularly in relation to drug use and ice, also managing choices.  Those certificates that I received are Exhibit 1.

9You pleaded guilty in the case on day one of the trial, that is a late stage for a plea but it was a settlement based on a charge that was not previously available.  A good example, if I might comment, of creative problem solving by the lawyers involved. 

10To your credit, when that was told to you, you saw an appropriate course to settle the case and you took it.  In my view, you have taken responsibility for what you have done, you have helped the court in facilitating the course of the case, it demonstrates remorse and it has the value of avoiding the need for a costly trial.

11You are now 26 years old.  You grew up in and around Ballarat.  You are one of seven siblings and in your early years you learnt a lot about violence, including at home, unfortunately.  When you were a teenager you moved between the homes of your parents and you lived at times on the streets, even for short periods. 

12School was not for you in the circumstances.  You left very early after primary school.  It might be fair to say that drink became your main friend, and you began hanging out with others not engaged in school. 

13Over the next few years you tried other drugs and mainly methylamphetamine as a late teenager became your drug of choice.  In the short term it offered you a lot, but the tragedy is that as time wears on, it has taken more from you, whether you see it that way or not.

14You have had times when you have been able to escape that drug and put it behind you but when, for example, relationships breakdown or other problems arise you return to it and you were using at the time of this offending. 

15In that context, you have a criminal history that is relevant.  In 2018 when you were 20 you served 46 days and received a community correction order for serious offending.  In 2019 when you were 21 for firearm possession you were put on a CCO which you breached, which became six months in prison the following year.  In 2023, when you were 25, for damaging property and assault you received 2 months and a community corrections order.

16At that stage of your life, as you expressed to those who assessed you, your view was that you did not need help.  Since your remand last year, particularly at the end of last year, it seems that you have changed your mind about that approach to things and you have engaged in courses. 

17The psychological material by psychologist Ms Kocic, report dated 8 July 2023 (Exhibit 2) and neuropsychologist Mr Sinclair, in his report dated
29 August 2024 (Exhibit 3) both say that your struggle with drugs is your biggest challenge.  Both say that it makes your likely Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from childhood trauma worse, not better. 

18For periods of time you have had a resultant depression because of the combination of those things.  I accept that the result of that is that you, and you alone, are left to pick up the pieces of your life around you and you have not always been able to do that well.

19Mr Kocic in 2023 said you were only a moderate risk of offending.  Time has passed since then, I am not sure what your risk might technically be now, but time will tell because some things seem to have changed.  She does say however, which I accept, that you are not inherently a violent person, and that bodes well for your future.

20As to sentencing, the maximum penalty for Charge 1 is 15 years' imprisonment.  I note that that offence covers a wide range of conduct, including extortion with threats to kill.  Charge 2 carries a maximum of five years and Charge 3 only one year, the summary charge of breaching an intervention order carries a maximum of 2 years.

21As to your responsibility, you were solely responsible for what happened and what you did was for your own ends that morning.   You were also on a community corrections order at the time, a condition of which is that you do not commit further offending. 

22But there is no real proof of advance planning or pre-mediation for what you did.  I accept that it was a horrible but situational impulse.  I accept that the threat was relatively brief, that it was not protracted or highly menacing, you did not threaten to kill and so I find that the objective gravity is moderate.

23I must sentence you, and I do, in order to deter others from doing this, particularly and even if they are addicted and high on ice.  By imprisoning you for your offence, which I will, I also denounce what you did and punish you, that is, provide a consequence for your actions.

24Your criminal history is relevant, it includes violence and theft in the past, and prison.  So I do need to deter you personally from further conduct but I have not attached great weight to that, nor have I added great weight to the need for community protection.  I see this incident as particular to the circumstances.  Due to the fact that there was only a single incident I have applied the principle of totality and the sentences I impose will be concurrent. 

25Your priors are relevant to your prospects in the future.  It may be that you have turned an important corner with respect to your attitude to needing support. 

26You are not weak because drugs and stupid decisions have got you here, but you are stronger by gathering the support you need to make a better life once you are released.  If that is truly your position, then I congratulate you for getting there.  So, in spite of the history, I find that your prospects for rehabilitation are reasonable.

27The submissions of both parties are that I impose a sentence that includes a non-parole period. I accept that and I will.  The parties referred me to the cases of Brown v R[1] and La Rosa v R[2], both resulting in a two year sentence for the extortion charge, both admittedly objectively more serious than your case. 

[1](2017) VSCA 268.

[2] (2019) VSCA 152.

28I have concluded that the appropriate sentence is a parole sentence.  That will include intensive work immediately following your release and that will be hard, it is hard for anybody; then progressive relaxation of restrictions as you progress and move on.

29I sentence you as follows.

30On Charge 1, extortion with a threat to injure, 18 months.

31On Charge 2, making a threat to damage property, 3 months.

32Charge 3, possessing methylamphetamine, you are convicted and discharged.

33On the summary charge of breaching an intervention order by being at an address where the person who is protected by that order no longer lived, you are convicted and discharged. 

34The total effective sentence is 18 months.

35I fix a non-parole period of 12 months.

36I declare that you have served 292 days and direct that that be reckoned as a period already served under the sentence.

37Had you not have pleaded guilty, I would have imposed a sentence of 2 years 3 months and fixed a non-parole period of 18 months.

38The application for disposal of items seized on your arrest is unopposed and I grant it.

39Mr Baldwin, you have probably heard a lot about applications for parole.  You need to apply and you should apply now.  Do not wait for your parole period to be up, because it will take them a few months to assess you, so get onto that immediately.  I hope you are paroled after the 12 months.  You have got some scope for improving and getting on with a good life and I wish you luck in doing that.

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