Director of Public Prosecutions v Bol
[2014] VCC 2114
•21 November 2014
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION
CR-14-00788
CR-14-00789
CR-14-00730
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| LONG BOL |
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| JUDGE: | HER HONOUR JUDGE COHEN |
| WHERE HELD: | Melbourne |
| DATE OF HEARING: | Trial: 15 to 19, 22 to 24 August 2014 Plea: 13 November 2014 |
| DATE OF SENTENCE: | 21 November 2014 |
| CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Bol |
| MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2014] VCC 2114 |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
---Subject: Sentencing; jury verdict and subsequent plea to other charges
Catchwords: Threatening serious injury, armed robbery, recklessly cause serious injury
Legislation Cited: Sentencing Act 1999
Cases Cited: R v Verdins [2007] VSCA 102
Sentence:TES: 22 months imprisonment plus 12 months Community Corrections Order
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Director of Public Prosecutions | Ms M. McKay (on Trial and Plea) Ms S. McCrickard (on Sentence) | OPP |
For the Accused | Mr P. Kilduff | Robert Stary Lawyers |
HER HONOUR:
1Long Bol, you were found guilty by a jury of a charge of making a threat to inflict serious injury. You have also pleaded guilty to one charge of armed robbery and one charge of recklessly causing serious injury. You have admitted a prior criminal history, to which I shall refer later.
2The maximum penalty for making a threat to inflict serious injury is five years' imprisonment; for armed robbery it is 25 years' imprisonment, and for recklessly causing serious injury, 15 years' imprisonment.
3I must take each of these respective maximum penalties into account as reflecting the relative seriousness with which Parliament, on behalf of the community, regards offences of this nature. I will state at this stage that your sentence will require you to serve longer in prison, but not nearly as long as any one of those maximum penalties, and it will also provide for you to be supervised and provided with programs to assist your rehabilitation on your release.
4The charge of making a threat to inflict serious injury arose from circumstances that were canvassed at length during a trial which also examined events alleged to have occurred two days earlier which gave rise to other charges of which you were acquitted. Therefore, I approach the factual basis for this charge as if the alleged preceding events had not occurred.
5You have been found guilty of making a threat to inflict serious injury on Mr Frank Blango on 14 August 2013. This occurred near Sunshine Train Station when Mr Blango approached you in the area called City Place. To find you guilty of this charge the jury must have decided beyond reasonable doubt that as Mr Blango approached you you pulled a flick knife from your pocket, opened the blade and threatened to stab him.
6He immediately ran back across the road looking for something to hold in his own hand, found a stick on a construction site, and then followed you for some time, keeping a distance of metres behind you. He followed you down the tunnel under the station, up and out the other side, and then along railway tracks behind houses until you jumped over the fence of one of those houses. As he had been following you he had been making a call to 000 on his mobile phone, and when sirens from approaching police could be heard you jumped over a fence and he ceased to follow you. Police found your discarded jacket in the yard of the property into which you had jumped over the fence. The following day the owner of the property at which you were arrested called police after cutting the long grass and finding a knife. The knife, as collected by police, matched the description of the knife described by Mr Blango as used by you to threaten him.
7I regard this incident as at a relatively low, but not lowest, level of seriousness for an offence of this type. That is because it was Mr Blango who first approached you, the threat itself was brief, and Mr Blango was able to move away immediately after it was made. It was his choice to follow you whilst telephoning police - he said he did so because he did not want you to escape apprehension. In other words, I regard the threat as having ceased as soon as he withdrew from you on the footpath, so that the threat to cause serious injury was of very short duration and he was able to take himself to safety quickly. It was, however, made in a public place in the middle of the day with the risk of other people seeing or otherwise being affected by it, and it involved a weapon, a flick knife, which you produced and used as part of the threat.
8General deterrence, that is to discourage other people from considering such offending, by imposing a sentence reflecting serious consequences, is an important purpose of a sentence for an offence of this nature.
9Further, you were on bail at the time for another serious charge of which you have since been found not guilty. The fact that you were on bail at the time is an aggravating factor in the making the threat to cause serious injury to Mr Blango. You ought to have been especially conscious that you should not use violence, or the threat of it. For this reason especially, specific deterrence - that is to impress upon you that offending of this nature will attract serious punishment - is also a necessary factor in your sentence.
10If this offence had been your first offence of violence and you had accepted responsibility for it by pleading guilty, it would not, in my view, have required a sentence of imprisonment. In the circumstances however, I shall be imposing a term of imprisonment, which by law would need to be served cumulatively on the other sentences. However, as there is some pre-sentence detention attributable to that charge alone, the greater part of the sentence on this charge alone, will be served concurrently to take into account the totality of your offending and the overall time you are to spend in prison.
11Much more serious are the events giving rise to the two charges to which you have recently pleaded guilty.
12On 4 March 2013 a man named Damien Hunt approached you in a laneway in Footscray and discussed buying $100 worth of heroin from you. An arrangement was made by you with someone else and then you and Hunt walked together along some streets and entered another laneway. Once in that laneway Hunt had $100 out of his wallet to pay for the heroin, but you then produced a screwdriver approximately 30 centimetres long, told Hunt he was being robbed, and held the screwdriver in front of his fact to threaten him. You stabbed him with the screwdriver as you took the $100 from him. You then demanded more money and he threw his wallet, which contained $45, to you. These events constitute the charge of armed robbery.
13Notwithstanding that you had taken his cash and wallet, you then held Mr Hunt on the ground, made further threats to harm him, and stabbed him a number of times with the screwdriver to his head, face and neck area. These actions constitute the charge of recklessly causing serious injury.
14Your wounding of Mr Hunt seems only to have stopped when another person entered the laneway and saw you crouched over Mr Hunt assaulting him. Mr Hunt saw that person and told you it was the police, causing you to stop your attack. Mr Hunt then ran away. You were seen by the other person who had entered the laneway to walk from the scene and put the screwdriver into a wheelie bin in the laneway. You then left the area.
15Mr Hunt was covered in blood from his wounds. Having run from the laneway he ended up across the main road where police and ambulance were called for him and he was taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital. He suffered serious injuries, being four stab puncture wounds to his head and chest area, two lacerations to his head, bruising and a small fracture on the left side of his face near his eye, and defensive stab wounds to his hands from trying to protect himself from you stabbing him. He required surgery for exploration and washing out of the wounds on his head and remained in hospital overnight. Apparently he discharged himself the next day against medical advice.
16There is no victim impact statement from him, and no information about any long term consequences, but I infer from the description of the attack on him, the photos of him and his wounds, and the description of the treatment required, that he sustained significant injuries, and I infer that he would have been very distressed and scared by your actions at the time.
17Notwithstanding that the purpose for which he originally approached you was to purchase illegal drugs, Mr Hunt ought not to have been submitted to armed robbery or the serious attack on him by you. Even if members of the public may have limited, if any, sympathy for his attempt to make an illegal purchase of drugs, the prospect of someone being attacked for no reason with a sharp item used as a weapon, as you did to Mr Hunt, both to rob and then further wound him even after he had handed over all of his money, is the type of behaviour that the community cannot tolerate and expects courts to punish severely enough to send a clear message that anyone considering engaging in such behaviour can expect stern punishment. In other words general deterrence is an important aspect of my sentencing you, as well as just punishment and denunciation by the community of such action.
18The circumstances of the offence of armed robbery I take as relatively opportune and unplanned by you. The fact that you walked Mr Hunt to a second laneway is ambiguous and I do not draw any conclusion on the balance of probabilities from it, in that it may have been to take you somewhere unseen to sell him heroin, as he expected, but it also may have been that you had in mind to rob him away from the sight of others.
19I regard as particularly serious that you assaulted him in the manner you did. Whilst the Crown has accepted a plea to the charge of recklessly causing serious injury, it appears to me to have been deliberate and the only possible issue could be whether you were so affected by drugs, as you claim, that you were only reckless as to the probability of continued blows to a man's head and body with a sharp item, causing serious injury.
20In my view having used the screwdriver to threaten Mr Hunt to hand over his money, and as described in the summary of facts to stab him once for that purpose, to proceed to inflict multiple further wounds on him while holding him to the ground was particularly callous and reflects a violent outburst by you of considerable concern. From photos of Mr Hunt, and seeing you in court, it is clear that you are much taller and physically larger than him, so if there was some need to physically subdue him you did not require a weapon. I am offered no explanation for that continued striking of him with the screwdriver, except that you say that you had taken heroin and methamphetamine, and possibly alcohol also affected you that day, and you have little memory of the events. The objective seriousness of this part of the offending is, in my view, high.
21I must take into account that you do have some prior criminal history, although as your prior offending does not include offences of violence I regard it as of little relevance to the present charges. Specifically in November 2012 and in early 2013 you were before Magistrates' Courts for several offences relating to driving and use of motor vehicles, dishonesty, escaping custody or failing to answer bail. As I have said, none of those were offences of violence, although they show a disregard for both driving and vehicle related laws, and also issues of custody and bail, and you cannot claim the benefit of coming before this court with a previously unblemished record.
22Next, I take into account that you have pleaded guilty to the more serious of these charges, that is the charges of armed robbery and recklessly causing serious injury to Mr Hunt. It cannot be said that that was at the first available opportunity, as these matters had been in the list in the County Court awaiting trial for some time, and the court and prosecution had been told that there was to be a challenge to the DNA evidence in relation to the screwdriver, which the police had retrieved from the bin. I am told that the reason for delay in you pleading guilty to these offences was that you had other charges previously occupying your attention, and the attention of your lawyers, not only those for which you stood trial in September before me, but also apparently another serious charge of which you have been acquitted.
23You will receive some leniency on the two charges to which you have now pleaded guilty, for the utilitarian value in saving the community the time and cost of a trial and saving witnesses having to attend and be cross-examined. Your plea of guilty now reflects that you have accepted responsibility for these offences, however you were still giving a different version of the events to the psychologist who examined you this month, and after it was indicated that you would be pleading guilty to those charges. There is little in my view to indicate that you feel remorse in the sense of empathy for your victim, apart from what can objectively be inferred from an eventual plea of guilty. I shall specify after I have imposed your sentence what it would have been on these two charges had you not pleaded guilty to them.
24You did not plead guilty to the charge of threatening to cause serious injury to Mr Blango. You do not receive any more harsh sentence because of that, but also do not receive the benefit of leniency you would have had you pleaded guilty to that charge.
25I turn now to your personal circumstances. You are now aged 30. You were born in South Sudan, the oldest of six children and unfortunately, as we hear from so many young people who grew up during a similar period in that country, you were exposed to the trauma of witnessing much violence. You have told a psychologist, Dr Barth, that in your case this included witnessing the death of your younger sister and uncle. Your family then fled from the city, where you lived, and you subsequently spent the majority of your childhood in refugee camps in South Sudan and Kenya. You were with your family, but exposed to the hardship of poverty. You claim that your father was violent and beat you all of the time, and you also witnessed his violence towards your mother. You underwent some schooling within refugee camps but have said that you were not very good at school and mainly attended because they fed you there. I take it that you have not achieved any high degree of literacy or numeracy in your original language, or subsequently, in English.
26Your family migrated to Australia when you were approximately 19 years old. That may have been an unfortunate age for you in that you were older than the usual age range for high school, and you apparently attempted to enrol as a mature age student but had difficulty adjusting and were ostracized by other students. You were able to learn enough English to function in everyday life and I have heard you speak and apparently understand the English spoken in this court room. Nevertheless, I accept that you have limited literacy and numeracy skills, particularly limited in English. Not having the benefit of some years of schooling here will also have deprived you of the chance to learn and adjust to Australian customs, culture and legal boundaries of acceptable behaviour.
27You seem to have first lived, on arrival in Australia, in Queensland. Apparently you undertook various labouring jobs there such as working on farms, working in a meat factory and then furniture removal and cleaning. I am told that you suffered injuries when hit by a car crossing a road in 2008, injuring your knee and wrist and requiring crutches for a while. You were also said to have suffered mild head injuries but did not attend follow up appointments, and any implications from such injury has not been followed through or investigated.
28You were in a relationship at the time of that vehicle injury and had two young children. Your daughter is apparently now age six, and son now aged four, but the relationship ended after your accident, you say because you could not support your partner anymore. You apparently have had no contact with your children for several years and do not know where they are. I accept that that will have been a matter of concern to you, and have played on your mind so far as what is otherwise described as depressive symptoms are concerned.
29You have told Dr Barth that the injuries and breakup of that relationship, and separation from your children, caused you to become very depressed and led to you seeking relief through abuse of alcohol and illegal drugs; the latter including both heroin and methylamphetamines. Apparently you were also involved in an assault incident in 2012 and received a wound to your head requiring 40 stitches. You were in hospital for two days but did not want to stay. You told Dr Barth that after that incident you did not feel safe but you do not know why you were assaulted.
30You have said that you tried but could not handle returning to work after that assault; you say largely as the result of ongoing pain in your knee and feeling depressed. You were then unemployed until the time of these offences and your arrest. I am told that whilst in prison since your arrest you have been employed, mainly cleaning and doing maintenance work. It is unclear to me whether there are any ongoing physical disabilities that you have in relation to the prospects of future work. Unfortunately, given your limited education, there would need to be considerable further training if you are to be able to perform jobs outside those involving your physical strength for your work, and I have no information as to how compromised those might be in the long term.
31I am told that you were in another relationship at the time of the offences against Mr Hunt and that that continues. That lady was in court to support you, and still is, and is said to be visiting you regularly in prison and supporting you in trying to live a healthier lifestyle and to abstain from drug use. If that relationship can continue, such support would be of great assistance to your rehabilitation and opportunity to live a stable and responsible life in future.
32In a psychological report, Dr Matthew Barth states that in outlining your past and present life to him you said that you have been sad your whole life. You described a number of symptoms that would be consistent with a diagnosis of an adjustment disorder with depressed mood. Dr Barth noted that your responses on the personal assessment screener that he administered indicated you had presented a picture of yourself which was unusual even in disturbed clinical populations, and clearly significantly emphasised your suffering. It was unclear to him whether you had consciously malingered or exaggerated your psychological problems. As a result he said that the clinical inferences he drew about you were done with extreme caution. Nevertheless as your counsel pointed out Dr Barth did consider that your symptoms are consistent with a diagnosis of an adjustment disorder with depressed mood and he outlined in some detail treatment that he considers is warranted to alleviate your symptoms.
33He considered that you are very easily influenced and remain an immature man who has difficulty making independent decisions, and your decision making is very simplistic, with you often failing to consider the full range of options available to you. He did not formally assess your intellectual functioning but estimated you would be of below average intelligence.
34You also related to him a history, which has been repeated by your counsel to me, of both alcohol and drug abuse from approximately 2009 onwards. That is said to have been prompted by you having difficulty recovering from your injuries from the car accident, and the fact that your partner had left with your children. Not only were you unemployed and depressed, but you commenced mixing with the wrong people in your neighbourhood, and embarked upon consuming alcohol, and I am told gradually heroin and “ice”, or methylamphetamine, and that your consumption of all of those escalated significantly. Your counsel says that in the midst of all of this you were also mixing with Sudanese gangs. I gather that by that time you were in Melbourne.
35You told Dr Barth that from 2012 onwards you were using ice and consuming alcohol daily with friends from your neighbourhood. You also told him you abused “ice” and buprenorphine whilst on remand initially, but have not done so for the last nine months and are currently on the methadone program. You say that you are currently avoiding contact with anyone who uses drugs in prison and are on a waiting list to join a drug and alcohol program.
36Dr Barth considers your substance abuse was sufficiently severe to warrant a diagnosis of stimulant use disorder and alcohol use disorder, both of which would have been severe before your incarceration, but given that you are currently described as abstinent you would be regarded as in early remission in a controlled environment. He considered that there is a compelling need for you to participate in extensive substance abuse treatment and of a nature that is under supervision.
37Your explanation to Dr Barth about the armed robbery and assault on Mr Hunt gives a somewhat different impression from the summary of facts on which I am to sentence you. You describe being subject to a high level of intoxication at the time, resulting in you having limited recollection of the incident. As to the confrontation with the man you had met to purchase drugs, Dr Barth's report is unclear as to whether he understood that it was you or the other man who was to purchase drugs. You told him that you were highly intoxicated on “ice” at the time, had met a man to purchase drugs and the situation became confrontational in that he pulled out something long and you grabbed it off him and you thought he was going to hurt you and grabbed the screwdriver and stabbed him. That is not the basis on which I am sentencing you, as outlined in what I understood had been the agreed facts put forward by the Crown.
38From the description you gave Dr Barth, he inferred that your behaviour was influenced by a high degree of intoxication and as a response to danger from the other man. The description of you first meeting Mr Hunt then contacting someone else to arrange for the potential purchase of heroin and walking Mr Hunt to another laneway, in my view, does notreflect someone so intoxicated by drugs or alcohol, or both, that he had reduced awareness of what he was doing, or a reduced ability to appreciate the consequences of pulling a screwdriver to threaten Mr Hunt and then using it to stab him.
39Dr Barth concludes that you have had difficulty adjusting to a meaningful life in Australia after a traumatic childhood, and your memories of it. He considers that the break up with your previous partner and separation from your children has significantly undermined your already fragile emotional state, causing you to abuse substances, and that that has only served to intensify your emotional fragility and behavioural problems. He regards your current steps towards rehabilitation as in their early - he calls it "insipient" stage - and requiring significant support if you are to achieve and maintain a healthy lifestyle when you are released. He accepts that you do wish to participate in treatment to address your issues and problems and regards it as essential that such treatment include an initial period of highly intensive and closely structured and supervised detoxification, with regular urine screening and clear consequences for any non-compliance.
40He notes that you require skills to prevent you from relapsing into drug abuse and he also recommends programs appropriate to assist you to focus on remedial conflict resolution - that is, to know how to diffuse circumstances of confrontation or conflict, and anger management strategies. He thought it also useful if you could have educational programs to develop practical living skills and vocational guidance to assist you with trying to re-enter the workforce.
41It was originally submitted on your behalf that your culpability - that means your blameworthiness for these offences - and in particular the sentencing factors of general and specific deterrence - had very little role to play in your case. However, as was canvassed during the plea hearing, I am not convinced that Dr Barth's opinions enliven what are known as the first three principles in Verdins case to bring about any significant moderation of sentencing factors of general and specific deterrence, or reduce your moral blameworthiness for the offending.
42Accepting from Dr Barth's opinion that your childhood exposure to violence and hardship is likely to have left you vulnerable to depressive symptoms in response to life’s stressors, and stressful or potentially threatening situations, there is nothing to indicate that it was such depression that caused you to threaten Mr Blango with a knife when he approached you, or to threaten and rob and then seriously assault Mr Hunt with a screwdriver. Even if your behaviour in any of that offending was influenced by the effect of drugs or alcohol there is no objective confirmation of that, as you claim little recollection of these events. Anyway intoxication would not be mitigatory. There is no exceptional link, in my view, between your depressive symptoms leading to you using drugs leading to the offending.
43I do accept that your background, your struggle to adjust to life in Australia and your drug and alcohol abuse provide context and explanation for the circumstances of your offending, namely having resorted to some dealing in and personal consumption of illicit drugs, and also abuse of alcohol, and as such these help explain how these offences came about.
44I do take into account that the depressive symptoms of the adjustment disorder described by Dr Barth are likely to make your experience of imprisonment somewhat more difficult than they would be for a person not suffering those symptoms, and accordingly under the fifth principle in Verdins’ case I have taken into account that that condition calls for some moderation of your sentence.
45At 30 years of age you would no longer be regarded as a youthful offender, however given the hardship of your background and difficulty adjusting to life in Australia, I consider that it is still in the community's interests to encourage and support your rehabilitation, and I am satisfied that the prospects of your rehabilitation, whilst not great, are also far from hopeless.
46In particular I accept that although initially you apparently abused drugs when remanded in custody, you have abstained now for a considerable period and are undertaking a methadone program, and have indicated a desire to address your substance abuse problems both by placing yourself on the waiting list for a drug and alcohol abuse program and having expressed the desire to undergo treatment for it. You also seem to have the support of your partner in trying to abstain from drug abuse.
47You also seem to have recognised that submitting to psychological treatment would be useful for you, and that is constructive. You have obviously maintained employment in the past, and on your release, if you can abstain from substance abuse - and notwithstanding that you may still have some underlying injury to your knee, although I have no medical information about that - you would seem to be capable of engaging in employment if you can be given some further training and assistance in developing workplace skills, you are capable of embarking on long term employment, and if you can be assisted in doing that it will assist your rehabilitation and overall be in the best interests of the community.
48I take into account that you have spent a little over one year and three months in custody prior to today. The technical application of pre-sentence detention is complicated in your case, as I canvassed with your counsel and the prosecutor earlier today, given that there were at least three separate incidents being the basis of charges against you, for which you had been remanded for some of the time.
49There are 464 days in total of pre-sentence detention for which you will receive credit towards the total sentence I impose. I was urged by your counsel to take that into account, that is that time already spent in prison, and consider it sufficient time served already by way of imprisonment to punish you for these offences. I was urged to consider that rather than imposing a sentence of a greater length of time and setting a non-parole period to impose a total period in prison of not much longer than what you have already served, and then allow for your release under supervision so that you can engage in the various programs and treatment recommended by Dr Barth.
50I was urged to consider doing this by way of a Community Corrections Order being imposed together with a sentence of imprisonment. For this purpose I had you assessed for such an order and you were reported as suitable for such an order with recommendations as to program conditions. The assessment tool used by Community Corrections Services assessed you as of moderate general risk of re-offending, but as I have said you were considered suitable for a Community Corrections Order and apparently indicated your willingness to undergo one.
51It was canvassed during the hearing that a program condition to assist in trying to reduce the risk of you re-offending could be connected with what are apparently one or more programs in the Sunshine area specifically addressed to the problems being experienced by young Sudanese men such as you. Note was taken of that recommendation in the Community Corrections officer's report, but obviously it is ultimately up to Community Corrections whether they would direct you to such a program.
52Taking all of the matters I have outlined into account, and as was conceded during the hearing, I am satisfied that no sentence other than some time in prison would be adequate to meet sentencing requirements for your offences.
53I am not convinced that the time to date is yet sufficient for the overall totality of charges and their respective seriousness, however I am satisfied that yours is a case where recent amendments to the Sentencing Act enable an appropriate use of a Community Corrections Order on release from prison to provide supervision and rehabilitative programs specific to your needs for reintegration into the community with tools to counter the underlying causes of your offending.
Sentence
54Long Bol, on the trial indictment on Charge 4, which was of threatening to inflict serious injury to Mr Blango, you are convicted and sentenced to three months' imprisonment. I declare 32 days of pre-sentence detention for that charge as reckoned served and direct that that be recorded in court records and deducted administratively. I direct that the balance of that sentence, that is three months less 32 days, be served concurrently with the other sentences I impose today.
55On indictment D13269034; on Charge 1 of armed robbery of Mr Hunt, you are convicted and sentenced to 20 months' imprisonment to be followed by a Community Corrections Order of 12 months. I shall detail shortly the program conditions for that order but I will proceed now with the other aspects of imprisonment to clarify that for you.
56On Charge 2 of recklessly causing serious injury to Mr Hunt you are convicted and sentenced to 20 months' imprisonment. I direct that 18 months of the sentence on Charge 2 be served concurrently with the sentence on Charge 1, and with the other sentence I have imposed today. That creates a total effective sentence on this indictment of 22 months' imprisonment as well as a Community Corrections Order of 12 months.
57I declare 432 days of pre-sentence detention as reckoned served towards this sentence and direct that that be recorded in court records, and it also will be deducted administratively.
58Now the result intended is that you are to serve a total of 22 months in prison and then a Community Corrections Order for 12 months. The pre-sentence detention should result in you having to serve, on my calculations, approximately a little less than seven more months, or between six and a half and seven more months.
59On your release from prison, which will then be a fixed day not dependant on the parole board, you would then start a Community Corrections Order to last for 12 months. I turn now to that Community Corrections Order and its conditions. It is imposed with conviction.
60The conditions I impose are all designed to assist, by supervision and rehabilitative programs, your general rehabilitation and ability to reintegrate into the community. There are no conditions to be attached such as unpaid community work as further punishment because the punishment is the imprisonment component of the sentence.
61The conditions imposed are supervision, assessment and treatment as directed for drug use, and for alcohol abuse, with testing as required by Community Corrections officers, assessment and treatment for mental health, and any program which you are directed to to assist in the prevention of you re-offending. I have already mentioned that one suitable program might be one specifically aimed at young Sudanese men in the Western suburbs, but that ultimately is up to Community Corrections officers to determine.
62In addition all usual terms of Community Corrections Orders apply. I know they will have been explained to you when you were assessed but I will repeat them briefly here.
63You are to report within two working days of your release from prison to the nearest Community Corrections office. It will presumably be the Sunshine one but that can be co-ordinated prior to your release from prison as to where you are going to be living.
64The next usual term is you are to notify any change of address of where you are living or working to Community Corrections officers within two working days of that change. You are to submit to visits and to obey all lawful directions from Community Corrections officers.
65You are not to leave Victoria without prior permission from Community Corrections officers. And - this is the overriding and most important condition of all - you are not to commit any offence for which you could be sentenced to imprisonment during the 12 months of the Community Corrections Order. I want to specify that is any offence for which it is possible you could be sentenced to be imprisoned even if a court would choose not to sentence you to imprisonment in the particular circumstances. That includes any offences of violence, most drug related offences such as possessing - perhaps not a small quantity of cannabis but certainly for trafficking in illegal drugs - and it also includes all offences of dishonesty such as theft and robbery.
66Now if you breach the Community Corrections Order either by not complying with the programs and conditions or by further offending you can expect to be brought back in front of me and you could be re-sentenced on the charge of armed robbery, depending on all of the circumstances and how much of all of the orders you had complied with by then. Do you understand the terms and conditions of that order?
67OFFENDER: Yes, Your Honour.
68HER HONOUR: All right. Do you agree to comply with such an order?
69OFFENDER: Yes, Your Honour.
70HER HONOUR: All right. Now I state in relation to the charges of armed robbery and recklessly causing serious injury to Mr Hunt, and this is for the purposes of s.6AAA of the Sentencing Act, that if you had not pleaded guilty to those charges but had been convicted of them after a trial and been found guilty by a jury, and if all other circumstances had been the same, I would have imposed on those two charges a total effective sentence of three years and ten months' imprisonment with a non-parole period of two years and ten months.
71I also want to make clear, although this is not strictly under s.6AAA, that I would have made an order requiring some cumulation in respect of the offence against Mr Blango. Not entire cumulation, but some cumulation had it not been for the technicality that 32 days of pre-sentence detention applied only to that charge and not to the others, and I have therefore not allowed for any cumulation and otherwise declared that sentence concurrent.
72MR KILDUFF: If Your Honour pleases.
73HER HONOUR: Now I also have signed and am making the disposal orders that were sought and weren't opposed, that was for the screwdriver and the knife, and there was a compensation order that wasn't opposed for the sum of $135 to be paid to Mr Hunt.
74MR KILDUFF: Yes.
75HER HONOUR: I note the summary would have got it to $145 but that's the figure that's apparently been agreed upon and I've made that order and signed it and there'll be copies available for both sides.
76MR KILDUFF: Thank you, Your Honour.
77MS McCRICKARD: As Your Honour pleases.
78HER HONOUR: Now take a seat Mr Bol, this is quite a complex sentence. It's got to be entered up in the records and I first need to hear from counsel as to whether I've covered everything I need to cover and whether, in your view, it works to produce the result I've stated I intend.
79MS McCRICKARD: Your Honour I think it's quite clear and I think it does achieve exactly what Your Honour intended.
80HER HONOUR: All right.
81MS McCRICKARD: The only thing I did wish to advise Your Honour of ‑ ‑ ‑
82HER HONOUR: Yes?
83MS McCRICKARD: I noticed that Your Honour mentioned that your understanding was that Mr Bol was on bail for the Hunt matters at the time of committing the offences of Davis, that is the offence - sorry, the offence against Mr Blango. He wasn't on bail for that matter at that stage because he hadn't been charged yet. He was certainly on bail, it just wasn't for that matter.
84HER HONOUR: All right. Well ‑ ‑ ‑
85MR KILDUFF: It doesn't matter I don't think.
86MS McCRICKARD: I don't think it ‑ ‑ ‑
87HER HONOUR: ‑ ‑ ‑ the net effect's the same.
88MS McCRICKARD: Exactly.
89HER HONOUR: I told you this morning I was just somewhat confused about that.
90MS McCRICKARD: Yes.
91HER HONOUR: And obviously I've left that bit in my reasons that I hadn't gone back and checked.
92MS McCRICKARD: Yes.
93HER HONOUR: So I might correct that in the revised version just to get rid of the reference to both and only leave it to one such matter.
94MS McCRICKARD: Thank you, Your Honour. As Your Honour pleases.
95HER HONOUR: All right. Now ‑ ‑ ‑
96MR KILDUFF: I have no issues at all, Your Honour.
97HER HONOUR: All right, thank you.
98MR KILDUFF: In my humble submission it's a very well thought out sentence.
99HER HONOUR: Well thank you. I'm not looking for praise I'm just ‑ ‑ ‑
100MR KILDUFF: No, but I just ‑ ‑ ‑
101HER HONOUR: ‑ ‑ ‑ also trying to - I do appreciate that Mr Bol was upset, both by the deferment from yesterday and then especially this morning.
102MR KILDUFF: Yes.
103HER HONOUR: But it was important that I take the time.
104MR KILDUFF: Yes.
105HER HONOUR: Although it was overall dictated, to take the time to try to technically work those matters so that they achieve what is intended.
106MR KILDUFF: It was a complex matter, Your Honour, and in my submission you've done it very well.
107HER HONOUR: Thank you.
108MR KILDUFF: And if I could just have one minute with my client?
109HER HONOUR: Absolutely. It'll take a little while for this order to be - although hopefully my associate's already got it in the system. Ms McCrickard the payment would be via the OPP's office wouldn't it? You don't disclose the ‑ ‑ ‑
110MS McCRICKARD: That's correct, Your Honour.
111HER HONOUR: ‑ ‑ ‑ actual address of Mr Hunt?
112MS McCRICKARD: I think that's ‑ ‑ ‑
113HER HONOUR: So can an address be ‑ ‑ ‑
114MS McCRICKARD: I'll just check with my instructor about that.
115HER HONOUR: Or the informant. Can you provide an address ‑ ‑ ‑
116MS McCRICKARD: Yes.
117HER HONOUR: ‑ ‑ ‑ to whom the - so that it goes into the order as to where the compensation amount's eventually to be paid.
118MS McCRICKARD: I have an address, Your Honour, and what my instructor tells me is although it's not supposed to be recorded on the order it can be put in the system. I don't know what that ultimately leads to in terms of whether it gets - I'm not quite sure how it works to be perfectly honest, Your Honour.
119HER HONOUR: The form of order that was handed up and I've signed does not have an address for Mr Hunt.
120MS McCRICKARD: Yes.
121HER HONOUR: Apparently the system requires an address and that is the court record.
122MS McCRICKARD: Yes.
123HER HONOUR: Which will be reproduced ‑ ‑ ‑
124MS McCRICKARD: Yes.
125HER HONOUR: ‑ ‑ ‑ and could be - it goes through the Correctional Services systems and ‑ ‑ ‑
126MS McCRICKARD: Right.
127HER HONOUR: ‑ ‑ ‑ elsewhere so it would potentially disclose ‑ ‑ ‑
128MS McCRICKARD: Be disclosed, yes.
129HER HONOUR: ‑ ‑ ‑ Mr Hunt's home address. I have thought often it's done either through a police station address for the informant or through the OPP's office?
130MS McCRICKARD: My instructor thought it might be that it's sent to the County Court, Your Honour, and then forwarded on, but I'm just not sure to be perfectly honest with you, Your Honour. I don't have an answer I'm afraid.
131HER HONOUR: Well can we bypass an address in the system?
132MS McCRICKARD: Or just nominate the (indistinct) address.
133HER HONOUR: Address to be advised? Well ‑ ‑ ‑
134MS McCRICKARD: There's no problem with that is there? Making it out to the OPP and we can forward it on? (To instructor).
135HER HONOUR: The system's got a box for that.
136MS McCRICKARD: All right. Your Honour if it requires an address then it ought to be care of the informant, I think, in the circumstances.
137HER HONOUR: Can you provide those details to my associate?
138MS McCRICKARD: I can, certainly.
139HER HONOUR: Because the order can't be processed til it goes into the computer.
140MR KILDUFF: I've explained all those things to my client, Your Honour.
141HER HONOUR: Thank you.
142MR KILDUFF: He's more than content with that and ‑ ‑ ‑
143HER HONOUR: Well once we get the order produced that will ‑ ‑ ‑
144MR KILDUFF: Yes.
145HER HONOUR: We can't, unfortunately, draw up a separate Community Corrections Order.
146MR KILDUFF: No.
147HER HONOUR: It has to come out of this computer system which has to have all the information, apparently. Can't it just be 'to be advised'?
148MR KILDUFF: May I approach my client again, Your Honour?
149HER HONOUR: Yes. All right I'll hand down the draft of the Community Corrections Order for both counsel to check while the extra bits are being put into this order.
150MR KILDUFF: It's suitable, Your Honour.
151HER HONOUR: Thank you. Once the ultimate version is printed out I'll have Mr Kilduff show it to your - well you can show that version to your client and ‑ ‑ ‑
152MR KILDUFF: Thank you, Your Honour.
153HER HONOUR: ‑ ‑ ‑ explain it to him, it's just that's not the actual piece of paper to sign. All right, thank you.
154MR KILDUFF: Understood, Your Honour.
155HER HONOUR: Good, thank you.
156MR KILDUFF: And ready to sign.
157HER HONOUR: Ready to sign?
158MR KILDUFF: Yes.
159HER HONOUR: Let's hope we'll soon have the version to sign.
160MR KILDUFF: Thank you, Your Honour.
161HER HONOUR: Because we're waiting on this I'm going to ask counsel just to check - that's the order on one of the two identical files for the threat to cause serious injury matter - just to check it does record, as I think it does, but just have you check it also?
162MR KILDUFF: Yes, Your Honour.
163HER HONOUR: All right. Thank you, we'll have that back. It's just because of the need to get it correctly into the system. Can that be taken to Mr Kilduff to have his client sign? (To Tipstaff).
164MR KILDUFF: Thank you, Your Honour.
165HER HONOUR: Thank you. I'll sign that and then there'll be a copy made for everybody.
166MR KILDUFF: Thank you very much.
167HER HONOUR: There should be two disposal orders and one compensation order. Eric the other may be on the other file?
168MS McCRICKARD: There's just one, Your Honour.
169MR KILDUFF: Yes I have signed two so ‑ ‑ ‑
170MS McCRICKARD: I see.
171HER HONOUR: Have you two?
172MS McCRICKARD: Maybe we've got ‑ ‑ ‑
173HER HONOUR: Which have you got, for the knife or the screwdriver? Could I have the other file handed to me and I'll find it because I know I signed it this morning. Have you both got for the screwdriver or have you got ‑ ‑ ‑
174MR KILDUFF: Yes, we've got the screwdriver.
175HER HONOUR: All right well in that case - here it is. No, that's the screwdriver one.
176MR KILDUFF: Screwdriver.
177MS McCRICKARD: We both have one for the screwdriver, Your Honour.
178HER HONOUR: Yes I'm just looking, I know it's here and I know I've signed it, it's just with the extra files. This'll be it, knife. All right I think we've now got the order in place, I will have counsel have a check of it for the same reason. It comes out in a peculiar order but that's how this system works.
179MS McCRICKARD: Yes, Your Honour.
180HER HONOUR: All right, thank you. Do the parties want a copy of that at the moment or just for it to be forwarded in due course?
181MR KILDUFF: If it can be forwarded, Your Honour?
182MS McCRICKARD: In due course.
183HER HONOUR: All right. In that case I think we've got everything in place. I'll ask for Mr Bol to be removed from the court room please.
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