Director of Public Prosecutions v Brooks
[2025] VCC 789
•12 June 2025
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
AT MELBOURNE
KOORI COURT DIVISION
CR 24-00323
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| IZZICK BROOKS |
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| JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE JOHNS |
| WHERE HELD: | Melbourne |
| DATE OF HEARING: | 3 June 2025 |
| DATE OF SENTENCE: | 12 June 2025 |
| CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Brooks |
| MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2023] VCC 789 |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject: CRIMINAL LAW - SENTENCE
Catchwords: Koori Court jurisdiction – Aboriginal offender – Aggravated Burglary – Aggravated – Intentionally damage property – Theft of a motor vehicle – Possess imitation firearm – Application of Bugmy Principles – Complex Developmental Disorder– Young Offender
Legislation Cited: Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic).
Cases Cited:Bugmy v TheQueen (2013) 249 CLR 57; Marrah v The Queen[2014]VSCA119
R v McKee; R v Brooks
Sentence:Total effective sentence of two years and eight months imprisonment with a non-parole period of 18 months.
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Director of Public Prosecutions | Ms J. Curtain | Office of Public Prosecutions |
| For the Accused | Mr S. Cooper | Kurnai Legal Practice |
HIS HONOUR:
1Izzick Brooks, you have pleaded guilty in the Koori Court before me to aggravated burglary, criminal damage, being a prohibited person in possession of an imitation firearm, and theft of a motor car.
2The maximum penalties and relevant sentencing provisions for these offences are:
·Aggravated burglary - 25 years maximum
·Theft - 10 years maximum
·Prohibited person possessing imitation firearm - 10 years maximum
·Criminal damage - 10 years maximum
3You have also pleaded guilty to the relevant summary offence of contravention of a family violence order (Charge 9).
4You were 22 at the time of offending, you are now 25, but you have a lengthy and serious criminal history including numerous convictions for theft of motor vehicle and other dishonesty matters, dangerous driving and other serious driving offences, aggravated burglary, robbery and stalking.
5The circumstances of your offending are set out in the Summary of Prosecution Opening which was Exhibit A on the Plea and which forms part of these Reasons for Sentence. I will now summarise those circumstances.
Circumstances of Offending
6On 22 June 2023, at approximately 11 pm, you and co-offenders attended at an address in Olive Street Dandenong. The occupants of that address were asleep in a bedroom which sat above the garage below. The garage door was shut, as was an internal door leading into the house. They awoke to hear beeping of CCTV activation. They became aware that intruders were on the property and could see four people, one of whom was you, at the front door.
7You and a female co-offender began banging at the front door and threw a rock at the window. You were then observed to leave the front of the house area and return a short time later in company with three others.
8Three of your party tried to rip the flywire door off, damaging the front door (Charge 1). You were unable to gain access.
9The occupants barricaded themselves in their room and began stomping on the floor, you and your co-offenders scattered in response but quickly returned.
10You were observed to pull an imitation firearm out of your waistband at one point.
11When you were unable to get in the front door you and your co-offenders focussed your attention on the garage door. You and your group lifted the garage door up and gained access to the garage (Charge 2). At one point the internal door to the house was opened.
12A friend of the occupants arrived at the premises and noticed the garage door was open. A confrontation occurred as you were exiting the garage door. You pointed what appeared to be a bar at the person and he fled. You chased him for about 20 metres.
13You also stole his vehicle (Charge 4).
14When you were arrested at your home address the protected person in an Intervention Order in which you are the Respondent was present (summary Charge 9).
Objective Gravity
15Aggravated burglary is a very serious offence, as reflected in the maximum penalty of 25 years' imprisonment.
16Possessing an imitation firearm is also a very serious offence, particularly having it to hand in the circumstances of an aggravated burglary.
17Aggravated burglary encompasses a broad range of offending from least serious to most serious. In all of the circumstances of your commission of this offence I find the objective gravity lies below mid-range.
18Assessing the objective gravity of your commission of the offence of being a prohibited person possessing an imitation firearm, I take into account that there is no detail as to the appearance of the imitation firearm, that is a matter in your favour, and you did not confront anyone with it.
19I accept the whole event would have been terrifying for the occupants and the visitor and will have had a lasting impact upon them.
Personal Circumstances
20You are a 25-year-old Aboriginal man through your maternal line who has had a profoundly damaging, dysfunctional and traumatic childhood.
21You lost your mother to heroin when you were nine years of age. That tragic loss has also caused disconnection from some family members and culture.
22Prior to the loss of your mother, you were exposed to considerable family violence and the effects of alcohol and substance use and abuse.
23You were also a victim of sexual abuse.
24You were removed from your mother's care shortly prior to her passing. You were placed in residential care and became homeless at 12.
25In all of those circumstances it is not at all surprising that your schooling was difficult, disrupted, and doomed. You did not continue schooling after Year 6.
26You commenced using substances at 12.
27Your vocational history is limited to casual labouring jobs.
28You have two sons with the same former partner, aged seven and four. Your former partner's family is very supportive of you. Your former partner's mother Marta is a mother figure for you. Marta attended Court and participated in the Sentencing Conversation.
29Marta's support of you is very important to your prospects of rehabilitation.
30A number of reports were relied upon which provide a longitudinal view of your traumatic past and its effects upon your psychological makeup and life trajectory.
31The reports provide greater detail as to your personal circumstances and I accept the facts contained therein.
32I received a report from psychologist Carla Lechner dated 10 April 2019, and a report from clinical neuro-psychologist Dr Evrim March dated 21 November 2021.
33I accept that your Complex Developmental Trauma, Major Depressive Disorder, Complex Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and Stimulant Disorder are consequences of your background and are relevant to an assessment of moral culpability for the offences before me.
34Your cognitive limitations as set out by Dr March, including low functioning, concrete thinking, impulsivity and poor consequential thinking are also relevant to the sentencing exercise.
Time in custody
35You participate in the Torch Project in custody. You are a talented artist. You also participate in Aboriginal Studies once a week.
36You currently have a hand injury which limits your ability to engage in work in custody. You are on buprenorphine, pain medication for your hand, anti-anxiety medication and anti-depressant medication.
Bugmy
37I accept that Bugmy mitigation is available in your case with full effect.
38In Marrah, the Court of Appeal stated at [16]:
‘The common experience of the law is that very frequently such disadvantage precedes the commission of crime, and often explains and contributes to an offender’s criminal behaviour. The frequency with which criminal conduct can be explained by such disadvantage does not relieve each sentencing judge of the obligation to take such matters into account. Though they do not provide an excuse for offending behaviour, they must be given due weight in the sentencing calculus.’
These words apply in your case.
39Your disadvantaged and dysfunctional childhood and upbringing, with its exposures to violence and drug use, traumatic loss, and entry into residential care, has shaped you as an individual. It has shaped your personality and responses. It is likely intergenerational harms have afflicted your development also. The psychological material before me demonstrates that your cognitive processes and infirmities are likely connected with these early traumas.
40Your moral culpability is reduced as a result of these forces that have shaped you and are not of your making.
41Your exposure and vulnerability to drug use at a tender age reduces the moral culpability associated with your resort to substances as an adult and their role in the offending before me.
Participation in Koori Court
42You participated fully in the Koori Court Sentencing Conversation with Elders Uncle Rod and Uncle Wally.
43You were supported by friends, family and Marta, whom you regard as family. Your seven-year-old son also attended Court. Your sister Belinda appeared online and also participated in the conversation.
44You expressed remorse for your offending. You are clearly close to your sister and to Marta.
45Reproductions of your artwork were discussed and your desire to work as an artist in the future was also discussed.
46You expressed a desire to change which I view as genuine.
47I take your participation in the Sentencing Conversation into account with mitigatory effect.
Other Sentencing Considerations
48You pleaded guilty after a Sentencing Indication given by me in March this year.
49The Sentencing Indication Hearing followed a Case Conference where possible resolution of the charges was the focus.
50I take your pleas of guilty into account. They have mitigatory effect due to their utilitarian value. They are also reflective of some contrition and taking responsibility, which is important in assessing your prospects of rehabilitation. I am guarded as to your rehabilitation, however you have some strong support and will do into the future. I consider that there are prospects of rehabilitation if you can harness this support.
51This is a particularly difficult sentencing exercise as I have to balance the need for general deterrence, denunciation and community protection with the assessment of moral culpability I make for significant Bugmy mitigation and the relevance of associated personality disorders, and the connection between these factors and your conduct. Included in this synthesis is the circumstance in which you were introduced to substance use at a young age, your vulnerability to it due to the abovementioned factors, and its role in the offending, particularly in combination with cognitive processing factors.
52I have done my best to synthesise these competing factors. The principle of totality has been an important consideration in formulating an appropriate sentence also.
Sentence:
53I sentence you as follows.
54On Charge 1, criminal damage, you are sentenced to three months' imprisonment.
55On Charge 2, aggravated burglary, you are sentenced to two years and three months' imprisonment.
56On Charge 3, prohibited person possessing an imitation firearm, you are sentenced to two years' imprisonment.
57On Charge 4, theft of a motor car, six months.
58On the relevant summary offence of Charge 9, contravene a family violence order, you are convicted and discharged.
59The base sentence is the sentence imposed on Charge 2.
60I make the following order for cumulation, five months of the sentence imposed on Charge 3 is to be served cumulatively upon the sentence imposed on Charge 2 and other sentences.
61That makes a total effective sentence of two years and eight months.
62I set a non-parole period of 18 months.
63I declare 514 days as pre-sentence detention.
64Pursuant to s6AAA, were it not for your pleas of guilty, I would have sentenced you to a total effective sentence of three and a half years with a non-parole period of two and a half years.
65Pursuant to s89 of the Crimes Act, in relation to the theft of motor car charge (Charge 4), your licence is cancelled and disqualified for a period of 12 months.
66I make the forfeiture orders that are sought.
67No other orders?
68MS CURTAIN: Nothing further, Your Honour.
69HIS HONOUR: Thank you. I thank you both.
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