Director of Public Prosecutions v Burton
[2015] VCC 1526
•23 September 2015
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised (Not) Restricted Suitable for Publication |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTIONCR -15-00971
CR -15-01202
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| CHRISTOPHER BURTON & JASON FITZGERALD |
---
| JUDGE: | HER HONOUR JUDGE HAMPEL |
| WHERE HELD: | Melbourne |
| DATE OF HEARING: | 26 August 2015 |
| DATE OF SENTENCE: | 23 September 2015 |
| CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Burton |
| MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2015] VCC 1526 |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
---Subject:
Catchwords:
Legislation Cited:
Cases Cited:
Sentence:---
APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Director of Public Prosecutions | Ms C. Swinden | OPP |
| For Offender Burton | Ms M. Walker | |
| For Offender Fitzgerald | Mr S. Norton | Stary Norton Halphen |
HER HONOUR:
1
Mr Fitzgerald and Mr Burton, I am about to read my reasons for sentence. You can remain seated whilst I do that. I will ask you to stand at the end when
I formally pass sentence on you.
2I want you to listen very carefully to what I am saying, and so I am going to tell you in advance what I am going to do. I am going to sentence each of you to a combination sentence, that is to a term of imprisonment, followed by release on a community correction order. I am going to fix a head sentence and a non-parole period in respect of the term of imprisonment I am fixing, and then release on a CCO.
3The reason I am doing that is because I think it may be of more assistance to you to have a transition from the time of full custody, through parole, to release on a CCO. I think it could be risky for you if you went straight out of gaol onto a CCO, if you did not have some supports already set up and around you. And I think that there is a greater prospect of you being able to work towards having some supports, particularly in relation to housing, stable, secure, safe housing set up if I order a non-parole period, as well as release on a CCO.
4That should make the prison authorities consider your eligibility for parole and your eligibility for pre-release programs, leading up to parole, and on parole, before the expiry of your sentence and your release on a CCO. If they do not release you on parole for the whole of the period or any of the period, at least you will still have that entitlement, that eligibility and hopefully capacity to engage in pre-release programs before your release on a CCO. But even if you do not get parole, you have got a certain release date and then you will be on you CCOs after that. Do you understand that?
5OFFENDERS: Yes.
6HER HONOUR: So that is the thinking that has gone into what I am doing.
7I am also not going to count, as pre-sentence detention, the time either of you has spent in custody since you were arrested and charged with these offences, and that it because, I think in terms of properly reflecting the seriousness of the offending, that I have got enough time with the two year maximum sentence I can impose before releasing you on a CCO, if I start counting time from today. But it also means that because I have not counted pre-sentence detention in the sentence I am imposing today, if things go wrong after you have been released on a CCO and you get into trouble again and you have to be brought back before me for breach proceedings, if I have to then re-impose a term of imprisonment or sentence you to an additional term of imprisonment, that time of pre-sentence detention that I have not counted today, will be available to me to count for any additional sentence I have to impose, if I have to impose a sentence on your breach. Do you understand that?
8OFFENDERS: Yes, Your Honour.
9HER HONOUR: So it is sort of, if you like, an insurance bank sitting there for you. You will not - although you do not get it counted at this stage, it is not wiped off, it is still available to be counted in the future. So do you - I just wanted to make sure you understood that and for you to know that, whilst you are listening to what I had to say, so you could properly then absorb what I had to say to you.
10OFFENDERS: Yes.
11HER HONOUR: Very well.
12Jason Fitzgerald and Christopher Burton, you have each pleaded guilty to one charge of attempted armed robbery, and one of armed robbery.
13At the time of the commission of these offences, you were both living at Ozanam House, in Flemington Road, North Melbourne, and you were both on bail, in respect of other charges.
14At approximately 9.40 pm on 13 February this year, the two of you went to the 7-Eleven store in Gilbert Road, Reservoir. The doors were locked and you waited for the attendant to press a button to open the doors. There was only one attendant in there. As you went in, you pulled balaclavas down to conceal your faces. You, Mr Fitzgerald, produced a silver-coloured handgun from the pocket of your track pants. The attendant ran into a storeroom behind the service counter and hid. He could hear you saying, "Where is he, where is he?" but because you could not find him and because he had locked himself in the storeroom, you eventually left without receiving - or obtaining any money. All of this was caught on CCTV, so it was not that hard once you were apprehended to identify the two of you as the offenders.
15Some hours later, at about 4.30 in the morning on 14 February, the two of you went to another 7-Eleven, this one in Doncaster Road in Doncaster. You waited in the carpark behind the 7-Eleven for about five minutes before you went into the store. Again, each of you had balaclavas covering your faces. Mr Fitzgerald, you went to the counter and demanded the attendant hand over money to you. You put a bag onto the counter and you lifted up the top that you were wearing to show that you had a handgun tucked into the top of your track pants.
16This attendant, too, was terrified. He put his hands up, but as you demanded that he hand over all the money, having put his hands up, he then went to the tills and took the money out. You told him to open both tills. He had only opened one. You yelled at him to get both tills and pointed to the bag. He got all the money and the coins out of the till and put them onto the bag and you then put them inside.
17Mr Burton, you then approached the counter. You were holding a knife and wearing gloves. You brandished the knife at the attendant and demanded that he hand over his phone and his wallet. He handed over his wallet, which contained bank cards and $20 in cash. You then ran away. You did so because you saw a delivery van had driven up to the front door. The driver of the van saw what was happening. He armed himself with a pole and chased Mr Burton for a short time but gave up. As he walked back, you, Mr Fitzgerald, were still there near the store and you threatened him with the gun. You, Mr Burton, dropped your balaclava on the ground in the course of running away, and that was one of the things that was later of assistance in identifying you.
18
Again, all of this was caught on CCTV. On this occasion, you obtained a meagre amount of $217.50 in cash from the store and the attendant's wallet and his cash. None of the money was recovered. It was a couple of weeks later, after a DNA test on the balaclava had identified you, Mr Burton, from the DNA database, that you were arrested and interviewed and on
9 March, remanded in custody. You, Mr Fitzgerald were later charged, having already been arrested or remanded in respect of other matters and waived your right to be interviewed. So neither of you participated in interviews where you made admissions, but very shortly after your remand in respect of these offences, each of you indicated that you were going to plead guilty to the charges. So these are treated as early pleas of guilty, which obviously count in your favour.
19
Neither of the victims, the attendants in the 7-Eleven stores have made victim impact statements. In my experience, that is not unusual for 7-Eleven attendants not to make victim impact statements, and having regard to the recent publicity about the exploitation of migrant workers, or students, international students on student visas working and being exploited in
7-Eleven stores, that also is not surprising. They may well have been vulnerable, not only by reason of working unattended in a 7-Eleven store late at night and with no security really, other than a locking door and CCTV camera that, after the event, can identify the offenders, they may well have had other fears about making victim impact statements because of their visa status that may have led them to not do that. It does not mean though that they were not terrified. The evidence at the time shows they were, and certainly ordinary human experience and feelings would indicate, it must have been a terrifying experience.
20While of course it cannot be known whether the firearm was a real one or not, whether it was loaded or not, so far as the victims are concerned, they had no means of knowing whether it was real or imitation, and clearly it was your intention, Mr Fitzgerald, with the gun, and you, Mr Burton, on the second occasion with the knife, to indicate that you have weapons, that you were ready to use them, and that the weapons were ready - and there, in order to ensure compliance with your demands. So whilst it is not an aggravating feature that the gun was real or loaded, the participation by each of you, the use of those weapons, or the compliance in the use of those weapons by each of you, does make this serious, because it was clearly intended to induce compliance and fear in the minds of your victims.
21This was high risk, low return offending, committed by two mature adult men who were, by reason of the bail conditions that you were each on, or lack of other options, living at Ozanam House at the time. The fact that it was such high risk, low return offending, and that each of you were living in Ozanam House, gives some indication of your own circumstances at the time of the offending. As sadly was acknowledged by counsel for each of you, your life histories can be guessed with a surprising degree of accuracy, by looking at your extensive criminal histories.
22You, Mr Fitzgerald, were first sentenced to a term of imprisonment, just before you turned 20. By the time you turned 24, you were already serving a term of imprisonment for murder. At the age of 46, as you are now, you have spent over 20 years in custody. That is almost all of your adult life. Your longest continuous period of release in the community since you turned 20 has been under two years, and in total you have spent only six years and seven months at liberty in all of that time.
23Your childhood was marked by the occasional appearances of your father in your family life. He was an interstate truck driver who treated your mother badly and exposed, if not introduced you, to the abuse of cannabis, benzodiazepines, amphetamines and alcohol. Your engagement with schooling was poor and you had left school by the age of 15. You have never had any sustained employment and by the age of 18, you were already an alcoholic, drinking as you described it, as much as you could, as often as you could.
24When sentencing you to a term of 14 and a half years, with a non-parole period of ten and a half years for the murder, O'Brien J said,
"The killing took place in a setting of human misery, created out of poverty, chronic alcoholism, and loss of self-esteem."
He went on to say,
"A sense of hopelessness exists in your life. Your intellectual functioning, which is below average, has handicapped you in life through no fault of your own. Your life drifted aimlessly for a number of years."
His Honour accepted that you were a chronic alcoholic and had been for some years by the time of the killing and that the murder was not premeditated. As he noted and as the sentence that he imposed upon you reflects, that stamped it as out of the ordinary for you in your behaviour.
25Imprisonment led to the development of a heroin habit, and on your release from your last term of imprisonment, just five weeks before the commission of these offences, you had added ice to what was already a deadly mix of alcohol, heroin and other substances. Between the time of your release following the sentence for murder and the commission of these offences, your pattern of criminal offending reverted to the pattern of the past, namely predominantly petty dishonesty offences.
26
You, Mr Burton, were first sentenced by the Children's Court, days after your 14th birthday, for a criminal offence. By the age of 15, you had been sentenced to your first term of youth detention. Soon after your 17th birthday, to your first term of adult imprisonment. The longest continuous period that you have spent at liberty since you were first sentenced to be detained, is
15 months.
27
Your parents and your older brother were killed in a car accident when you were three. As you later discovered, you were found in the wreckage
12 hours later and were the sole survivor. The unborn child your mother was carrying died with her, along with your mother, father and older brother. Following their deaths, you were placed with your grandparents, but you were relinquished by them at the age of five, as they found themselves unable to care for you.
28Two subsequent adoption placements broke down, the first within a year, before the adoption was formalised. The second placement resulted in the formalisation of an adoption, but it was a very unhappy life for you and by the age of 14, these adoptive parents too had relinquished you. That meant you were in institutional care well before your first sentence of youth detention was imposed, and your life from the time of the death of your parents up until then, had clearly been blighted by unhappiness, mistreatment and emotional neglect.
29It was not until recently, and only after what I was told was a four year FOI battle, that you were able to obtain access to your DHS file, which was in effect, your family history, and find out about your family of birth. Two simple stories, gleaned from the files and recounted by Ms Walker, paint a graphic picture of this deprivation and neglect. I was told that you had never seen a photograph of your father until you had obtained the file. I was also told that the accident report, on your DHS file, confirmed the memory that you had always had of being in the wreckage for hours after the collision. Throughout your life, until you had obtained the DHS file, you had been told that you were too young to remember the collision and must have imagined or invented the story that you had in your mind of those long hours alone in the wreckage. The accident report in the file show that that was indeed a true memory.
30Your childhood and early life therefore is properly characterised as one blighted and marked by neglect, chronic deprivation and disadvantage. It can properly be said, despite the obligation of the State to care for you following the death of your parents, you never really had a chance.
31On a recent period of remand, you were referred for a CISP assessment to see if the combination of a suspected acquired brain injury, your chronic childhood disadvantage, and your long history of substance abuse, qualified you for eligibility for the assistance of an intellectual disability support worker. That is a very clear indication of your low level of functioning and supported by the reports extracted by Ms Walker from your DHS files and some other reports that have been produced at various sentencing hearings along the years.
32Your arrest and remand on these charges interrupted that assessment as to eligibility for an intellectual disability support worker, but the fact of referral indicates you have, at the very least, a compromised level of intellectual functioning and you may well need more specialised support, or be eligible for more specialised support, I should say, in the future.
33
You have an extensive criminal history. It is essentially one of petty dishonesty, possession of drugs, driving, and street offences. There are some property damage and possession of weapons offences, all by their summary nature and the penalties imposed, at the lower end of the scale. The only time before this that you have been before this court, has been when you appealed sentences imposed in the Magistrates' Court. Rarely over the time since you were 15 and first sentenced to detention and then imprisonment, were you sentenced to a term of imprisonment with a
non-parole period fixed.
34Each of you was essentially released after each term of imprisonment, whether having been granted parole, having been denied parole, or at the end of a straight sentence, with nowhere real or permanent to go, with no friends, other than men you had met in gaol, no job or employment skills, and no family to help you. It is little wonder that by the time of the commission of these offences, each of you was living in Ozanam House.
35For each of you, one cannot feel anything other than a sense of despair and profound sadness. As each of Mr Norton and Ms Walker pointed out, prison has clearly not acted as a deterrent for you and has not acted to encourage your rehabilitation, and absent anything that could be described a game changer, you will each likely continue in the pattern of offending, imprisonment, short-term release and re-incarceration that has marked your lives to date. Clearly the short periods that each of you has spent on parole in the past and the limited services made available to you during those parole periods, has not assisted your rehabilitation either.
36I agree that in each of your cases, despite the seriousness and the prevalence of the offences of soft-target armed robberies and their lesser alternatives, like the attempted armed robbery, it is time to try something different. A combination sentence, in my view, can adequately and effectively, for each of you, serve the needs of just punishment, detention, and general deterrence, along with the need for specific deterrence and an encouragement to each of you to avail yourselves of the rehabilitative and protective opportunities afforded by CCO conditions.
37This type of combination sentence, in my view, will also provide a better prospect of protecting the community from further offences by you, than simply imposing another sentence of imprisonment which will perpetuate the revolving door, through which each of you has been moving for all of your adult lives.
38As I said to each of Mr Norton and Ms Walker in the course of the pleas, safe and secure housing is an essential component of any post-release regime. Given your histories, I can only urge the Corrections authorities, in the strongest of terms, and that means whether we are looking at those responsible for you when you are in prison, those responsible for considering and if you are granted parole, administering parole, and those responsible for administering and supervising community correction orders, to work together to find you secure housing, so as not to allow homelessness to again sabotage any prospect you have of trying to live safely and offence free on the outside.
39As is discussed in the course of the pleas, although I do not think in most cases it is helpful to impose a head sentence with a non-parole period, when imposing a community correction order, in this case it may well be prudent. It will, I hope, encourage Corrections to assist you to engage in drug and alcohol, and psychological assessment and treatment and other pre-release programs, in custody and working up towards release, and to assist you to find safe and secure housing upon release. That will maximise the prospects of being able to comply with the conditions of a community correction order, upon expiry of the custodial part of the sentence, and hopefully also provide some flexibility and a staged transition from imprisonment to the freedom of the end of a sentence and whilst under a community correction order.
40I would, indeed, in the case of you, Mr Burton, and if you wish to apply for it too, Mr Fitzgerald, urge the authorities to consider placing each of you at the Judy Lazarus Centre. Each of you is much more deserving than many other people in our prison community and in our broader community, of support and assistance. It can properly be said for each of you, that although, of course, you must bear responsibility for you own behaviour, the system has manifestly failed you to date.
41We, as a community, must accept responsibility for the vulnerable in our society. For you particularly, Mr Burton, because you were under State care from the time your parents died. But also for you, Mr Fitzgerald, because you have been in the prison system since you were 20. Society and Government failed each of you in your youth and in your adult years, and therefore, in my view, the harshness of punishment must be mitigated, not only by an acceptance of your vulnerability, the disadvantage which continues through to today and does not diminish over time, but also by an acceptance of a societal failure to properly discharge responsibility for each of you.
42I have decided that the sentences for each of you should be the same. In my view, you bear equal responsibility for the offending. Although there are significant differences in your previous convictions, your circumstances, to some extent, balance that out. The pitiful state that each of you was in at the time of the commission of these offences, is now, in my view, sufficiently similar to make parity more important than disparity.
43Could you each stand please.
44On the two charges to which you pleaded guilty, you are each convicted.
45
On Charge 1, you are each sentenced to be imprisoned for a period of
18 months.
46On Charge 2, the completed armed robbery, you are each sentenced to be imprisoned for a period of two years.
47That makes a total effective sentence of two years.
48I fix a period of 18 months as the time that you must serve, before being eligible for parole.
49I also sentence you in respect of each of Charges 1 and 2, in addition to the term of imprisonment, to a community correction order, to run for a period of three years.
50The community correction orders have these conditions: There are mandatory conditions of them and they are these:
·That you must not commit another offence for which you could be imprisoned during the time the CCO is in force, so that is for the three years of the CCO.
·You must comply with any obligation or requirement prescribed by Regulation 17 of the Sentencing Regulations 2011. That means you must not be impaired by drugs, alcohol or other substances when you attend at Corrections for any appointments, and you must submit to drug and alcohol testing, if directed.
·You must report to and receive visits from the Secretary or a delegate. You must report to the Community Corrections Centre at Carlton, that is at 444 Swanston Street, Carlton, within two clear working days after the commencement of the order, and that is therefore within two clear working days after your release, if it is the end of your sentence without parole, or after the expiry of your parole. So it is after the expiration of your term of imprisonment.
·You must let a Community Corrections officer know within two clear working days if you change your address or your job.
·You must not leave Victoria without first getting permission to do so from the Secretary or delegate.
·You must obey all lawful instructions from and directions of the Secretary or delegate.
51In addition, there are special conditions I am imposing on the orders for each of you:
·You must each undergo assessment and treatment, including testing for drug abuse or dependency, as directed by the Regional Manager.
·You must undergo assessment and treatment, including testing for alcohol abuse or dependency, as directed by the Regional Manager.
·You must undergo any mental health assessment or treatment, and that may include psychological, neuropsychological, psychiatric treatment or treatment in a hospital or a residential facility, as directed by the Regional Manager. So that means, drug, alcohol and psychological assessment, treatment and rehabilitation and counselling.
·You must participate in programs and/or courses that address factors relating to the offending, as directed by the Regional Manager. So that may be behavioural change programs, it may be living in the community programs. Often building on programs that will be available to you in prison and it may help you in that bridge, or that transition, to living in the community.
52I am also going to impose a condition of judicial monitoring. I am going out on a limb giving each of you a chance, and I know it is going to be a difficult road for you, because these patterns of offending and substance abuse are so well entrenched. So I want to impose a condition of judicial monitoring, as much, in order to keep an eye on you, and to make sure that if there are problems, we can try and work with Corrections to sort them out before things get out of hand, and before you are feeling that is it all hopeless and you cannot do anything, or before Corrections have decided they have got no options left but to breach you. So I want you to see the judicial monitoring, not as a means of hauling you up before me to give you a talking to, but rather for you to be able to report your progress and to tell me if you are having troubles, so that together we can try and work ways to help you stay in the community safely and without offending.
53Now do you understand those conditions?
54OFFENDERS: Yes, Your Honour.
55HER HONOUR: Do you consent to being placed on those community correction orders, on those conditions?
56OFFENDERS: Yes.
57
HER HONOUR: All right, I am going to have a form brought down to you.
I will ask Mr Norton and Ms Walker to make sure you understand them, and then to sign them, indicating your consent to those conditions.
58Now, you have each signed those community correction orders and I have also signed them. Consistently with what I said before, I am not making any declaration in respect of the pre-sentence detention, but I think I should note how much it is, so that our records are clear.
59What is the pre-sentence detention up to, but not including today, attributable to these offences for each of Mr Fitzgerald and Mr Burton?
60
MS SWINDEN: So for Mr Burton I have 198 days. And for Mr Fitzgerald,
72 days.
61
HER HONOUR: Thank you. So I declare for Mr Burton - sorry, I note that for Mr Burton, there is 198 days of pre-sentence detention, which I have not counted and reckoned. And for Mr Fitzgerald, there are 72 days of
pre-sentence detention which I have not counted and reckoned.
62
I declare, pursuant to s.6AAA of the Sentencing Act, that but for you pleas of guilty, I would have imposed a term of imprisonment of six years, with a
non-parole period of four years.
63I have been asked to make compensation and disposal orders. I note that each of you have, in your letters handed up today, indicated your preparedness to pay compensation to the victim for the value of the wallet and money stolen, and accept that that is indeed an indication of your desire to change you ways and your remorse, and that is consistent with the reasons why I have released you on the CCO after the sentence, rather than fixing a head sentence with a non-parole period.
64I will also, while I am here, mark as Exhibit P3, the CCO Assessment Outcome Report in respect of Mr Fitzgerald, and P4, the CCO Assessment Outcome Report in respect of Mr Burton. As F7, the letter from Mr Fitzgerald, and as B13, the letter from Mr Burton.
##E#EXHIBIT P3 - CCO Assessment Outcome report in respect of
Mr Fitzgerald.
##E#EXHIBIT P4 - CCO Assessment Outcome Report in respect of Mr Burton.
##E#EXHIBIT F7 - Letter from Mr Fitzgerald.
##E#EXHIBIT B13 - Letter from Mr Burton.
65Ms Swinden, do you have those orders for me?
66MS SWINDEN: I have those draft orders.
67HER HONOUR: Thank you. You can take a seat while I sign those last orders.
68All right, I have signed the disposal order and the two lots of compensation orders for the $40 from the attendant and the $271-odd from the till.
69MS WALKER: Apologies, Your Honour.
70HER HONOUR: Have you got something more for me?
71
MS WALKER: I have got something more for you. I have got Mr David Hartman has come here to express his support for Mr Burton. He is from Open Place and he's a counselling team leader. Open Place is a group who - sorry, service for a group of people experience out of home care as children, prior to 1989. And well, I'll let you read it, but it's just - I'll put it on file, if
I could, Your Honour. It just is also - indicates their preparedness, certainly to work with Mr Burton and through that transition and - I haven't even had an opportunity to indicate to him the sentence yet, but it will be perfect for that.
72
HER HONOUR: Thank you. Have you had a chance to show this letter to
Ms Swinden?
73MS WALKER: Yes, just then. I had a - there's nothing controversial in it, it's not offence based at all.
74HER HONOUR: Well it is a very touching letter indeed from Mr Hartman. It confirms much of the material - or it confirms everything that you put to me on the plea, Ms Walker, and it certainly is a very important document to add to the materials that should be provided to the Correctional authorities, both those responsible for Mr Burton whilst he is in custody, those responsible for considering his eligibility for a release on parole, and if released, the supports that he need, as well as to those responsible for looking after him and supervising him on the community correction order.
75MS WALKER: Yes, Your Honour.
76HER HONOUR: And it reinforces and supports everything that you put to me, the materials before and I hope what I also said in my reasons for sentence.
77MS WALKER: Yes, Your Honour.
78HER HONOUR: So what were we up to with exhibits for Mr Burton?
79MS WALKER: Fourteen - it will be B14.
80HER HONOUR: All right, thank you and Exhibit B14 will be the letter from David Hartman, Open Place counselling team leader, dated 22 September.
##E#EXHIBIT B14 - Letter from David Hartman, Open Place counselling team leader, dated 22/09/15.
81HER HONOUR: Thank you for your attendance, Mr Hartman, I am sorry you were not here for the reading of the reasons.
82MR HARTMAN: Thank you, Your Honour.
83MS SWINDEN: Your Honour, if I could just raise one matter, purely for completeness?
84HER HONOUR: Yes.
85MS SWINDEN: I note that both Mr Burton and Mr Fitzgerald were on bail at the time of these offences, which displaces the s.16 presumption of concurrency. I don't know whether just out of an abundance of caution you might just make an explicit order for concurrency.
86HER HONOUR: Thank you, Ms Swinden, yes.
87I direct that the sentences on Charge 1 and Charge 2 be served concurrently with each other and the reasons that I have identified in my reasons for sentence should stand as the reasons why I make that declaration, despite the presumption in favour of cumulation. Thank you for that. But the sentence is otherwise correct and reflect what I said I intended to do?
88MS SWINDEN: Correct.
89HER HONOUR: So arithmetic now clearly correct and all the orders I have - all the orders that need to be pronounced have been pronounced?
90MS SWINDEN: That's correct, Your Honour.
91HER HONOUR: Right, thank you all for your assistance.
92
Well, I will see you in two years and three months. Mr Fitzgerald and
Mr Burton, I hope you will be able to give me promising reports of the progress that you have made, and that you will understand that I understand, this is going to be a difficult course for you and there is going to be some ups and some downs, but what I want is for you to continue to have some hope about a better life and to work towards that, rather than deciding you have got to give up.
93OFFENDERS: Thank you, Your Honour.
94HER HONOUR: Thank you everyone for your assistance.
95MS WALKER: Thank you, Your Honour.
96MS SWINDEN: If the court pleases.
- - -
0
0