Director of Public Prosecutions v Byrne-Jones

[2015] VCC 212

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA Revised
Not Restricted
Suitable for Publication

AT BENDIGO
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 14-01839

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

GLENN BYRNE-JONES

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE LACAVA
WHERE HELD:	Bendigo
DATE OF HEARING:	24 February 2015
DATE OF SENTENCE:	27 February 2015
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Byrne-Jones
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2015] VCC 212

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:  Armed robbery
Catchwords:
Legislation Cited:
Cases Cited:
Sentence:                 Three months' immediate imprisonment,
  Three years' Community Corrections Order

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For DPP	Ms F. Pace
For the Accused	Ms C. Blakeney

HIS HONOUR:

1Glenn Byrne-Jones, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of armed robbery, a crime that carries with it a maximum sentence of 25 years' imprisonment.

2The offence occurred at Epsom, a suburb of Bendigo, on 2 August 2014.  The circumstances of your offending are contained in a prosecution summary which I admitted into evidence as Exhibit A.  In company with your then partner Amanda Thatcher, you robbed the local BP service station and got away with $405.  At the time, the victim in this matter, who did not make a victim impact statement, was alone and vulnerable and a soft target.  CCTV surveillance of the service station showed that you armed yourself with a folding knife which you had in your pocket.  Although you did not directly threaten the attendant with the knife you did say to her, “This is a robbery.  I want all the notes.  If you don’t give them to me, you’ll get hurt.  I’ve got a knife”.  At the time you were wearing a beanie under a hoodie.

3You and your accomplice were apprehended by police a short time later.

4You and your former partner are heroin addicts.  At the time of offending you were also affected by the amphetamine known as ice.  You carried out the robbery to get money to buy your drug of choice which was heroin.

5Your offending is serious but in my view towards the lower end of the scale for offending of this kind.  Fortunately for you, you did not directly threaten or menace the attendant with the knife.  CCTV footage of your movements before the actual robbery suggest you were certainly very nervous in the lead up to it.

6Although you made a no comment record of interview as is your right, you did indicate an intention to plead guilty to the charge at committal mention.  I treat you as having pleaded guilty at the first available opportunity.  For that you are entitled in my view to a reduced sentence.  I treat your plea of guilty as indicative of your genuine remorse and you have saved the community the time and costs of a trial.  The same cannot be said of your accomplice and former partner who is contesting the charge against her as is her right.

7You are a young man approaching your 26th birthday on 28 March next.  When you pleaded before me you admitted a limited criminal history dating back to May 2009 when you were aged 20.  You have prior convictions from six court appearances, four of which were in the Bendigo Magistrates’ Court.  You have four prior convictions for what would appear to be relatively minor dishonesty offences.  You also have convictions for driving offences and anti-social behaviour.  My assessment of your prior convictions is based on the dispositions imposed which would indicate the prior convictions should be regarded by me as relatively immaterial to this sentence.  You have never before been to prison.  The sentence I impose does not have to reflect specific deterrence.

8You have completed 71 days pre-sentence detention arising from this charge and I was told you have charges pending, committed whilst on bail for this matter.  I was told those charges arise out of the theft of clothes and toiletries.

9This kind of offending almost always results in the imposition of an immediate custodial sentence.  The key to a determination of a disposition in this matter is a brief examination of your background history which has led you to a life dominated by drug taking.  I now turn to that.  I emphasise that whilst drug taking does not in any way excuse your offending, because you voluntarily embarked down that road, it does help explain it.

10I admitted into evidence a psychological report from Gina Cidoni which I marked as Exhibit 1.  The report is helpful if only because it documents some of your history and provides the obvious opinion that you suffer from Substance Abuse Disorder.  I borrow from that report.

11Your parents separated when you were young.  You were brought up by your mother but you continued to see your father who is a long time heroin addict.  Your father has two children from an earlier relationship.  Both are also long term heroin users.  All have been jailed at various times.  Your stepsister is presently serving a sentence of imprisonment.

12When you were aged 15 your mother and sister moved from Bendigo to Melbourne for work.  Your sister is now aged 24 and attends university.  She was in court on your plea to support you.  You remained in Bendigo living with a school friend and his family.  That was a big mistake and should never have been allowed to happen.  The parents of your school friend were chronic marijuana users and dealers.  You were introduced to marijuana use and you also engaged in binge drinking of alcohol and rebellious behaviour set in.

13You moved in with another school friend until mid-way through Year 11 when you moved to live with your father in Flemington.  As I  have said, your father was a heroin addict.

14You managed to avoid heroin use until 2012, after you were hospitalised.  Your father introduced you to it and you were soon addicted.

15You met your girlfriend and accomplice in this offending about a year ago.  She is six years your senior and has three children although they are not in her care.  She was an ice addict when you met her.  Both of you used heroin for the duration of your relationship.  She is also on remand awaiting trial.  You see your future as being without her.  That, if I may say so, is a wise decision on your part.

16Your education is somewhat fragmented, attending as you did numerous schools in the Bendigo area.  You left Bendigo High School halfway through Year 11 and you have from time to time had unskilled employment.

17To your credit, you did take some initial steps to rehabilitate yourself from drugs before your offending.  I admitted into evidence a report from The Raymond Hader Clinic dated 19 February 2015.  You admitted yourself to the residential treatment program at that clinic on 20 February 2014 but left on
17 March 2014.  You re-entered the program on 27 August 2014 (after this offending and as a condition of bail) until 19 September 2014.  During that time you remained drug free.  Your bail conditions were then varied and you then entered the Narcanon “Get off Drugs Naturally” program from
27 September 2014 until 12 November 2014, completing approximately half the program.  According to Ms Cidoni’s report, whilst at Narcanon there was an incident where another male patient made advances towards a young female. You intervened and as a result were discharged from the program.  You then spent one week in Innisfree Rehabilitation Centre but left because you were worried about your partner.  You discharged yourself and moved around the Bendigo area with your partner and it was at this time that the matters pending occurred.

18During the plea I admitted into evidence a letter written by you addressed to me in which you express deep regret for your offending and the harm and distress you have caused to your victim.  I accept you are remorseful and I accept you have taken, albeit tentative, steps to rid yourself of drugs.  You are presently drug free but in the controlled environment of the prison that should be expected.

19In a helpful and well prepared plea on your behalf your counsel Ms Blakeney asked me to have regard to all of the mitigating circumstances that I have endeavoured to set out above and to release you on a Community Corrections Order with conditions designed to assist with your rehabilitation.  Your mother gave evidence on your behalf and endorsed many of the facts of your background history, especially how you had got in with the wrong crowd when she left you in Bendigo.  She told me of the difficulties she has had and that she had personally expended more than $30,000 on your attempts at rehabilitation.  She told me that you could live with her in Williamstown.  She struck me as caring for you very much and she was an impressive witness.

20Ms Moran, who appeared to prosecute, submitted the offending here was too serious and the circumstances of your offending required the imposition of an immediate custodial sentence.

21In sentencing for offending of this kind, the sentence imposed is normally driven by proper application of the principles of general deterrence.  Armed robbery of this kind by drug addicts is a prevalent crime and the community is sick and tired of it.  There is a need to impose a sentence that will deter others.  The sentence imposed must also reflect proper denunciation of your offending.

22I cannot say that your prospects for rehabilitation are good.  At present I can say that one must be guarded about your prospects for rehabilitation.  But you have taken some small but tentative steps and with the help of your mother and some appropriate conditions in place, the right environment might be able to be put in place to assist you to embark on the right pathway to rehabilitation when released from prison.  After that time, whether or not you succeed in ridding yourself of the harm from drugs is entirely up to you.  You are still relatively young and it is not too late to turn your life around and as I say, it is up to you.

23It is in your interests and the community’s interest that you be given one last opportunity to rehabilitate yourself.

24Having regard to all of the circumstances I have been persuaded that the imposition of a Community Corrections Order here with conditions is an appropriate disposition.  I have had you assessed for such a disposition and you have been assessed as suitable.  However, before the order commences to operate, you will have to serve out the balance of a short term of imprisonment which I shall also impose.

25On the charge of armed robbery you are convicted and sentenced to a term of imprisonment of three months.  I declare that 71 days pre-sentence detention has been served of the sentence imposed this day and that 71 days be reckoned as having been already served and deducted administratively.

26In addition to the sentence of imprisonment I make a Community Corrections Order with conviction for a period of three years.  In addition to the usual conditions there are to be the following conditions:

·200 hours community work.

·Abstinence from alcohol and drugs.

·Non-association with Amanda Thatcher.

·Non-association with your father, Geoffrey Alan Jones, and your step brother, Michael Jones, and your step sister, Sarah Jones.

·For the duration of the Order you are to reside with your mother, Narelle Jane Byrne, at 17 Forster St, Williamstown.

·For the duration of the Order you are not to attend anywhere within
50 kilometres of the City of Bendigo.

·Orders for counselling for drugs and alcohol.

27The prosecution seeks a forensic sample order which was not opposed and for the reasons stated in the order, I will make it.

28For the purposes of Section 6AAA of the Sentencing Act, had it not been for your plea of guilty to the charge, I would have imposed a term of imprisonment of three years and a minimum term of two years'.

29Now, Mr Byrne-Jones, you will have to serve another 19 days' approximately in prison.  Do you understand?

30OFFENDER:  Yes, Your Honour.

31HIS HONOUR:  And when you are released, the Community Corrections Order will begin to operate.  There are conditions in it that you have heard me read out in summary form but the first thing that you have to do is that you must report to the Werribee Community Corrections Services at 87 Synnot Street, Werribee within two clear working days after the commencement of the order.  So that is the first thing that has to happen.  Do you understand?

32OFFENDER:  Yes, Your Honour.

33HIS HONOUR:  Now, my associate will approach in order to have you sign the order.  Ms Blakeney, if you have your client sign the order?

34MS BLAKENEY:  Yes, Your Honour.

35HIS HONOUR:  Mr Byrne-Jones, there are some strict conditions in that order.  You will have to comply with them.  Do you understand?

36OFFENDER:  Yes.

37HIS HONOUR:  If you do not, you will be brought back before me and you can be resentenced.  Do you understand that?

38OFFENDER:  Yes.

39HIS HONOUR:  Very well.  Well, I wish you luck.

40MS BLAKENEY:  As Your Honour pleases.

41MS PACE:  As Your Honour pleases.

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