Director of Public Prosecutions v Camilleri

[2017] VCC 356

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

AT LATROBE VALLEY
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 16-02183
CR 17-00343

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

MICHAEL JOHN CAMILLERI
SAMANTHA LIA

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE SMALLWOOD
WHERE HELD:	Latrobe Valley
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	27 March 2017
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Camilleri & Anor
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2017] VCC 356

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:
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Cases Cited:
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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr P. Triandos
For Accused Camilleri	Mr I. Polak
For Accused Lia	Mr N. Reardon

HIS HONOUR:

1Michael John Camilleri, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of intentionally causing injury.  That carries a maximum penalty of ten years' imprisonment.

2You are 32 years of age, and pleaded guilty at the earliest reasonable opportunity.  There has been a delay of two years in this matter coming to court, and I understand that you were not even charged for a period of 11 months after being interviewed.  I take that very much into account.

3You do have very significant prior convictions over an extended period of time.  I sentenced you myself back in 2011 to a significant sentence, and you have been offending since then.

4Samantha Lia, you have pleaded to one charge of aggravated burglary and one charge of intentionally causing injury.  Aggravated burglary carries a penalty of 25 years.  You do have some prior findings of guilt, but nothing of real significance.  You also have been the subject of a fairly extended delay.

5I accept in your situation appropriate remorse.  Each of you must get the utilitarian benefit of that plea of guilty, though I would have thought in your case,
Mr Camilleri, remorse was problematic. 

6In any event, a co-accused, who performed very much the same actions as you, Ms Lia, a Mr Hutchinson, was dealt with by Meredith J, and was given a two-year community corrections order with conviction, with 150 hours of community work.  It would seem to me in this situation that parity dictates that I could not give you, Ms Lia, a more severe punishment than that.

7Mr Camilleri, with such significant prior convictions, is in a totally different scenario, and parity plays little part in his sentencing process.  His is more one of totality.

8The circumstances surrounding the offence are that a number of people, some of whom are well-known to me, were living in a boarding house, and trouble ensued.  A Mr Ransome had apparently come and kicked the door of the room that you, Mr Camilleri and Ms Lia, were residing in, and it went from there.

9Mr Camilleri, you then attacked Mr Ransome, punching him to the face, and continued punching him.  Mr Ransome was able to escape from you.  There was then to-ing and fro-ing between various rooms.  You, Mr Camilleri, came back with a box cutter, though that is not the subject of the charge, and again, there was an altercation. 

10You, Mr Camilleri, grabbed Mr Ransome, and got on top of him.  Mr Ransome's head hit the tiles.  As you were on top of him, he realised that you had a box cutter in your hand.  You tried to hit him with the box cutter, and he grabbed your wrist to prevent the blade from hitting him.  He pushed your wrists away, and the blow with the box cutter hit you in the eye area, causing a deep laceration to the right eyelid.  Blood was dripping from your eye onto
Mr Ransome, and you were yelling out "Look what you've done to my eye".  By this stage, it would seem that Mr Ransome had the box cutter in his hands.  It is a bit difficult to ascertain when he did get that.  I suspect it might have been a tiny bit earlier, but that is not the basis upon which I sentence.

11In any event, one of the boarders in the boarding house stepped on
Mr Ransome's hand, which caused him to let go of the box cutter.  You stood up, you grabbed him again, and started to choke him.

12Other boarders, including Mr Hutchinson I have referred to, kicked Mr Ransome before he managed to get away.  He ran back to another room.  You, Ms Lia, ran up to him as he was going back, holding a pair of scissors and yelling at him.  He went into that room and you tried to force your way in after him, still wielding the scissors.  Your arm holding the scissors was inside the room.  At that point, the co-accused Hutchinson arrived, and assisted you to gain entry by pushing against the door.  Others pushed back against the door to try and prevent the two of you from getting in.  Hutchinson was yelling, and told one of the occupants if he got involved he would "Smash him too".

13Hutchinson kicked out at Ransome as he was pushing against the door. 
Mr Camilleri, you approached again, but were led back by Mr Craig Morgan, who as I indicated, is now deceased, but was well-known to me.  The two of you got into the room, and you, Ms Lia, attacked Mr Ransome with the scissors.  He received a few small puncture marks as a result of that.  Mr Hutchinson kicked and stomped on him during the time that he was curled up on the floor.

14In any event, when you were interviewed, Mr Camilleri, you basically made no comment.  You, Ms Lia, were confessional, and I of course take those matters into account.  No matter what the milieu may have been in which all this occurred, the offending still has to be regarded with a degree of seriousness, and application of general and specific deterrence has to play a part, as well as denunciation and appropriate punishment.

15Unsurprisingly, there is no victim impact statement before me. 

16In terms of matters pertinent to sentence, I turn to Mr Camilleri first, whom I refer to the sentencing remarks of myself back in 2011.  Your circumstances are that you clearly had a very difficult childhood.  You were homeless and couch-surfed for many years.  You had long-term alcohol problems.  You are within the intellectually disabled range, and at one stage a justice plan was looked at but never implemented.  It is unknown whether that would have assisted you in any way.

17You have a work record of sorts, but it is just a situation that over the years you continually get yourself into these circumstances of violence.  You were sentenced by Carmody J of this court on 22 September 2016, to a sentence of four years and six months.

18You had declared at that time a period of 504 days presentence detention, and you had been in custody since a couple of days after this offending occurred.  Obviously there was a reason you were not charged, as you had already been in custody for something over 300 days.  That is totally eliminated in that scenario the potential for concurrency had this sentence been imposed at the same time as Carmody J. 

19It seems to me that, in your overall circumstances, looking at totality and the fact that you have been in now for such a significant period of time, that the appropriate sentence is simply one of a period of imprisonment, which I direct be six months, and that to be served concurrently with the sentence that you are undergoing at the present time.

20Pursuant to s.6AAA, I say that but for your plea of guilty, you would have received a sentence of nine months.

21You, Ms Lia, are in a different situation.  Clearly you have far, far fewer priors than Mr Camilleri, and it would seem, on what I have seen at least, fewer priors than Mr Hutchinson.  You are 25, at the present time you are pregnant, you have a four-year-old daughter, whom you are the primary carer of every second week.  As I understood it, you had been able to return to live with your mother, and there are no matters which have occurred since.

22Your childhood was one of domestic violence.  I do not need to go through that.  Also sexual abuse, which I do not think in this situation I need to go through.  It is important to note, as you have never had any formal treatment or therapy in relation to those matters.

23You got about halfway through high school, about the same way as
Mr Camilleri.  You have had various jobs in a hair salon, fruit-picking, and working in an abattoir and a chicken farm.  You have had anxiety and depression over the years, and this court case has now dragged on for an extended period of time.  You have physical injuries from a previous car accident, but it does not seem to be of any real relationship to this matter.

24It is said in the report that Mr Camilleri introduced you to cannabis and methylamphetamine.  Whether that be so or not, I do not know, but in any event I accept your assertions that you have now been abstinent from drugs for almost 18 months, and obviously 19 weeks into a pregnancy, that is very important.

25It is put on your behalf, and I accept this, that your voluntary disassociation from drug use and returning to live with your mother has had a beneficial effect on your prospects for rehabilitation, and in those circumstances, bearing in mind what is said about parity, that the appropriate disposition is virtually the same as that which was given to Mr Hutchinson.

26Accordingly if you agree, you will be placed on a community corrections order, it will be with conviction because of the seriousness of the offending.  The conditions will be:  150 work hours; supervision; drug programs, as well as other programs to reduce reoffending.

27I direct that any hours put in in programs is to be treated as unpaid community work under that condition.  It will be for two years.

28That is it, is it not? 

29MR POLAK:  May it please the court.

30HIS HONOUR:  Yes.

31MR TRIANDOS:  Just need those ancillary orders, Your Honour.

32HIS HONOUR:  Yes, sorry.  Now, what were they?

33MR TRIANDOS:  The disposal order and a s.464.

34HIS HONOUR:  I signed the disposal, did I not?

35MR TRIANDOS:  Yes.  Just ‑ ‑ ‑

36HIS HONOUR:  And I refused the s.464, did I not?

37MR TRIANDOS:  That is so, as Your Honour pleases.

38HIS HONOUR:  Yes, all done.

39MR TRIANDOS:  Just need to announce it as part of the sentence.

40HIS HONOUR:  I never do that.  It is not part of the sentence.  We will just get this signed, and we can all call it quits.  And word on tomorrow, or is that still going?

41(At this stage the court proceeded with another matter.)

42MR POLAK:  With Your Honour's leave ‑ ‑ ‑

43HIS HONOUR:  Yes.  All right, that order is made.

44MR POLAK:  May it please the court.

45MR TRIANDOS:  If Your Honour pleases.

46HIS HONOUR:  Yes, thanks.  We will see what tomorrow brings.

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