Director of Public Prosecutions v Camm
[2022] VCC 6
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION
CR 20-01167
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| JOHNNIE CAMM |
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| JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE LAURITSEN |
| WHERE HELD: | Melbourne |
| DATE OF HEARING: | 8 December 2021 and 13 December 2021 |
| DATE OF SENTENCE: | 14 January 2022 |
| CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Camm |
| MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2022] VCC 6 |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject: CRIMINAL LAW
Catchwords: One charge of conspiracy to cause injury intentionally – summary charge of committing and indictable offence on bail – three co-accused – parity – plea of guilty entered at an early opportunity – reasonably good prospects of rehabilitation
Legislation Cited: Sentencing Act 1991
Cases Cited: Worboyes v R [2021] VSCA 169
Sentence:282 days’ imprisonment and a 12 month Community Correction Order
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Director of Public Prosecutions | Mr M. Sharpley | Office of Public Prosecutions |
| For the Accused | Ms S. Wendlandt | Geelong Lawyers Barristers and Solicitors |
HIS HONOUR:
1Mr Camm, you have pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiring with James Warren and Angella Presnell to commit an offence, being causing injury intentionally. You also pleaded guilty to a committing an indictable offence on bail.
2The maximum penalty for conspiring to commit an offence is 10 years' imprisonment, and the maximum penalty in relation to committing an indictable offence while on bail is a fine not exceeding 30 penalty units or imprisonment of three months.
Circumstances
3Nicholas Molina[1] is the son of Hector[2] and Elvia Molina[3].
[1] A pseudonym
[2] A pseudonym
[3] A pseudonym
4On 17 April 2020, his parents left their home in Highton[4] in order to go to work. At 1.43 pm, the three of you, that is you, Mr Camm, plus Mr Warren and Ms Presnell, together with two others, arrived at the property by car, looking for Nicholas. The three of you had previously agreed to assault him.
[4] A pseudonym
5Mr Warren was armed with a baseball bat, while another in your group, Anthony Carroll, was armed with a hammer. The fifth member of your group, whose identity is unknown to the police, remained in the car and kept a lookout.
6The three of you approached the front door of the house with you, Mr Camm, knocking on the front door and yelling out for Nicholas by calling him 'a fucking rapist'. Mr Warren also knocked on the door and called out for Nicholas, and both you, Mr Camm and Mr Warren, left the front door after one of you spied a CCTV camera.
7Ms Presnell rang the front doorbell, and using the sleeve of her jumper, opened the front door. She and Mr Carroll entered the house. They searched every room in the house and the searched through all the drawers, and Ms Presnell stole a torch.
8These circumstances, excluding the circumstances of entry, constitute the charge of conspiracy against you, Mr Camm.
9After Ms Presnell and Ms Carroll left the house through the front door, it was left open. And then the four of you, including Mr Carroll, searched around the house, with Mr Carroll opening the garage doors. Mr Warren looked into a sedan parked in the driveway.
10Ultimately, all of you realised that Nicholas was not home. All of you returned to the car and were driven away.
11Nicholas’ parents returned home at about 5.50 pm. They saw the front door was open and the state of the inside of the house. Realising the house had been burgled, they called the police.
12Mr Camm, you were arrested and interviewed on 10 May 2020. You made substantial, but not full admissions. At the time of your offending, you were on bail, and this constitutes the summary offence of committing an indictable offence while on bail.
Pre-Sentence Detention
13Again, Mr Camm, you spent 402 days in custody before being bailed in
June 2021; 282 of those days are available as pre-sentence detention on these charges. The remaining 120 days were used to satisfy sentences of imprisonment imposed on 13 April 2021. Knowing nothing of the circumstance of those offences, I cannot give effect to the principle of totality.Criminal History
14Again, in relation to you Mr Camm, between 16 August 2005 and 1 May 2017, you appeared in Victorian Courts on eight occasions, and were convicted of 27 offences. You too have travelled interstate to offend between
20 November 1991 and 6 October 2011, you appeared twice in the Townsville Magistrates' Court and twice in the Darwin Court of Summary Jurisdiction and were found guilty or convicted of six offences. The most significant penalty imposed was a relatively small fine.
Personal Circumstances
15Mr Camm, you are now 48.
16You were raised in Victoria, in the Northern Territory and Queensland.
17You completed Year 12 in Darwin. You then obtained a Certificate III in Lands, Parks and Wildlife Management. You then obtained an associate Diploma in Applied Science and Ecological Studies. You are qualified as a Conservation Parks Ranger. In that capacity, you worked for two years with the Northern Territory Wildlife Commission. You then worked for about 10 years creating water bores in the Northern Territory and Queensland.
18Your life has been damaged by a series of suicides,
(a) your father when you were 12;
(b) your stepfather when you were 28; and,
(c) you sister and nephew when you were about 40.
19You were married in your 20s, the marriage lasted 11 years. You have two children. This relationship ended badly, and you have had no contact with your children.
20In your 30s, you formed another relationship from which there is a child. This relationship lasted 13 years. Again, you have not contact with this child.
21In the last few years, you worked as a panel beater. You lost this job on being remanded into custody. Since you were released from custody, you have received a Newstart Allowance and now a Disability Support Pension. You receive this pension because of the effects of an injury to your lumbar spine in your twenties. You do some freelance artwork, mostly airbrush and charcoal work. You have just enrolled in a Certificate IV course in Visual Arts.
22You live in shared accommodation with an older man.
23Aimee Sibson has been your friend for more than 15 years.[5] You and she met while both of you were working in Katherine in the Northern Territory. Since your release from custody in July 2021, she has been impressed by your determination “to do better and stay out of jail, to earn an income and to be a better person for the people around him that he loves and that love him”.
[5]Letter dated 2 December 2021
Discussion
24Section 5(1) of the Sentencing Act 1991 sets out the purposes which sentences may be imposed:
(a) to punish the offender to the extent and in a manner which is just in all of the circumstances;
(b) to defer the offender or other persons from committing offences of the same or a similar character;
(c) to establish conditions within which it is considered the offender's rehabilitation may be facilitated and;
(d) to manifest a denunciation of the type of conduct the offender engaged in; and,
(e) to protect the community from the offender.
25In most cases, one or more of those purposes are relevant. It is true in your case, Mr Camm.
26Plainly, the purposes of deterring you and deterring others from committing the principal offence or similar offences are important. The community cannot tolerate people conspiring to injure another person. My sentences upon you should have such a deterrent effect.
27My sentences should also manifest a denunciation of these offences. They should also act to protect the community from you. Aspects of these purpose may be achieved through your rehabilitation. For if you are rehabilitated, then you will not re-offend by committing these or similar offences again.
28Section 5(2) of the same Act sets out factors which I must, if they are relevant, take into account in sentencing you.
Guilty Pleas
29Mr Camm, you pleaded guilty to these offences on the morning of the committal hearing before any evidence was given. Prior to the committal hearing, there had been two committal case conferences. Your pleas were not entered or indicated at the earliest reasonable opportunity. That would have occurred at the first committal case conference. However, they were entered at an early opportunity.
30In almost every case, a plea of guilty deserves a mitigation of the sentence which would be otherwise imposed in the absence of such a plea. At the very least, it avoids the need for a trial. This saves time and expense of a trial and allows other cases to be heard earlier than would otherwise be the case. It avoids the need for witnesses to give evidence at a trial. Generally, this is an onerous task for witnesses.
31Due to the restrictions cause by the pandemic, the courts have struggled to deal with criminal cases efficiently. This has popped into our Court of Appeal in the case of Worboyes v R[6] and other cases, to explain that pleas of guilty made at this time are worthy of even a greater discount of the sentence.
[6][2021] VSCA 169
32On the last occasion, I quoted paragraph 35 of the judgment in Worboyes case, which showed the emphasis which the court places on plea of guilty in this time of restriction. I will not reread the quotation again. In your case, Mr Camm, I accept your pleas of guilty are evidence of your remorse for your offending.
Prospects of Rehabilitation
33In relation to your prospects of rehabilitation, I consider they are reasonably good. You have completed courses in custody. You are engaged in artwork and have enrolled in a Visual Arts course and a short course in the use of drugs. You have stable accommodation and have formed a new relationship. And it would seem that you have some support more broadly in the community.
Sentence
34Mr Camm, on the charge of conspiracy to commit an offence, I will sentence you to 282 days' imprisonment. In addition, on this charge and the charge of committing an indictable offence while on bail, I will sentence you to a Community Correction Order for 12 months with the following conditions:
(i)to undergo any assessment and treatment (including testing) for drug abuse or dependency;
(ii)to be subject to being supervised, monitored and managed by the Secretary;
(iii)I direct you be monitored by the court to review your compliance of the conditions of the order. And in that regard, I will direct you to appear before me at 9.30 am on 14 April 2022.
35I will declare that the 282 days of your pre-sentence detention attributable to this offence of conspiracy as time served under my sentence.
s6AAA Declaration
36If you had not pleaded guilty to the charges and had been found guilty by the jury, I would have sentenced you, Mr Camm, to 400 days' imprisonment, and the same Community Correction Order.
Parity
37As I explained last time, because there are three of you involved in the sentencing process, a question of parity becomes something I must address. And as I pointed out the last occasion, the issue of bail and no bail has made this issue of parity somewhat difficult. And on that occasion, I directed my remarks to Mr Warren because he alone came to the court last Monday in custody. Ms Presnell and yourself, Mr Camm, had been granted bail. You had spent 282 days before being granted bail; she had spent only 15 days in custody.
38I then tried to point out for the benefit of Mr Warren, that he received a different sentence in relation to the conspiracy charge, owing to the fact that he had pleaded guilty to more charges, although I pointed out that the other charges were relevantly unimportant, compared with the principal charge of conspiracy, which involves all three of you. That his prospects of rehabilitation were less favourable than those of you, Mr Camm or Ms Presnell, and that he had a more extensive criminal history, and neither you or Ms Presnell had. It was much more so in the case of Ms Presnell.
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