Director of Public Prosecutions v Caulfield
[2022] VCC 101
•27 January 2022
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
AT LATROBE VALLEY
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION
CR 21-00943
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| BRADLEY CAULFIELD |
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JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE SMALLWOOD |
WHERE HELD: | Latrobe Valley |
DATE OF HEARING: | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 27 January 2022 |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Caulfield |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2022] VCC 101 |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Director of Public Prosecutions | Mr P. D'Arcy | Office of Public Prosecutions |
For the Accused | Mr J. Portelli | Marshall Jovanovska Ralph |
HIS HONOUR:
1Bradley Caulfield, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of make a threat to kill, one charge of causing an injury intentionally, one charge possession of a drug of dependence, one charge of trafficking a drug of dependence, and one charge of dishonestly receiving stolen goods. Possession of a drug of dependence, has a maximum penalty of five years. As I understand it, the maximum penalty for each of the other four is ten years.
2It is 10 for trafficking simple, isn't it? Is it 15? It is not going to make any difference, I will make that clear, but just in case I am erring in saying that. That is the difficulty with not having a plea indictment - a plea. In any event, a significant period of time. I have said what I said. We all know what I am doing. All right, I will take all that out of the - if I am incorrect about that, someone can let me know and I will change – I will just revise the sentencing remarks, that is all. Everybody knows what has happened, it is all taped.
3You are now 44 years of age. You have pleaded guilty to a settled indictment, and you must get the benefit of that. Remorse I would regard as highly problematic, but I will give you the benefit of the doubt. You certainly get a discount for that plea of guilty because of the utilitarian benefit of it in these times of COVID and in light of the Court of Appeal decision in Worboyes, that discount must be demonstrable. It has also saved your unfortunate victim from what would have been, in this situation, extreme trauma, I would have thought, of having to give evidence in a jury trial.
4Because of the sentences I am imposing, because of your prior convictions of which you have a significant number, and you have been in jail on previous occasions and, they being for both violence and drugs, on Charge 1 of make threat to kill, you are a serious violent offender. I am aware that in those circumstances any sentence I impose makes community protection the principal sentencing purpose and any sentence I impose must be served cumulatively upon other relevant sentences and unless I otherwise order. I will so otherwise order for reasons of totality.
5I am also aware that the Crown can seek a disproportionate sentence, but no such disproportionate sentence is sought. I direct that the fact that you have been sentenced as a serious offender on that charge in records of the court.
6A summary of the offending is that you and the victim were in a relationship in 2019. You were 42 and are now 44. She was 25. It was a share house in which you lived and there were multiple persons resided there. She had a three-year-old child from a previous relationship. The relationship at that point had been relatively short-lived, just being of a few weeks.
7Prior to the day or days of the offending, the two of you had been arguing. You apparently were convinced she was cheating on you. You kept her phone, would not allow her to use it. If she attempted to leave you would tell her that she is not going anywhere. You would strike her every second day in some way with a backhand slap or punch. You did not usually physically hurt her when the child was with her, and at one stage you said to her, 'I'll either find out you've cheated on me or you'll be dead by the end of the week'. That is simply context, not the actual charge of threat to kill.
8On 27 April 2019, she was in the back room at the address you were living in. She was sitting on a couch attempting to settle a small child. She was holding her in her arms when you started punching her to the back of the head. That is the victim. That those punches caused the victim to see flashes of light. The victim said, 'Stop, you're scaring her', a reference to the child. A friend then removed the child and took it from the room.
9You then said to her, 'Tonight is your last night. I'm going to ask you one more time, have you cheated on me?'. She said, 'No'. You jumped on top of her, shoved your right index finger deep into her eye socket and she could feel your finger digging behind her eyeball. You continued kicking and punching her whilst she attempted to escape. At one point you said, 'That's it, I'm going to kill you'.
10She awoke early on 28 April 2019 when someone gave the child back to her. She has no memory of how she came to be in the bedroom. Whilst she was there moaning with pain. You said to her, 'That's your fault, Paige, don't complain'. She later, during the course of the day, was able to flee the house and a neighbour let her in and Triple 0 were called. She went to hospital and, as I understand it, was admitted.
11The injuries included: 'Sustained bruising and cuts to her head, arms, and body. The complainant's left eye was swollen shut with extensive bruising'. Police attended and found her phone in a motor vehicle with all the calls and messages and phone numbers having been deleted. Police then searched the house and the objects and drugs, the subject of the charge of handling stolen goods and the trafficking were found.
12You have prior convictions for trafficking, and you have prior convictions for threat to kill, and you have prior convictions for assault. Whilst I am aware that it is a settled indictment, the offending is serious. Of course, the application of general and specific deterrence, denunciation an appropriate punishment.
13There is no victim impact statement before me which is fair enough, but as I understand, your victim is watching this and I simply say that I do not need a victim impact statement to bring home to me the sheer fear that this would inflict on an essentially defenceless woman in that situation, particularly in the presence of her child. The circumstances of domestic violence of men upon women is well known, and again, I do not need to give a monologue on that.
14You have spent long periods of time in jail over the years. You are 44 years of age. Your history was laid before me in very helpful submissions, if I might say so, and I also have before me the report from Dr Aaron Cunningham. It is clear from the outset that a significant jail sentence is the only appropriate sentence to be imposed in this matter, and I will simply outline a few details that were given because a number of sentencing principles come into play.
15You were raised by your grandmother until the age of three. You were present in the house when she died. You were then raised by your father who was an abusive alcoholic. You were apparently sexually abused when you were about 11 and you were evicted from home shortly after that time.
16You then went and lived with your mother until around about the age of 16 and you basically survived by yourself since then. You had one relationship that lasted for about 16 years and had three children. As I understand it, you have not seen those children for 10 years. You have not seen your brothers and sisters for even longer than that. From what I am told, you have eleven half-siblings.
17Your mother left home when you were two. You’ve only ever seen her about four times. You went to school, you were expelled in Year 8, and have a total education of a Year 7 pass. You went to Melbourne College of Graphic Arts to try and study apprenticeship, but drug abuse by that stage had a hold on you and you were unable to continue. You worked for short amounts of time as a cabinetmaker but unfortunately you do not have significant periods of employment.
18Mr Cunningham said you had been knocked unconscious on approximately fourteen occasions and that may well have had an aggravating fact or an aggravating feature of other aspects relating to your personality. He said that you presented with marked arousal in the form of 'irritability and outbursts of anger, reckless and self-destructive behaviour, hypervigilance, sleep disturbance, and difficulty concentrating'. He says his view is that a lot of that is because of a post-traumatic stress disorder, and I accept that that is the case. I accept in your situation the principles in Bugmy are brought into play because of the nature of your childhood. I accept that because of the post-traumatic stress disorder, the aspects of Verdins in terms of harder in jail and increased aggravation of mental condition also come into play.
19I am well aware that in Bugmy the principles involved do not diminish with time, but what does occur, unfortunately for people in your situation, is that the need for public protection which, in this case, is statutory, obligatory, begins to overtake the individual circumstances of the particular accused. The prospects of the rehabilitation I would have thought are bleak. The risk of you reoffending would have thought is probably high.
20I have to sentence on what the actual objective facts were, not what might have been the situation. From your previous history and the like I have a very strong premonition that one day you will seriously, very seriously, hurt somebody, Mr Caulfield, but I have to sentence you on what is before me, not on what my premonitions are, and we do not have, as it stands at least in this state, any form of preventative custody. I have taken all those matters into account on your behalf and read carefully there a couple times the report of Mr Cunningham and, again, the very - as I have already indicated, I think - helpful submissions from your counsel, is to be sentenced as follows.
21On Charge 1, 12 months; Charge 2, 15 months; Charge 3, one month concurrent; Charge 4, 12 months; and Charge 5, six months. I read that six months of the sentence imposed on Charge 1, six months of the sentence imposed on Charge 4, and three months of the sentence imposed on Charge 5 be served cumulatively upon each other and upon the sentence imposed on Charge 2.
22So far as the uplifted summary matters are concerned which you have pleaded guilty, on the charge of committing an indictable offence on bail, one month concurrent. In these particular circumstances, on the charge of unlicensed driving I will simply convict and discharge. I direct that 712 days be reckoned as having been served under this sentence.
23I point out that there has been significant discussion about what your actual PSD is. I take into account that there may well be - sorry, that there is at least 89 days of Renzella time to be used here in an overall sense. I am not taking into account any management time that maybe available to you. That is a matter for the authorities, not for me, but I take into account those overall circumstances and you have to look at the question of totality and proportionality, and that is the end result.
24That gives a total effective sentence of two years and six months. I direct that you serve a minimum term of two years before becoming eligible for parole. 712 days PSD - if I have not just said that, I meant to. And pursuant to s6AAA, but for your plea of guilty, we would have sentenced you in prison for a period of four years for a minimum term of three.
25Is there any other matters I need to do, gentleman? Any forfeitures or anything like that?
26MR D'ARCY: No, Your Honour.
27HIS HONOUR: All right. Okay, thanks for that. Do you need to speak to your client, Mr Portelli, or are you right?
28MR PORTELLI: No, I'm all right.
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