Director of Public Prosecutions v Chambers
[2013] VCC 943
•21 June 2013
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised (Not) Restricted Suitable for Publication |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL DIVISION
Case No. CR-11-01122
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| ROBERT CHAMBERS |
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JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE SMALLWOOD | |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne | |
DATE OF HEARING: | ||
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 21 June 2013 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v. Chambers | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2013] VCC 943 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the DPP | Mr R. Johnson | |
| For the Accused | Ms M. O'Brien |
HIS HONOUR:
1 Robert Chambers, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of rape. That crime carries a maximum penalty of 25 years' imprisonment.
2 You are 41 and you pleaded guilty to a settled indictment. I accept that you have expressed at least appropriate remorse and you must, of course, get the utilitarian benefit of that plea of guilty.
3 You have a significant number of prior convictions and have been incarcerated before. Those priors are for violence, dishonesty, drunkenness, and include, for example, something in the order of five years for armed robbery. However, you do not have any prior convictions that I have seen relating to sexual offending and that is what you are to be sentenced for, not the other matters.
4 The circumstances of the offending were that on 26 July 2008 the complainant in the matter was soliciting on the corner of Grey and Dalgety Streets, St Kilda. You approached her and negotiations took place as to having sex. You told her that you had a room at the Gatwick, which is a rooming house in Fitzroy Street. She agreed to go back there with you, went in and upstairs to the room which you entered with a key. She then went to the bathroom down the hallway and returned to your room. She asked you for the agreed amount of money. You said you did not have it and she said she was not doing it for nothing and went to walk out.
5 At that point you blocked the doorway and pushed her back inside. She reasoned that the only way to get out was to give you something. She thought that by giving you sex she would be allowed to leave. You told her to take her clothes off, which she did, as did you. You then told her to get on her back, speaking in a threatening manner, and forced yourself on top of her and put your penis into her vagina without using a condom. You held her down and forcefully penetrated her vagina until you ejaculated.
6 She made complaints of the assault on 27 July 2008.
7 What would appear to be your DNA was found in her underpants.
8 You were interviewed in February 2010 and denied any knowledge of the matter. The matter resolved on 22 May 2012 when you were arraigned and pleaded guilty.
9 I have before me a Victim Impact Statement which was indeed read out by the victim during the course of the hearing. That Victim Impact Statement eloquently and forcefully describes the very serious consequences, certainly on a psychological and emotional level, that persist for a long time after offending of this nature. I take that Victim Impact Statement very much into account. The consequences of conduct such as this can indeed be dreadful.
10 The offending has to be regarded as serious and calls for the application of general and specific deterrence, as well as denunciation and appropriate punishment. A custodial sentence is inevitable.
11 A plea was done on your behalf and a number of reports were tendered.
12 You have fairly recently been diagnosed with HIV. I am satisfied that a gaol sentence will not affect that. There is a report saying that you are doing pretty well in gaol and indeed it would seem that with not being homeless and being fed on a regular basis it is not having any bad effect on you in that respect at least, but I do take that matter into account.
13 A report was also tendered on your behalf from Ms Dowling at Outreach saying how they had been endeavouring to deal with you prior to your incarceration for this matter, going through the issues that led to homelessness, your HIV condition and other matters, and that will fall into perspective when I go to the report of Mr Deacon.
14 You went and saw Mr Deacon, a consultant psychiatrist, who of course is known to me, on 9 April of this year. His report will remain on file but I can simply quote a few things from it to give an indication of the person that he spoke to.
15 You reported a diagnosis of schizophrenia but his view is that that is unlikely, and I agree with that view. You denied active psychotic symptoms to him. He said that you "prominently communicated a profound sense of hopelessness and helplessness." He said you also highlighted a periodic proneness to feeling suicidal, and I accept that as has been put to me by your counsel from the Bar table, and that there had been repeated attempts at suicide over your adult life, many of them indeed.
16 Insofar as your capacity to, if that be the correct expression, be a prisoner, even though you have done it for an extended period in the past, he said that you were "low functioning, mentally impaired and chronically dysthymic-depressed. He has the potential to experience the custodial setting with significant difficulty."
17 Your background can be described fairly simply: you have done a lot of gaol and you have a lot of priors but yours is the sort of background that almost inevitably seems to lead to offending. You were raised in a stressful family environment, your father was abusive to your mother and sexually abused you and your sister. You have no faith in your father. Your parents separated when you were four. Your mother was an alcoholic and physically abusive. You ran away from home at the age of 12, even though there had been a stepfather there who protected you somewhat from your mother, and you lived with friends.
18 You left school in Year 7. You were a very poor student academically and you have very limited, if any, literacy skills. You were a defiant student who frequently found trouble. By the age of 13 you were fighting, thieving and generally misbehaving. You were placed in secure welfare on a few occasions, which I assume means you were made a ward in South Australia which is where you were living. On running away from home you spent a lot of time living with the local indigenous community in Port Augusta. Your first girlfriend was at the age of 16. At 18 you were incarcerated in an adult gaol for the first time. You have a couple of children with her and you have known her now for some, as I understand it, 23 years.
19 You were alcoholic-dependent from 13 to 35. You were heroin dependent during that same period of time. You have used amphetamine irregularly and you have abused non-prescribed benzodiazepines until about four years ago. As Mr Deacon points out, you have a history of repeated self-harm and suicide attempts.
20 At the time that this occurred you were living in the Gatwick. That expression just about says it all in these courts as to the level that people can get to. Mr Deacon says that you have episodes of major depression, and I accept that, and clearly that you have drug and alcohol difficulties. Prior to your incarceration you had become something of a social recluse.
21 Over the last few years you would appear to have made, on his report and on the report of others, definite attempts to rehabilitate yourself and definite attempts to get your life on track. Mr Deacon pointed out that at 41 you look significantly older and I tend to agree with that. In the end it is I suppose really up to you whether you rehabilitate. I am sure upon your ultimate release that the Parole Board will endeavour to put in place programs and connect you to people who may be able to assist you with your mental issues, your homelessness and basically your inability to cope.
22 At one stage, for example, you had a caravan up north that you were going to work from, north of the Victorian border, and it burnt. That seems to be the sort of thing that happens to you.
23 I take into account that because of previous matters in custody you will do the sentence in protection. I accept also, if I have not already said so, that the major depression will make it more difficult for you than a prisoner who did not suffer from such a condition, but I suppose on the other hand at least you will be fed regularly, have a home and your health looked after much better than it is in the general population.
24 As indicated, I take all those matters into account. I will not say that your prospects for rehabilitation are extinguished despite the rather sad figure that you cut. At the end of the day you have committed a very ugly crime that has had very ugly consequences for one person and probably more.
25 In that situation the Crown range is reasonable. Because of the difficulties that you will have in gaol and because of the protection I have imposed a sentence at the low end of that range and accordingly on the charge of rape you are sentenced to be imprisoned for a period of six years. I direct that you serve a minimum term of four years before becoming eligible for parole.
26 I say that but for your plea of guilty you would have been sentenced to be imprisoned for a period of eight years with a minimum term of six. Now I have calculated 52 days PSD.
27 MR JOHNSON: Fifty-three.
28 HIS HONOUR: Fifty-three?
29 MR JOHNSON: Yes, Your Honour.
30 HIS HONOUR: Fifty-three days it is. Are there any other orders that have to be made?
31 MR JOHNSON: No, Your Honour.
32 HIS HONOUR: Thank you.
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