Director of Public Prosecutions v Charles
[2023] VCC 1399
•7 March 2023
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA AT Melbourne CRIMINAL DIVISION | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
Case No. CR-22-00363
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| COLIN CHARLES |
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JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE CAHILL | |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 2 March 2023 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 7 March 2023 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Charles | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2023] VCC 1399 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject: Carjacking
Catchwords: Guilty plea – impaired mental functioning – reduced moral culpability – totality
Legislation Cited: Sentencing Act1991 (Vic)
Cases Cited:
Sentence: Two-year community corrections order
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the DPP | Mr A. Albert | Director of Public Prosecutions |
| For the Accused | Mr J. Mortley | Emma Turnbull Lawyers |
HIS HONOUR:
1 Colin Charles, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of carjacking.
2 On 4 August 2020, with a co-offender, McGee, you confronted two men, Jackson and Travers, outside a home at Balaclava Road Shepparton. McGee was armed with a claw hammer.
3 McGee took Travers phone from him and said he would give it back when the keys to Jackson’s car were handed over.
4 He ripped two CCTV cameras from the front of the house and threatened Travers with the hammer.
5 Initially, Jackson couldn’t find his keys. Eventually he found the car key and gave it to McGee.
6 Before the two of you left, you told Jackson, if he called the police, the two of you would return.
7 You got into the passenger seat of Jackson’s car. McGee got into the driver’s seat and drove off.
8 Two days later the car was found abandoned.
9 Police arrested you on 15 August 2020.
10 For his part, Judge Gaynor sentenced McGee to 12 months imprisonment for carjacking, theft of Travers phone and assault with a weapon, the hammer.
11 I accept McGee was the primary offender.
12 Nevertheless, your crime was serious. It carries a maximum penalty of 15 years’ imprisonment, and it is a Category Two offence.
13 You have an intellectual disability which affects your capacity to form appropriate judgements and make calm and rational choices.
14 I am satisfied your intellectual disability constitutes impaired mental functioning that is causally linked to the commission of the offence and substantially and materially reduces your culpability.
15 Accordingly, a prison sentence is not mandated.
16 In addition to your reduced moral culpability, you are also entitled to a moderation of your sentence for
(a) your guilty plea; and
(b) your childhood disadvantage.
17 On 15 September 2021, I sentenced you to 16 months’ imprisonment with a two-year CCO, with a Justice Plan and other conditions attached for an armed robbery which you had committed, with McGee, on 14 August 2020.
18 Because you are now to be sentenced for offending which predated the armed robbery crime, the totality principle also applies.
19 In December 2022 you breached the community correction order I imposed on 15 September 2021 by driving-related reoffending. You had been progressing well on the order until you relapsed into methamphetamine use, following a decline in your mental health.
20 You have been assessed as suitable for another community correction order.
21 Overall, I am satisfied a community correction order can achieve sentencing purposes in your case.
22 By the sentence I impose, I must denounce your conduct, punish you, and deter you and others from committing crimes of the same or similar kind. I must also look to your rehabilitation.
23 Considering the circumstances of your offending, your personal circumstances and antecedents, and endeavouring to produce a sentence which reflects and promotes the purposes of sentencing in a manner appropriate to you,
(a) on the charge of carjacking (Charge 1), and
(b) the related summary charge of assault with a weapon (Summary Charge 12),
you are convicted and sentenced to a community corrections order.
24 The duration of the community corrections order will be two years. It commences today.
25 In addition to the core conditions, I impose the following special conditions:
(a) Supervision;
(b) Drug treatment and rehabilitation; and
(c) Mental health treatment and rehabilitation.
26 While there is some artificiality in the process, I declare but for your guilty plea, I would have sentenced you to two years and six months’ imprisonment and imposed a minimum non-parole period of one year and three months.
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