Director of Public Prosecutions v Chidwick

[2019] VCC 197

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

AT GEELONG
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 18-01668

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

CRAIG CHIDWICK

---

JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE MULLALY
WHERE HELD:	Geelong
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	11 February 2019
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Chidwick
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2019] VCC 197

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
---

Subject:
Catchwords:
Legislation Cited:
Cases Cited:
Sentence:

---

APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr D. Brown
For the Accused	Mr J. Williams

HIS HONOUR:   

1Craig Chidwick, you and Kellie Thompson commenced a relationship around 18 months to two years ago.  Ms Thompson had been in a relationship with the victim.  They had two children.  In September of 2015, that relationship ended.  Ms Thompson moved out of the family home.  The victim remained in that house, together with the two children.  There was animosity between
Ms Thompson and her ex-partner, the victim.  You became embroiled in that.  There were mutual intervention orders, including by and against you. 

2In the early hours of 27 March 2018, you and Ms Thompson drove to the vicinity of the victim's house.  You had, in the car, four large glass jars full of petrol.  You prepared the jars at home earlier that evening.  One of the jars had a rag in the lid, so as to act as a wick.  First, Ms Thompson went to the house and turned off the power at the main.  This was to disable the CCTV camera.  It also increased the risks and dangers for the occupants of the house, as the next diabolically dangerous steps were undertaken by you. 

3Once Ms Thompson returned to the car, you walked to the house with the four jars of petrol.  Once near the victim's carport area, you got a garden rock and used it to smash a window in the victim's car, which was parked right by the house.  You then poured the petrol from one jar into the car.  You got the jar with the rag in the lid and you lit it and threw it into the car.  This firebomb exploded in the car and with the added fuel that you had thrown in the car, it was quickly ablaze.  It spread into the carport. 

4Damage was also caused to the adjoining house.  Most concerning was that the victim was awoken by the explosion.  He ran outside and as did a neighbour and they tried to extinguish the fire.  As the fire started to endanger the house, the victim ran back inside to rescue the sleeping children. 

5The fire was extinguished by the fire brigade.  The car was completely destroyed.  It was valued at $5,000, but was essential to the victim in his basic economic circumstances.  Beyond that, the utter terror of being the subject of a targeted firebombing has understandably gravely affected the victim and his children.  I will say more of the victim impact statement shortly. 

6Before that I need to deal with your continued cruel attacks upon the victim.  As a result of the attack on 27 March 2018, the victim and his children could no longer live in their house.  They moved out.  However, that period of time the victim was moving personal items, some remained in the house. 

7On 25 April 2018, so a month or so after the first arson, you went back to the premises in the dead of night.  You were alone.  You broke in and stole tyres and rim from the car that were salvaged, indeed the only things that were salvaged from the car that you had destroyed a month earlier.  You also broke into the locked rear shed and stole valuable tools which were given an overall value of $2,000. 

8After taking the stolen goods to your car, parked some distance away, you then returned and went into the house itself.  You collected rags and combustible material from the shed and you put it into a pile in the house, which you then set alight.  It quickly caught on and the house was ultimately engulfed and destroyed.  The fire was estimated to have caused $150,000 damage to the property and $5,000 worth of personal property of the victim was destroyed.  Once you had set the premises on fire, you got out and went to your car and drove with your stolen goods back to your house.

9You were arrested on 25 April.  You admitted that you lit the fire on 27 March, claiming the victim was making threats to your partner and yourself.  A few days later the police returned and found the stolen wheel rims and tyres at your house.  You then admitted the burglary, theft and the second arson.  You said that you returned and lit the second fire because you wanted to make the victim suffer. 

10This is particularly concerning, indicating a dark and dangerous aspect of your personality.  Both arsons were serious.  The first endangered the victim and his children.  Arson is inherently dangerous.  This was the more so, because you knew the victim and his children were inside.  You arranged for the power to be cut and then in a calculated and cold hearted way, you set the fire in an explosive blaze.  You planned, prepared and executed this serious crime. 

11The second arson with the associated burglary and theft was quite simply cruel and to rightminded people, bewildering.  Your admission that you wanted the victim to suffer more than he had already, reveals your high moral culpability.  As I said, it also reveals a dark side of your character.  Arson is a serious crime and both your offences were truly grave examples of the offence. 

12As indicated, the adverse impact on the victim and his children has been significant.  His victim impact statement, including material from experts and psychologists and social workers relating to himself and his children.  It was compelling and heartfelt.  He wrote, "After the car bombing, the boys and I are extremely scared for our lives.  Our lives were turned upside down.  Being in the home that we've had for many years and seeing the damage done that could have killed my sons, caused me even greater fear, stress and anxiety.  Our lives were nearly gone and I became extremely scared."

13He goes on to say, he realised for the first time he could not protect them, "And that knocks me around more than anything.  I am scared every day and live in fear for my boys' lives and my life.  I worry every time I get into the car there may be a bomb of some sort.  It's a horrible thing to be scared all day every day." 

14His ten year old son, on the night of the car bombing, was in the house and he says that he panicked and was scared for his life when he woke him.  The child himself then panicked and has not been the same since.  He cannot sleep alone, refuses to sleep in his own bed and is still scared at night and stays near his father as much as possible.  He has to see a psychologist to cope with the fear and I read the reports that were provided in that regard.  He does not feel safe anywhere. 

15The other son, who is a little older, he feels the pressure of having to care for his younger brother and keep him safe and the father worries that this pressure is too much on the teenager.  He is deeply angry, the teenager, and fears for his life and has high anxiety due to these traumatic events.  His anxiety is heightened when he leaves the house and he feels vulnerable.  He has been assessed and diagnosed with social anxiety from complex trauma and is being assessed for post-traumatic stress disorder.  I read the reports relating to him and his difficulties at school as a consequence of this anxiety and fear. 

16The victim himself, the father, was vulnerable.  The physical effects of the smoke and the trauma of the fires caused further difficulties for his existing cardiac ill-health.  He has a diagnosis, he says, of cardiomyopathy, a very serious cardiac illness and of course, he points out that the high stress situations puts more pressure on his cardiac health, causing his life to be at risk, or he feels that way.  He has high blood pressure and the stress he lives with everyday increases his blood pressure to serious risk levels, in his view. 

17He is undertaking pulmonary rehabilitation and chronic disease management, but all of this is difficult and he now has to have home help and again, he continues to worry about his health and what will happen to his boys if he is not around.  Mentally he sees a psychologist.  He tries to talk things through.  He has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.  He has depression and takes anti-depressant tablets daily. 

18The financial impact on him was very significant, losing his car and other belongings inside the house.  The social impact on him, is that he really has no social life.  He needs to be with his sons when they are not in school, so he can protect them.  He feels that he cannot go out at all. 

19As I said, I saw and read the various reports that were attached to the victim impact statements relating to the children from those at the Department of Health and Human Services and others, including Dr Carolyn Coulson, the clinical psychologist, who is treating the victim, who in her report, she makes clear that, "Understandably, the victim has been deeply affected by these fires and has developed post-traumatic stress disorder as a result.  He experiences increased anxiety, hypervigilance, intrusive thoughts, images about the fire, insomnia, exaggerated startle reflex and impaired sense of safety.  He is a resilient man, a dedicated and protective father who is determined to get on with life and provide as much safety to his sons."  Nonetheless, the impact upon him has been, as I said, very significant. 

20As to your personal circumstances, you are now 47.  Your upbringing was unusual.  You were raised by your mother and did not know your father until you commenced to look for him and indeed find him at age 18 or thereabouts.  You were born deaf in your right ear.  You now have a cochlear implant.  You were the youngest of three.  I will say more of the tragedy that befell your oldest sister shortly. 

21When your family moved from Darwin where you were born to Victoria, you were about nine years old.  You had been at a school for the deaf in Darwin, but in Melbourne you attended standard State schools.  You were taunted and bullied mercilessly because you were deaf, which did not abate after shifting schools.  Your hearing aid was routinely taken from you and destroyed. 

22Your mother had been working in a rape crisis centre and was studying law
part-time.  However, around the time that you were in Grade 5, she took you out of school and went travelling.  Ultimately you and she ended up in a remote part of New South Wales, isolated from all others, save for a fortnightly trip to a nearby town for supplies.  Otherwise you lived with her in a shed without electricity, running water and much of your time was taken fetching the water from the nearby creek and fetching firewood.  Your sisters were living elsewhere independently.  You lived in this hermit-like fashion for about six years, without attending any school or socialising with others your age or anyone. 

23When you were about 16 or 17, you rebelled and decided to leave.  You walked from where you were to nearby Bega and then from there onto Frankston in Victoria, where your elder sister lived.  Once there you discovered that your father was still in Darwin.  You made your way there and united with him and remained there until you were about 20.  It was at this time that you leaned of the tragic death of your older sister in a motor vehicle accident.  You were close to her and you returned to Victoria at this time. 

24You then enrolled in adult education.  You met a woman, also deaf, and you and she enjoyed a long 20 year relationship, before she also died suddenly of health complications.  You and she had two boys, but you do not have contact with them now. 

25You had a reasonably solid work history, taking time off after your partner became more ill or her health declined, but otherwise you have been in solid employment.  After her death in 2012, you again gained full-time work in the North Shore area, where you remained employed for five years.  At the time of these offences, your work had slowed down and you were unemployed. 

26Your unusual upbringing and your disability are matters that are deserving of some mitigatory compassion.  However, also in your background is your prior criminal history.  You have had five court appearances from 2004 to 2011, putting to one side an earlier appearance in 1994.  You have committed offences of dishonesty, endangerment, driving, burglary, theft and dealing with the proceeds of crime.  There is one other prior matter that you have that I will deal with separately.  You have received terms of imprisonment, wholly suspended, which have ultimately been restored and served.  You have served terms of imprisonment in the past.

27In 2009 you were convicted at the Magistrates' Court here in Geelong for the crime of arson.  It seems you were persuaded by an associate to incinerate a car, so as to claim an insurance payout.  Connected to this crime was reckless conduct endangering serious injury and making a false report to police.  This highly relevant prior conviction for arson not only makes the two arsons before me more serious, it and indeed your other prior matters also means more weight must be given to deterrence to you.  However, the prior matter which was punished by imprisonment, that is the arson, means that you will become a serious arson offender if I impose imprisonment for your current arson charges.

28In that regard, there is no other option but to impose a gaol term.  No one argued to the contrary.  Thus, the serious offender provisions of the Sentencing Act apply in this case.  Apart from declarations and giving prominence to protection of the community, the practical implication is that I must cumulate the sentence on the second arson on this indictment, unless I otherwise order. 

29The tension between these serious offender provisions and the principle of totality remains.  I cannot ignore Parliament's intent in enacting the serious offender provisions, including the more recent serious arson offender provisions.  I must sentence you differently because of those provisions.  But
I will nonetheless re-examine the sentence and recalibrate to ensure totality is not entirely abandoned.  I must also keep in mind that your second arson was separate in time and solely committed by you.  It was entirely gratuitous.  It must be separately punished.

30As I have said, your arsons were serious.  You were motivated by revenge and cruel punishment.  You were organised on the first occasion and used accelerants that operated like a firebomb, causing real risk to the victim, the young children and indeed the neighbours.  All arsons, as I have said, are dangerous.  Your prior conviction for arson not only increases the need for deterrence to you, it also means I am not at all sure about your rehabilitation. 

31In dealing with serious offender provisions, the Court of Appeal in the matter of Hopson, a pseudonym, said the following at paragraph 52, where the court said,

"In our view, the risk of an offender re-offending and the likely seriousness of re-offending, must also be relevant considerations.  Where a court determines that an offender's prospects of rehabilitation are poor or less than reasonable, the need to protect the community by imposing a longer sentence is more pronounced."

32As I say, I considered your prospects of rehabilitation as certainly less than reasonable. 

33Your early plea of guilty means your sentence will be less than it otherwise would have been.  Your admissions to the police are significant and I have taken them into account.  Your disability will make your time in prison more onerous and that too has operated to mitigate the length of your sentence. 

34As has been made clear, sentences of imprisonment for these offences are the only option, given the gravity of the crimes, the dreadful impact on the victim, your prior history, your uncertain and less than reasonable prospects for rehabilitation, the need for the community to be protected from you and for the message of deterrence to be sent to anyone who may think of taking revenge when facing ordinary relationship difficulties, mean that notwithstanding the personal mitigatory matters that I have mentioned, the overall sentence must be a lengthy one. 

35I will not order full cumulation in respect of the fourth charge, because to do so would establish a total sentence well beyond all others of like kind.  But in compliance with the serious offender provisions, there must be some cumulation.

36I will allow for the potential of a period of parole so as you can be appropriately monitored and settle back into the community.  But whether you get parole and when is for others to determine your future.

37Charge 1, four years and nine months.

38Charge 2, nine months.

39Charge 3, nine months.

40Charge 4, four years and nine months.

41Order that nine months of Charge 2 be served concurrently upon the sentence imposed on Charge 1.

42Order that three months of Charge 3 and two years of Charge 4 be cumulative on Charge 1 and each other.

43This gives a total effective sentence of seven years with a non-parole period of five years.

44I declare that Mr Chidwick has served 18 days pre-sentence detention and I reckon that Mr Chidwick has already served 18 days.

45Section 6AAA:  Nine years with non-parole of seven years.

46I sentence you as a serious arson offender.

47I order that you provide a forensic sample.  What that means, Mr Chidwick, is that the prison authorities at some point will come and get a forensic sample from you.  That is a scraping from your mouth so your DNA can be extracted and put on a database. 

48That means that when they come to do that, if you don't cooperate with them, then they are authorised to use reasonable force to secure that forensic sample.  The way through is to cooperate.

49Is there anything further? 

50MR BROWN:  No, Your Honour.

51HIS HONOUR:  Does the maths add up?

52MR BROWN:  Yes, Your Honour.

53HIS HONOUR:  Thank you.  I am told it's just a forfeiture order.  Would that be right? 

54MR BROWN:  Yes, Your Honour.

55HIS HONOUR:  Those orders are signed.  Is there - there's nothing else?

56MR BROWN:  No, Your Honour. 

57HIS HONOUR:  Mr Williams, thank you for your assistance.  Mr Chidwick can be taken downstairs. 

58Thank you, I will stand down until the next case.

‑ ‑ ‑