Director of Public Prosecutions v Churchus
[2021] VCC 1923
•23 November 2021
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION
CR-20-01178
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| MARK CHURCHUS |
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JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE HOLDING |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne |
DATE OF HEARING: | 09 November 2021 |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 23 November 2021 |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Churchus |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2021] VCC 1923 |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject: CRIMINAL LAW – Sentence.
Catchwords: Plea of guilty – criminal record – recklessly causing serious injury – cultivate a narcotic plant – possession of a drug of dependence – summary offences – protracted – example of serious offending – moderate level of rehabilitation – Covid-19 circumstances taken into account – cannabis – methamphetamine - lack of insight into the offending – brutal.
Legislation Cited: Summary Offences Act 1996 (Vic); Firearms Act 1996 (Vic); Control of Weapons Act 1990 (Vic); Road Safety Act 1986 (Vic); Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic); Confiscation act 1977 (Vic).
Cases Cited: Refer to Exhibit 6 on the Plea - ‘Comparative Cases’.
Sentence:Total effective sentence of 5 years and 7 months’ imprisonment with 3 years and 7 months to be served before eligible for parole. Convicted and fined a total of $1,550.00.
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Director of Public Prosecutions | Mr A. Albert | Ms J. Walter for the Office of Public Prosecutions |
For the Accused | Ms E. Clark | James Dowsley & Associates |
HIS HONOUR:
1Mark Churchus, you have pleaded guilty to the following offences on indictment L10972755A.
a)Recklessly causing serious injury;
b)Cultivate a narcotic plant; and
c)Possession of a drug of dependence.
2 You have also pleaded guilty to uplifted related summary offences as follows;
a)Unlawful assault contrary to the Summary Offences Act 1996 (Vic);
b)Being a non-prohibited person in possession of a registered category A longarm air rifle contrary to the Firearms Act 1996 (Vic);
c)Possession of a prohibited weapon, namely, knuckledusters, contrary to the Control of Weapons Act 1990 (Vic);
d)Possessing a prohibited weapon, namely, a flick knife, contrary to the Control of Weapons Act 1990 (Vic).
e)Drive whilst disqualified contrary to the Road Safety Act 1986 (Vic);
f)Careless driving contrary to the Road Safety Act1986 (Vic); and
g)Failing to give your name and address after being involved in a motor vehicle accident contrary to the Road Safety Act 1986 (Vic).
3Those offences have different penalties. In particular, the recklessly cause serious injury that is the most serious charge before me carries the maximum penalty of 15 years’ imprisonment. I will not detail all the maximum penalties in relation to the other charges but they will be set out in my sentencing remarks.
4The circumstances of your offending are detailed in the prosecution opening which was exhibited on your plea.[1] The facts as outlined in that document are not in dispute and that opening should be read in conjunction with these sentencing remarks. I will summarise some of the more salient details.
[1] The prosecution opening (and prior criminal history) is Exhibit 1 on the plea.
5The offending occurred in the early hours of 18 April 2020. At that time, you were 37 years old and you were living with your partner who is the victim of the most serious criminal offending, namely, the offence of recklessly causing serious injury. You were living in Cranbourne in your own house. You lived there with your partner and your seven-month-old daughter. Your 67-year-old father, Phillip Churchus, who resided with you for six months of the year was also staying with you on the day of your offending. Your father is the victim of the uplifted summary offence of unlawful assault.[2]
[2] Summary offence Charge 7.
6On the afternoon of 17 April 2020, you had a friend visit you at your home and you consumed methylamphetamine, drank alcohol, and played pool. At about 8pm your father went to bed. At about 9:30 am your friend left your house. You stayed up with your partner and watched movies in the pool room until you both became cold and went to bed.
7It appears to have been an ongoing concern of yours in the days and weeks leading up to 18 April 2020 that your partner had been using a mobile phone application to access the internet and conduct activity on the internet that disturbed you. Sometime after you had gone to bed, in order to check whether your partner had again been using this application you asked your partner to give you her mobile phone. She gave it to you and you questioned her about her use of the application and access to the internet.
8You then commenced to assault your partner throughout the early hours of 18 April 2020. The assault constitutes the charge of recklessly causing serious injury and involves a number of aggravating and disturbing features, one of those features being that the assault was protracted.
9It involved you assaulting your partner in a number of different ways over the course of several hours. It continued despite her pleas for you to stop and despite the intervention of your father, who also pleaded you to stop. You started by slapping your partner in the head and face region and progressed to punching her repeatedly in the head and face.
10You dragged your partner by her hair into the bathroom and threatened to drown her. You put her in the shower and showered her with cold water on her face for over a minute. You then slammed her head into the bathroom tiles a few times and followed this up with stomping on the side of her head and face a number of times.
11You dragged her to the bedroom where you continued the assault by kicking her in the ribs four times in a situation where she was pleading with you by saying, ‘Stop, I can’t breathe. Please stop.’ You responded by saying, ‘I’m not finished yet.’ This was an accurate statement.
12The victim tried to get help from your father, whom she referred to as, ‘Dad.’ She cried out, ‘Dad, help, help.’ You dragged her to your father’s bedroom and you said to your father, ‘Give me your fucking phone so you don’t call the police. I’m not finished with her yet. You’re next.’
13You then dragged the victim to your bedroom and slammed her head into the bedframe. You swore at her and accused her of being unfaithful. You got on top of her on the bed and pinned her arms under your legs. You punched her in the head and face while she pleaded for you to stop. You got some pliers and used them to squash the victim’s big toe on both sides.
14You then went to the garage and got a hand drill and threatened to drill her feet and hands and threatened that you were going to cut her toes and burn them. You threatened to tie her up and drag her behind her car to her parents’ house and make them watch while you killed her. You slammed her head into the bedside table which caused her head to bleed. You kicked her in the head.
15At some point, you restrained the victim by tying her up with a dressing gown tie and gagged her with something you found on the ground. At one point in this sorry episode, your father went into your bedroom whilst you were on top of the victim. He said to you repeatedly, ‘Please stop’.
16You responded by grabbing your father around the throat with your left hand and threatening to punch him with your right fist. He pleaded for you not to punch him, and although you didn’t punch him, your actions left marks on his throat from where you had grabbed him. This conduct towards your father constitutes the summary offence of unlawful assault.
17At about 4:30 am, you appeared to change your attitude to the victim and because she was cold, you placed her in a spa bath and said, ‘This will warm you up.’ After a few minutes in the bath, you removed her from the bath and put her in bed where she fell asleep.
18At about 6 am, your father left the residence on his bicycle and was confused as to what action he should take. At about 8 am, the victim awoke to the sound of your seven-month-old daughter crying. She tended to the baby while you came in and out of the bedroom.
19At about 9 am, you told the victim that your friend, Derek, was coming and said, ‘I don’t want you out of this room until I say so.’ You then closed the door to the bedroom and went about socialising with your friend in the poolroom. The victim managed to leave the house quietly with the baby and get across the road to the neighbour’s house.
20The police were alerted and the neighbours, no doubt shocked by the victim’s appearance, took some photographs of her.[3] At about 10 am, you drove the victim’s motor vehicle in an apparent effort to find her and you crashed the vehicle about 120 metres from your home.
[3] See Exhibit 2 Photos 96-108.
21The collision caused damage to both your partner’s vehicle and to another parked vehicle. You left the scene without giving your name and address to the owner of the parked vehicle. This conduct constitutes the three summary offences of drive while authorisation suspended, careless driving, and fail to exchange name and address. Your licence had been suspended since 15 March 2020.
22Police attended at your premises that day and located about 10 small cannabis plants growing in the rear bedroom in a closet, two cannabis plants growing in the backyard along with some leafy stems, and a quantity of cannabis material mixed with other vegetable material. In total, there was about between 700 and 900 grams of cannabis mixed with vegetable material. This constitutes the other indictable offences of cultivate cannabis and possession of cannabis.
23Police took photos of the inside of your residence which depict some of the disturbance that had occurred inside your house during your offending. Police also found inside your residence an air rifle - although I was told by the prosecutor during the plea it is the type of gun that shoots BB ammunition, or pellets – a knuckleduster and a flick knife. These items constitute the summary offence of being a non-prohibited person possessing category A longarm air rifle and the two charges of possessing a prohibited weapon.
24The victim’s injuries sustained as a result of your actions are both numerous and serious. The victim had significant bruising and swelling all over her face and body, particularly on the side of her face and temple. Her right eye was swollen shut and both of her eyes were blackened with bruising.
25She suffered tenderness in various parts of her body. The right hand was bruised and swollen, she had two small lacerations to her head region, swelling and tenderness over the sacrum on both flanks. She had four rib fractures, some of which were moderately displaced, and fractures at the L1 and L3 vertebrae.
26She had a collapsed lung, most likely caused from the fracturing of her ribs, and bleeding on her brain that fortunately did not appear to cause associated brain swelling and did not require medical intervention. She suffered a fractured right eye socket that required surgery.
27She was taken to the Dandenong Hospital by ambulance on the day of the offence and it appears that she was having trouble breathing because of the collapsed lung. Treatment for this condition required the insertion of what is referred to as an intercostal catheter. She was then transferred on 19 April to the Alfred Hospital and the catheter was removed on 21 April and needed to be reinserted on 23 April.[4] She was discharged from the Alfred Hospital on 26 April 2020.
[4] See pages 760-761 of the depositions.
28A forensic medical practitioner has expressed the view that the fracture of the eye socket may cause her to have an altered facial appearance and that she may have ongoing symptoms of pain, altered vision, and psychological symptoms. The altered vision may preclude her from driving for a period of time post the offence. The collapsed lung was potentially life-threatening. The opinion was that the injuries were substantial and likely to be protracted.
29On 6 May 2020, the victim was referred to the Monash Health Cardinia Casey Community Rehabilitation Service to receive occupational therapy and social work assistance. She attended at that facility until she was discharged from treatment on 6 July 2020. She was not granted permission to drive a motor vehicle by her optician due to vision problems until 22 May 2020. She reported at this time, about a month after the assault, that she still felt anxious and depressed as a result of the assault.
30You handed yourself into the Narre Warren Police Station on 22 April 2020 and you were interviewed on that day in respect of your offending. You told the police that you had actually resigned from your employment so that you could watch the victim to stop her from sneaking off and doing things.
31You told the police that you had been arguing for some time about the applications your partner used on the internet. You indicated that she promised you that she would stop what she was doing on the internet, but as far as you were concerned, she kept lying. You gave an explanation for the use of the pliers, saying that you and your partner had been messing around and that it was a sexual thing.
32You admitted to grabbing your father by the neck and telling him to ‘Fucking stay out of it, or something’. You acknowledged that everyone was scared of you. In your police interview, you had trouble admitting what you had done to your partner. You described what had occurred as quote, ‘an accident’.
33You did, however, acknowledge feelings of regret. You said, quote, ‘I don’t even know how I did this. It disgusts me. I don’t know what happened’. You said that perhaps you had been a little more drunk than you had thought and you said, quote, ‘That’ - in referring to your conduct – ‘is disgusting, and that I want someone to beat the shit out of me’.
34In relation to the air rifle, you said you had bought it at a garage sale to try it out because you had one when you were kid. In relation to the cannabis that you were growing and possessed, you claimed it was for your personal use.
35You are now aged 39 and were aged 37 at the time of your offending. You have been in a relationship with the victim in this matter since 2013 and you have lived with her for most of that time. You have one daughter with the victim, who is your only child and was aged seven months at the time of your offence.
36And intervention order is in place which allows limited contact between you and the victim and your daughter. You now have regular contact with the victim, but you are waiting for DFFH[5] to arrange a supervised video visit with your daughter.
[5] Department of Families, Fairness and Housing.
37Your upbringing was relatively stable. You are the youngest of three children. Your parents separated when you were eight years old. However, you have a close relationship with your father, your mother, and in particular, your stepfather. Your family has remained supportive of you throughout your period on remand.
38You attended a secondary school in Shepparton in Years 7 and 8, but then completed the rest of your schooling at Berwick Secondary College. You were slow to develop literacy and numeracy skills and you repeated Year 1. These skills remain rudimentary even now. You found the repeated moves of school difficult and you struggled to fit in with the social networks at these schools. It was in this context that you started using cannabis.
39During Year 11, you left school. You then gained work building caravans. You enjoyed that work and did it for about 10 years. However, it was not remunerative. You later worked as a scaffolder and then a rigger. You have maintained a consistent employment history throughout your life and were able to buy a house about five years ago.
40You were a heavy binge drinker during your teenage years and in your 20s. At the time of your offending you were drinking daily. However, your use of alcohol at this time was significantly moderated compared to your younger adult life.
41You regularly used cannabis from the age of 14 to 29, then you stopped for about five years. Your use resumed from your mid-30s until your arrest. Your regular use of cannabis became something you did together with the victim.
42I was told by your counsel that you had a history of recreational and occasional use of methamphetamine in your younger years. However, you and the victim started using methamphetamine together towards the end of 2019 and that use increased leading up to your offending.
43You have a criminal history that is not extensive but dates back to 2002. In May 2009, you were convicted of recklessly causing injury and fined $1,000. Your counsel told me this involved an argument with a male housemate with whom you were living at the time and that alcohol was involved.
44In 2010, you were convicted and fined $800 as an aggregate penalty for being drunk and resisting and assaulting police. In 2013, you received a bond without conviction for driving in a dangerous manner. Whilst you do not have a prior conviction that might be described as domestic or family violence, your counsel conceded that you were not in the same position as a person who comes before the court without any prior criminal history for violence.
45Your counsel submitted that in the lead up to this offending your life became somewhat chaotic. The adjustment from having a newborn baby caused stress and this was compounded by the downturn in work as a result of the pandemic. You lost your licence and ultimately became unemployed. It was the combination of these difficult life challenges that resulted in you increasing your methamphetamine use, the deterioration of your relationship, and the subsequent offending.
46Ms Clark also submitted that your plea of guilty, which was entered during the period of the pandemic, is consistent with remorse. This is your first period of imprisonment, which has been difficult in terms of the additional restrictions that are necessary because of the pandemic and you’ve been assaulted twice whilst in custody, with one of those assaults causing a large scalp laceration that involved some non-invasive medical treatment.[6]
[6] Exhibit B: Discharge summary 13th May 2020.
47Counsel stated that despite the difficulties you have experienced in prison, you have made every effort possible to complete courses and to gain insight into your own mental health issues that contributed to this offending whilst in custody. Tendered in support of this submission were certificates indicating that you have completed numerous courses related to behaviour change, building positive relationships, parenting skills, and overall mental health.[7]
[7] Exhibit C: Bundle of 12 certificates of courses completed in custody.
48Urine analysis results suggest you have remained abstinent whilst in custody[8] and you have undergone eight individual counselling sessions related to drug and alcohol rehabilitation.[9] Ms Clark submits that your prospects of rehabilitation are very good, given your limited criminal history, your good work history, family support,[10] and your acceptance of responsibility, and insight into your own offending behaviour.
[8] Exhibit D: Urine analysis results X3 dated 29th September 2021, 27th May 2020, and the 11th June 2020.
[9] Exhibit E: Letters from Jane Laffan unsigned, 13th November 2020.
[10] Exhibit G was a letter from the Accused’s step father which confirmed a close relationship and ongoing
emotional and financial support. The Accused’s biological father (the Victim of the summary offence of
assault) was also linked into the plea hearing that was conducted remotely, and remains supportive.
49Your counsel concedes that the offending is so serious that it can only appropriately result in the imposition of a term of imprisonment with a head sentence and non-parole period. She submits that your rehabilitation prospects would be enhanced by an extended period on parole.
50In relation to the injuries suffered by the victim, the defence submits that the brain bleed did not get progressively worse or require medical intervention, and the victim recovered in time from the pneumothorax.[11]
[11] See Depositions p 757 and 762.
51The prosecution relies upon the seriousness of the offending. It is submitted that the motivation for the criminal conduct, such as jealousy and control, are unfortunately common features of family violence, and general deterrence is a very important sentencing consideration.
52The prosecution submits that your prospects of rehabilitation should be assessed as, quote, ‘Guarded’, and tendered a report prepared by the County Court Integrated Services Program – that is, the CISP program – dated 9 March 2021. The Prosecutor submitted that the assessors reporting of comments you made when being assessed for suitability for support on bail, contradicted the defence submission that you have developed insight into your own behaviour.[12]It was submitted that you made comments that minimised your offending.
[12] Exhibit 5: CISP Report from Ms. Tina Pugliese dated 9th March 2021.
53The maximum penalty for recklessly causing serious injury is 15 years’ imprisonment. Your plea of guilty acknowledges that when you were assaulting your partner, you were aware that your conduct would probably result in the victim being seriously injured. This is a grave example of this offence, both in respect of the level of injury sustained and the manner in which you inflicted those injuries by repeated brutal assaults upon your partner.
54While the evidence suggests that in time the victim will physically recover from most of the injuries that were caused by your assault, the victim’s life was potentially put at risk as a result of her suffering a collapsed lung. Fortunately, medical intervention ameliorated that potentiality.
55In addition, the victim suffered horrific bruising and swelling to her head region. This was as a result of the fact that she received a number of forceful impacts to the head. The summary details you punching her in the head and face, slamming her head into the tiles and stomping on her head. You kicked her with such force in the body that her ribs were fractured.
56The photographs of her injuries reveal, and it was confirmed by defence counsel, that she is a person of small stature and light frame. She suffered the infliction of these injuries throughout the morning in circumstances where you were physically dominating her in what must have been a terrifying experience. This was in the context of her being the primary carer for your seven-month-old daughter who was asleep in the house throughout this episode.
57The psychological impact of your offending will undoubtedly be of ongoing significance in the victim’s life. I accept that you were, during this period of offending, affected by alcohol and methamphetamine. However, the prosecution opening refers to uncharged assaults and threats by you towards the victim on 4, 16, and 17 April leading up to this offending.
58You are not to be punished for these uncharged acts. However, it is not in dispute that this prior conduct dispels any notion that your offending was, quote, ‘out of the blue’, or the very first time that you had behaved aggressively towards your partner while affected by drugs.
59Defence counsel acknowledged the fact that you were affected by methylamphetamine and alcohol while assaulting your partner is not mitigatory in the circumstances of this crime.
60It is also to be noted that whilst you were affected by drugs and alcohol when committing the offences, you threatened your father to hand over his phone so that the police could not be called. This demonstrated that you were not so drug-affected that you could not appreciate at the time of your offending conduct that what you were doing was criminal behaviour that warranted the police being contacted and you were prepared to take steps to prevent that from occurring.
61During the plea hearing, I also raised with your counsel that when your friend, Derek, came to visit you in the morning for what appeared to be a social visit, you told your partner to stay out of sight without showing any concern for her welfare. You did not appear to be concerned at that time that she should receive medical assistance.
62Your defence counsel submitted that you would not, at that time, have appreciated the full extent of the victim’s injuries. This might be so. However, one only has to look at the photographs of the victim taken in the immediate aftermath of the offending to appreciate that her appearance clearly indicated her need for immediate medical assistance.[13]
[13] Exhibit 2: Photographs depicting the Victims injuries.
63I accept that your plea of guilty requires a significant discount in sentence. It was not submitted that your plea of guilty was an early plea of guilty. Nevertheless, you did not require the victim to give evidence at the committal, and the subsequent plea has meant that she has never had to relive and recount this traumatic event in court.
64She has not taken the opportunity to lodge a victim impact statement. However, there is no issue from the defence that your offending must have had a traumatic and significant impact upon her. I accept that a plea of guilty in the circumstances of the pandemic entitles you to additional amelioration of sentence, given the added utilitarian benefit of clearing the backlog of cases that are currently listed in this court.
65It is also the case that your actual experience of imprisonment is more difficult due to the restrictions in visitation rights and the restrictions on movement within prisons generally as a result of efforts to curb the spread of the virus. I take these matters into account in consideration of the appropriate sentence.
66In terms of assessing your prospects of rehabilitation, I accept that your work history, limited criminal history, and family support are important factors. However, there are aspects of your offending that are unfortunately all too common. You explained in your interview with police that the background to the offending was a concern that you had about your partner, ‘Sneaking off, doing things,’ and that you had been arguing about her conduct for a period of time.
67You suggested that you had actually stopped working so you could watch your partner, although it was clarified in the plea hearing that you lost your employment for other reasons. It is apparent from your interview and the circumstances of the offending that your resort to physical domination and violence towards your partner was related to a feeling that she had somehow been lying or disloyal to you.
68This does appear to be a common feature of family violence usually inflicted by men upon their partners. I accept the prosecution submission that general deterrence is an important sentencing consideration in trying to deter potential offenders from resorting to physical domination of their partners as a response to feelings of betrayal.
69It is an important function of this court to publicly denounce this type of criminal behaviour. I accept that you are making genuine efforts to better understand your own behaviour, and I am impressed by the number of courses that you have managed to complete whilst in custody. I have taken these certificates relating to those courses into account.
70Your stepfather’s letter says that you, quote, ‘Deeply regret your actions and you are focusing on making amends.’ At the same time, I have some concern with statements your made when being assessed for suitability for CISP support, which are referred to in the CISP report. Those statements do suggest at the time, in March 2021, you were still minimising your conduct.
71Your counsel submitted that the CISP report had to be read in the context that at that time you were being assessed, the charges against you had not been resolved.[14] I accept that may be a factor which I need to take into account in the sense that at the time of your interview, you may have been concerned that your legal position might have been jeopardised by a full acknowledgement of your actions.
[14] At the time of the CISP report the Accused was charged with Intentionally Causing Serious Injury.
72Overall, I accept that your prospects of rehabilitation are fair, but I’m not completely without reservations in that regard. I have no doubt that the success of your rehabilitation will largely depend upon your resolve to remain abstinent from the use of illicit drugs, in particular methylamphetamine, upon your release from custody.
73There are certainly some aspects of the sentence that I impose that must reflect considerations of specific deterrence. I am of the view that there is some real benefit in you having a period of parole where your efforts at rehabilitation with the community are supervised.
74In relation to the cultivation and possession of cannabis, I note that there was some evidence in the depositional material that you may have sold some cannabis to friends. I am not prepared to find on the balance of probabilities that your cultivation and possession was only for your personal use. I accept that you and your partner were heavy users of cannabis and your personal use was probably the main reason for growing and possessing most of the cannabis.
75During the plea hearing, I invited both parties to provide me with any cases that might be of assistance in providing a ‘yardstick’ as to current sentencing practices. Defence counsel indicated during the plea hearing that there is such a variety of circumstances in which the offence of recklessly causing injury is committed that she did not rely upon any cases for comparative purposes.
76The prosecution, after the plea, did provide me with a table of cases that it was submitted gave some guidance to relevant principles. I will tender the table as an exhibit on the plea.[15] It will become Exhibit 6. The defence, having also been provided with the prosecution table of cases elected not to respond. I have examined the table and the cases. The cases, of course, are not precedents but have provided me with some guidance as to the application of relevant sentencing principles.
[15] Exhibit 6: Prosecution table of comparative cases received by the court on 10 November 2021.
77In sentencing you, Mr Churchus, I must have regard to the purposes of sentencing as expressed in s 5(1) and the matters referred to in s 5(2) of the Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic). I am obliged to impose a sentence that is no more severe than is necessary to achieve the sentencing purposes.
78In terms of the principle of totality, in my view the seriousness of the offending that constituted the offence of recklessly causing serious injury is much greater than the seriousness of the other offences. Save and except for the charge of unlawful assault against your father, I do not intend to order cumulation of the periods of imprisonment imposed in respect of those offences with the sentence imposed in respect of the recklessly causing serious charge.
79Mark Churchus, on charge 1 on the indictment, recklessly causing serious injury, you are convicted and sentenced to five years and six months’ imprisonment. This is the base sentence. On charge 2, cultivate a narcotic plant, namely cannabis, you are convicted and sentenced to three months’ imprisonment. On charge 3, possession of cannabis, you are convicted and sentenced to one month’s imprisonment.
80On summary charge 7, unlawful assault, you are convicted and sentenced to two months’ imprisonment. I direct that one month of that sentence of two months be served cumulatively on charge 1. On the summary charge 11, being a non-prohibited person in possession of a registered category, a longarm air rifle, you are convicted and fined $300.
81On summary charge 12, possessing a prohibited weapon, knuckledusters, you are convicted and fined $250. On summary charge 13, possession of a prohibited weapon, a flick knife, you are convicted and fined $450. On summary charge 14, drive whilst suspended, you are convicted and sentenced to two months’ imprisonment.
82On summary charge 15, careless driving, you are convicted and fined $200. On summary charge 16, failing to give your name and address after being involved in a motor vehicle accident, you are convicted and fined $350. That makes a total effective sentence of five years and seven months’ imprisonment.
83I order that you serve three years and nine months’ imprisonment before being eligible for release on parole.
84I order, that pursuant to s 78(1) of the Confiscation Act 1977 (Vic), the disposal of the samples of cannabis that were seized. I also order, pursuant to s 9(1) of the Control of Weapons Act 1990 (Vic), the forfeiture of the knuckledusters, the pliers with green-blue handles, two pliers with a blue handle, a flick knife, and a black Gamo brand air rifle with scope.
85Pursuant to s 18(4) of the Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic), I declare that the period of 580 days that you have been in custody be reckoned as time already served under the sentence passed today, and I direct that this be entered into the records of the court. Pursuant to s 6AAA of the Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic), I declare that had you not pleaded guilty, I would have sentenced you to a total effective sentence of seven years and four months’ imprisonment, with a period of five years and six months before being eligible for parole.
86I can only hope, Mr Churchus, that these courses do have an effect, and when you get out you are able to turn your life around. Thank you. I’ll adjourn the court.
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