Director of Public Prosecutions v Coane

[2015] VCC 491

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

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

HAYDEN COANE (A PSEUDONYM)

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE GRANT
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	12 May 2015
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Coane
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2015] VCC 491

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Office of Public Prosecutions	Mr N. Goodenough	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Mr V. Peters	Victoria Legal Aid

HIS HONOUR:

1Mr Coane, on 4 April 2014, I sentenced you for five serious offences.  The offending involved indecent assaults and one count of incest and I released you on a community corrections order. A compelling reason for doing that was the fact that you were 12 and 13 years old when you offended.  So you were very young when you committed the offences.

2I had read a report from Dr Owens that detailed a number of problems in your life that needed to be addressed. I formed the view that the community corrections order should have conditions that addressed those problems.  

3You admit that you have failed to comply with the order.  You failed to attend supervision appointments as requested.  You were exited from the drug and alcohol program for non-compliance.  You refused to attend mental health treatment.  You did not attend the sex offender assessment. Clearly, you have comprehensively failed to comply with the conditions of the order. In addition, you were involved in further offences which were proved at the Warrnambool Magistrates’ Court. You were released on a further community corrections order on those matters.

4Mr Coane, you have shown yourself to be unwilling to comply with a community corrections order. There is no point in making such an order again today.  I find the breach proved.  The order will be cancelled and I am going to resentence you on the original offences.

5You will be convicted on the original offences. Given your young age at the time of the offending it is my view that the most appropriate order is a suspended jail term. On all charges you are sentenced to an aggregate imprisonment term of eight months.  That sentence is wholly suspended for the next twelve months. 

6So what that means is if you commit any further offences in the next twelve months - drug offences, theft, drive whilst disqualified, unlawful assault or any other offence punishable by imprisonment - then you will serve eight months on these matters.

7If you do not reoffend, then you will not serve the time.  So this order places your future on your shoulders.  No offending, no gaol, but if you walk out of here and treat this order with the sort of contempt that you treated the last order and you reoffend by using drugs or whatever, then you will do the eight months and of course you will get additional time for the extra offending.  So it is all up to you.  Thank you, you can be seated there for a moment.

8Are there any other matters that I need to attend to, Mr Goodenough?

9MR GOODENOUGH:  I was just contemplating, Your Honour, whether 6AAA applies in this circumstance.

10HIS HONOUR:  Look I think not, because I am breaching him.  He has pleaded guilty on a breach.  In an excess of caution I say had he not pleaded guilty, then it is likely that he would have received an actual gaol term.

11MR GOODENOUGH:  As the court pleases.

12HIS HONOUR:  But I think the exercise in this case is wholly academic.

13MR GOODENOUGH:  Yes, Your Honour.

14HIS HONOUR:  I thank Ms Smith for her attendance and for the reports and updates that have been provide in the matter.

15MS SMITH:  Thank you, Your Honour, you're welcome.

16HIS HONOUR:  All right, 12 o'clock.

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