Director of Public Prosecutions v Collier

[2017] VCC 311

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

AT WANGARATTA
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR-16-02175

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

REBECCA COLLIER

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JUDGE:	HER HONOUR JUDGE HARBISON
WHERE HELD:	Wangaratta
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	24 March 2017
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Collier
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2017] VCC 311

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:
Catchwords:
Legislation Cited:
Cases Cited:
Sentence:

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr D. Cordy
For the Accused	Mr M. Vaccaro

Pages 1 - 13

 

 

HER HONOUR:

1Rebecca Collier, you have pleaded guilty before me to one charge of aggravated burglary, one charge or making a threat to inflict serious injury, two charges of damaging property and three charges of contravening a family violence intervention order. 

2These offences arose out of your behaviour on 22 August 2016.  All of the details of your behaviour are set out in the prosecution opening, which is an exhibit on the plea and I do not propose to repeat all of those matters. 

3Briefly, it appears that you had, since an early age, an acrimonious relationship with your mother.  It appears that this relationship may, in part, have related to your claim of having being sexually molested by your grandfather at an early age and you assigning blame to your mother for not taking that abuse seriously.  Perhaps as a consequence, you became involved with drugs in your teenage years and this involvement appears to have precipitated some mental problems. 

4You now appear before me as a 42-year-old.  You have had one child, Jesse, who is aged 23 years and lives with your parents.  The fact that he appears to prefer living with your mother rather than yourself is another cause of antagonism within the family. 

5At the time of the events which I am about to relate, your mother, father and son had taken out intervention orders against you and these were still current. 

6Early in the morning of 22 August 2016, you phoned your brother, Dean, which whom you have a good relationship.  You told him that you were very angry with your mother and you had decided to travel from you home in Benalla to your parents' home in Wangaratta in order to slit your mother's throat. 

7Your brother tried to calm you down in the phone conversation but you eventually hung up on him.  Your brother was desperately concerned and rang the police.  He also rang your mother to warn her. 

8You drove from your house in Benalla to Wangaratta, a drive of approximately an hour.

9When you got to Wangaratta, you first attended at a house belonging to a woman by the name of Amber Johnston. Amber was a former friend of yours.  You had recently a fraught relationship with her.  She gave as a reason for that relationship, that she thought you may have been jealous of her good relationship with your son, Jesse.  The reason you gave to police for the fraught relationship was that she was your drug dealer and you were angry with her for supplying drugs to your son, Jesse. 

10In any event, you approached Amber's house, yelling and screaming.  You  picked up a paving block and threw it through her front bedroom window.  It was 7.15 in the morning and she was still asleep in that bedroom.  You then picked up a second paving block and threw it through the second bedroom window.  You went back to your car, continuing to yell and scream. You drove away, leaving Amber Johnston extremely scared. 

11You then attended at your parent's house.  You parked your car a short distance away and walked up to the house.  You smashed a lower window of the house to gain entry and crawled in through that window with a large bread knife in your hand.  Your father, Lawrence Collier, is 70 years old and disabled.  However, seeing the very real threat that you posed to your mother in entering the house so armed, he attempted to pin you down to the floor to stop you from hurting your mother.  Your son, Jesse, also assisted him. The police subsequently attended and took the situation in hand.

12Each of the occupants of the house and also your brother, Dean, were extremely concerned by your threat and also by your conduct which I have described. 

13As I have said, you have been a drug user from your teenage years.  It appears that on that day, you had worked yourself up into an uncontrollable rage, with that rage clearly focussed on your mother.  It appears that that had something to do with your ingestion of drugs at a time previous to this incident. 

14Your son, when he was asked by the police about these matters, expressed the view that you suffer from extreme anxiety and depression. Your brother, Dean, said that your actions were, in his view, an instance of you crying out that you finally need help in your life. 

15Ms Collier, your action in breaking into the house, armed with a knife is the subject matter of the charge of aggravated burglary.  You assertion in the phone call to your brother that you intended to slit your mother's throat is the subject matter of the charge of threat to inflict serious injury. Your action in breaking the window of the house belonging to Amber Johnston is the subject matter of Charge 2 of criminal damage and your action in damaging the windows of your parents' house in the course of breaking in is the subject matter of Charge 3, which is a similar charge of criminal damage. 

16The charges of breach of the intervention orders relate to your actions, as I have described them, against your mother, father and son, in attending at the house as I have described whilst the intervention orders were in place.

17The offence of aggravated burglary, Ms Collier, is a very serious one.  It is particularly concerning because of the grave threat which you posed on that occasion to your mother's life.  You yourself told the police when you were arrested, "I did it, I'm guilty, I know I'm a danger to them."  You also said to the police, "I'm guilty, why didn't anyone stop me?  I called weeks ago to let you all know."

18The maximum penalty of the offence of aggravated burglary is 25 years' imprisonment.  The maximum penalty for making a threat to inflict serious injury is imprisonment for not more than five years and the maximum penalty for damaging property is imprisonment for not more than ten years.  The maximum penalty for each of the charges of contravening the family violence orders is imprisonment for not more than five years.

19Ms Collier, you have in the past been convicted of several other offences.  It is notable that each one of these convictions involved aggression by you towards members of your immediate family. 

20You were last before a Court in October 2014 for recklessly causing injury and throwing missile.  For that offence, you received an adjourned bond with a conviction.  This offending arose out of a heated argument between yourself and your mother.  Your mother repeatedly requested you to leave the property and in response, you threw a piece of wood at her, striking her leg and resulting in a deep laceration, requiring ten stitches. 

21OFFENDER:  Not correct.

22HER HONOUR:  Yes, Ms Collier, what I just want to emphasise to you is you will have a chance to talk to Mr Vaccaro about all these matters after I finish, thank you. 

23You were also before the Wangaratta Magistrates' Court on two occasions last year in April and June 2016 for contravening a family violence intervention order.  On both those occasions, you received lenient sentences.  However, despite those orders being made, you have attended your parent's house again and have attempted, on various occasions, to make contact with relatives. 

24You were taken into custody on the day you committed the offences for which I am to sentence you today and have been there ever since. As at the date of the plea, you have spent a significant amount of days in pre-sentence detention.  I am not sure Mr Prosecutor if that has been calculated?

25MR CORDY:  Two fourteen, not including today, Your Honour.

26HER HONOUR:  We will say 214 days as at yesterday.  You have pleaded guilty to this charge and I accept that that offer was made at the first reasonable opportunity.  You are entitled to have that plea taken into account, first of all, to show your remorse, and in addition because it has saved your parents and your son from having to give evidence in a trial which would clearly have been traumatic for them. You have also saved the community the cost of a trial.

27Ms Collier, your father and mother both filed victim impact statements.  The contents of most victim impact statements filed in this court are tragic.  The contents of your parents’ victim impact statement are harrowing. 

28Your father still clearly loves you but he is distraught at what he saw you do to your mother.  As I have said, he is a partial paraplegic and yet he was forced to hold you down and grapple with you to stop you inflicting serious violence upon her. 

29In his victim impact statement, he says this, "I feel that I have lost my daughter but I can't mourn because she isn't dead.  I just feel so heartbroken and sad that she's done this.  I can't get my head around why should would do this to us.  I read something a few weeks ago, it was one of those posts of Facebook about family and I lost it; I broke down crying.  It hurt so much to lose my daughter like this."

30Ms Collier, you mother is understandably terrified of you.  She has frequent flashbacks of the incident and she describes herself in her victim impact statement as being “petrified” in the time afterwards.  She says she is a shell of who she once was and she finds it impossible to lead any sort of normal life.

31Both of your parents are at retirement age.  Your mother in particular feels that her retirement has been ruined by you.  She feels torn because you are her daughter but she is desperately worried that you will come after her again if you are released.

32Amber Johnston, the victim whose property was damaged in Charge 2, also filed a victim impact statement.  She has known you for 30 years and, as I have said, was once your friend.  She is now extremely scared of you.  Her behaviour has completely changed. She is always looking over her shoulder.  She is unable to sleep, being scared that someone could break into her house at any time. She says in her victim impact statement that this has affected her work and her health.  She used to think of herself as being a strong person but says that by having experienced your attack on her in her own house, she does not think she is the same person anymore. 

33Ms Collier, your counsel made extensive submissions to me on your behalf.  Your counsel also provided me with a report of Carla Lechner, a clinical psychologist.  Ms Lechner detailed the extremely difficult relationship you have had in the past with your parents and particularly, your mother.  She describes you as now being well-motivated to participate in a rehabilitation program and as being extremely remorseful for what you have done.

34Carla Lechner describes your history and presentation as being consistent with exposure to complex developmental trauma that has given rise to persistent post-traumatic stress disorder.  She noted that you have been a regular cannabis smoker for 28 years since the age of 14.  She noted also that you commenced the use of ice in 2011 and that you have used other drugs.  You are now on anti-depressants and as I understand it, you had binged on alcohol for about four months prior to these offences. 

35Ms Lechner noted in her report that you attended high school only till Year 9; your schooling was disrupted by the serious accident to your father, which left him permanently disabled.  She noted also that you have essentially been single for the past 15 to 16 years. 

36Her opinion, overall, was that you were in a parlous state of mind at the time of the offences and that, as I have said, you have expressed regret and shame for your actions and are now well-motivated to participate in rehabilitation. 

37She suggested that your rehabilitation would be facilitated by involvement with treatment services and that it was critical that your mood state continued to be monitored on a regular basis and that you were linked with appropriate counselling.  This was, she said, to address what she described as the "unhelpful family dynamics" of your family. 

38As I have said, you have now been custody for a significant period of time at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre.  You have used that opportunity, Ms Collier, to complete various courses.  I was provided with a bundle of certificates of courses you have completed and it is my view that your willingness to undertake those courses is a good sign for your future rehabilitation. 

39Further, immediately prior to your arrest you had made contact with the Salvation Army.  At that time, you were attempting to live as far away from your family as possible because of the previous difficulties which I have outlined in these sentencing remarks so far.  Unfortunately, a week prior to this incident, you returned to the use of ice. 

40I heard from Mr Terence Wong on the plea. He is from the Salvation Army and he confirmed that your time in prison has been very beneficial.  In prison, you have been away for drugs for a significant amount of time.  You have made a real effort to redeem yourself and he noted, and I do in these sentencing remarks that prior to your imprisonment you had received absolutely no treatment or assistance in coping with the complex family dynamics which I have outlined on this plea. 

41Ms Collier, in sentencing you today I must have significant regard to the principles of general deterrence and specific deterrence.  General deterrence refers to the need to deter any others who may be minded to commit an act of aggravated burglary upon persons in their own home. 

42Specific deterrence is of very great importance in this case. It refers to the need to deter you from offending again in this way or in any similar way. In the circumstances of this case, attention has to be directed to the safety of your parents.  Their safety, and particularly, the safety of your mother, must be a great concern to me in sentencing you today.

43As I said, you are presently aged 42 years and you have one 23 year old son, Jesse.  You appear to be at least partly estranged from Jesse.  You have led a transient life since his birth. It has been estimated to me that you and your lived in 27 houses over the past 20 years when he was living with you. 

44In the past, your family has stood by your side, even though you directed your anger at them.  For instance, I was told that your parents have paid your rent and have paid many of your debts.  They are extremely concerned about the prospect of your future drug use and the mental illness it appears to have precipitated.  You have, in the past, threatened self-harm. 

45Ms Collier, I now come to my conclusions about the way in which I need to approach sentencing in your case.  In my view, the order that I make against you must demonstrate that orders family violence intervention orders must be respected by the community.  Often, a family violence intervention order is the only protection that a person has against domestic violence.  Those persons who treat those orders lightly and disobey them at will must be treated firmly by the courts.

46It is a very serious matter to break into a private home as you did, whilst an intervention order was in place and in a situation where you had previously breached those intervention orders and must have been told by the magistrates dealing with you, how serious that breach was.

47As to specific deterrence, I am very concerned that you will reoffend against your family in the future if you are involved in drugs or if you have a breakdown, such as appears to have precipitated this occasion for which I am to sentence you. 

48This offending, which you have committed, represents a very worrying acceleration of your aggression towards your mother.  It is particularly concerning as it occurred after a period of approximately eight weeks of otherwise peaceful behaviour and in that respect, I note the comments of your psychologist on the last page of her report. 

49Although she described you as capable of reflecting on the impact that your behaviour has both, on yourself and your family, she also described you as being “easily overwhelmed by social and emotional factors that undermine your judgment and decision-making”. 

50There is clearly a great inconsistency between your account of your childhood and the account which was given to me by your parents.  I have no way of determining which account is true.  However, it is of great concern that these issues from your past do not appear to have been resolved in anyway.  Your relationship with all family members appears still to be very tenuous and as I understand it you have no present contact with any of them. 

51I take the view, Ms Collier, that had your father and son not been at home at the time or had your mother not been warned in advance, this serious of events may have ended in catastrophe.  You told that your psychologist that at the time, you wanted to “end it all”.  There is not much that I know about what exactly you planned to do to your mother but you described a desire to the psychologist that what you wanted to do was to “bleed out” on your mother's kitchen floor.

52The only ray of hope that I have against that dark future prospect is the fact that you did indicate to the police very soon after the events, that you were glad that nothing had happened and that you clearly understood you were a danger to your parents. 

53I also accept the positive evidence that I heard from Mr Wong.  You had attended the Salvation Army initially for some material aid but your involvement quite quickly became more substantial.  I was told that you now identify yourself as Christian and are in a position to be supported by the Salvation Army church community, both materially and socially on your release. 

54Your reaction to imprisonment has been most commendable.  You have linked up with a prison fellowship and as I have said, you have completed courses in prison.  All this is for the good and it provides some indication that you have realised now that you must change and you are working towards that. 

55Whether you are able to cease offending, Ms Collier, will in my view, depend a great deal on whether you are able to come to terms with your family history and whether you are able to conquer your addiction to drugs.  That has not been the case in the past and, in fact, the Salvation Army had arranged for you to undertake a full-time course immediately prior to this offending but you were found there with drugs and so discharged from the course.

56This is a personal tragedy to you, I am sure, because in the eight months prior to this offending, I was told that you had been drug-free and then it was because of some real or imagined sleight by your mother that this attack was precipitated. 

57If it is not possible for you to either come to terms with your family history or release yourself from drug addiction, then your family are very correct to be concerned about the future likelihood of aggression to them. 

58Your counsel suggested to me it would be appropriate that the time you have already spent in prison be coupled with a community corrections order.  He said that your immediate release from prison today would provide some stability in your life and be an appropriate reflection on the gravity of this offending. 

59I indicated to him at the plea that I did not agree.  This was a confrontational aggravated burglary of a serious kind.  It was committed in the context of several prior efforts to harm your mother, it was committed immediately after a threat to inflict serious injury on your mother.  For you to go to your mother's house entailed a long drive from Benalla to Wangaratta, during which you would have had ample time to reflect on the stupidity of what you had in mind.  Had you not been restrained by your father and son, as I have said, this incident could have been catastrophic. 

60I am told that on your release, you wish to relocate to another country town, well away from your family and the Salvation Army will assist you to do this.  This will be a good start to your rehabilitation but on any estimate, your prospects of rehabilitation must be guarded. 

61In my view, the appropriate sentence for you today, taking into account the severity of your actions, the need for your rehabilitation, the need for some structure in your life and all of the other sentencing matters which I have identified in these reasons, is for me to sentence you to a significant prison term, followed by a period of parole which will enable you to be closely supervised and assisted on your release. 

62Rebecca Collier, on the charge of aggravated burglary, which will be the base charge, you are convicted and sentenced to be imprisonment for five years. 

63On the first charge or threatening to inflict serious injury, you are convicted and sentenced to be imprisonment for one year. 

64On each charge of damaging property, you are convicted and sentenced to be imprisonment for six months.

65On each of the three charges of breaching an intervention order, you are convicted and sentenced to be imprisonment for 18 months. 

66I need to consider the question of cumulation of those sentences.  I consider that sentence in relation to the aggravated burglary, which is Charge 4, should be served concurrently with the breach of the intervention orders, which are Charges 5, 6 and 7, as each of those charges effectively arise out of the same incident. I consider also that the charge of criminal damage to your parent's property should be served concurrently for the same reason. 

67I order that six months of the sentence on Charge 1, being the threat to inflict serious injury on your mother and three months on Charge 2, being criminal damage to the property owned by Amber Johnston, should be served cumulatively on themselves and on the base sentence on Charge 4.

68Ms Collier, this makes a total sentence of imprisonment of five years and nine months. I will order that you serve three and half years in prison before being eligible for parole.   I will order that the time you have now served in custody be taken into account as time already served under this sentence. 

69The Crown has sought an order for the taking of a forensic sample from you . I will make that order.  I indicate that I make the order because the circumstances of this offence are very serious, because of your prior convictions, and also because there has been no opposition to that order being made.  I need to tell you, Ms Collier, that if you do not cooperate in the taking of that sample, the police may use reasonable force to enable the procedure to be conducted. 

70I also will make a disposal order as sought by the Crown and I will make compensation orders.  I will order that you pay compensation to Ms Johnston of $330 and compensation to your mother in the sum of $370 . Theseand these, of course, relate to the damage done to their respective houses. 

71I also indicate, as I am required to do, the sentence that I would have imposed had you not pleaded guilty to this charge. As I have indicated, I regard this as a serious example of the offence of aggravated burglary.  Had you not pleaded guilty, I would have convicted you and sentenced you to a period of seven years' imprisonment and ordered that you serve four and a half years' imprisonment before being eligible for parole.  Are there any other matters?

72COUNSEL:  No, Your Honour.

73HER HONOUR:  Thank you.  Now, what I will do is I will leave the Bench and will order that the court be cleared straight away.  Mr Tipstaff, if you could leave Ms Collier on the video-link so that Mr Vaccaro has the opportunity to have a private conversation with her to explain to her what all that means. 

74OFFENDER:  Thank you, Your Honour.

75HER HONOUR:  Thank you.  I will leave the bench.

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