Director of Public Prosecutions v Crawford (a pseudonym)

[2016] VCC 1879

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

Revised

 Not Restricted

Suitable for Publication

AT LATROBE VALLEY

CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

PATRICK GORDON CRAWFORD (a pseudonym)

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE MAIDMENT
WHERE HELD:	Latrobe Valley
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	17 November 2016
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Crawford (a pseudonym)
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2016] VCC 1879

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	Ms J. Taylor
For the Accused	Mr J. Verhoeven

HIS HONOUR

1Patrick Gordon Crawford,[1] you can stay seated for the time being.  You have pleaded guilty to an indictment charging you with recklessly causing serious injury to Sharon Cooke[2] (Charge 1), to recklessly causing injury to

[1] A pseudonym.

[2] A pseudonym.

[3] A pseudonym.

Kacey Cooke,[3] your daughter, on the same date, 17 June of this year, and to two offences of causing criminal damage (Charge 3) to a mobile phone, and in Charge 4, to a television, a kitchen chair, and a DVD player belonging to Sharon Cooke, which you had picked up and used as weapons upon her during your sustained assault, which is charged in Charge 1 on the indictment.

2Your criminal record was admitted.  It contains a sad catalogue of offending going back to March of 2005, with a number of offences involving violence, and some of it involving domestic violence upon a partner and her father, and you have served quite significant terms of imprisonment in the past for some of those offences of violence.

3The prosecution tendered and read to the court a summary of prosecution opening, which in its substituted form will be Exhibit A.  And that sets out the circumstances in which you returned to the home of Ms Cooke in the early hours of 17 June, after you had been on a drinking binge. Apparently, because she had failed to come to the phone when you phoned her, you were enraged, and you attacked her and subjected her to a savage beating with your fists, with the items of electrical equipment and furniture that you were able to grab from around the house. You caused her serious injury.  The fact that at times during that whole process she was holding your daughter, then aged five months, did not seem to deter you.  In using a dog lead upon
Ms Cooke, you also struck your daughter with that lead on the head, causing her injury, and that is the subject of Charge 2 on the indictment.

4It is no excuse that you were heavily intoxicated.  It is no excuse that you may also have had some other substance which contributed to your state of intoxication.  It is no excuse that you have no, or no significant, recollection of what occurred that night, but it is to your credit that you have pleaded guilty. You have saved your primary victim the stress of having to give evidence, and the utilitarian benefit of saving the court and the community the cost of a trial. Your pleas are to be regarded as a basis for reducing sentence.

5I have little doubt that you regret what occurred that night.  Your counsel has indicated that you are a decent person when you are off the grog.  And that there is another side to you.  That must be the case, because Sharon, it seems, is concerned to ensure, apparently, that you have a relationship with your daughter.  That she knows her father, and to that extent it seems that she is of a forgiving nature.

6All of that is fortunate for you, and perhaps gives you some hope for the future that if you are able to get on top of your alcohol problem, you may have some prospect of a future in your daughter's life, and you may be able to set yourself up as a role model to her.

7You are only 30.  You have got a lot of life ahead of you.  You had a bad start to life. Your mother died when you were young, and you apparently for many years felt responsible for that.  Quite unjustifiably, but perhaps that has caused you psychological problems during your formative years from which you have had difficulty in recovering.  I am sure that will have affected your schooling.  You had ADD apparently, and were medicated for that.  But you were a gifted sportsman.  I say "were", because you have let that slip through your grasp as well.  You could have been an outstanding footballer had you had the mental fortitude to have overcome your psychological issues and been able to stay away from substance abuse, primarily alcohol.

8Apparently you went through a phase of chroming, and clearly alcohol has been the substantial blight of your life.  Unfortunately, you clearly cannot handle it, because you have persisted in committing serious offences over a significant period of time, more than ten years, and you have been given opportunities.  You have had community based orders and have not taken advantage of the opportunities you have had to deal with your alcohol problems and your psychological issues. 

9Your criminal record is such that I have to look at not only deterring you from committing further offences, but at protection of the public.  Significant denunciation of your conduct towards your victims, just punishment, and in view of your record, it has to be significant punishment.  And deterring others from committing offences of this kind.

10Domestic violence in any form is to be abhorred.  Domestic violence on this scale, and with this ferocity, is a very serious offence of its kind.  You were fortunate. You might have been charged with more serious offences. As it was, you caused Ms Cooke serious injuries, and I have no doubt that there will be psychological overlay from your conduct towards her, although she does not make much of that.  She is more concerned about the psychological impact upon her daughter than she is that upon herself.

11The balance I have to draw is between the various sentencing considerations I have just spoken of, and promoting to the extent I can your rehabilitation.  That does not look very hopeful at the moment.  I know that you have been off the grog now for six months or five months and that you feel better, and that you are thinking more clearly, and that you have an intention to better yourself, to sort yourself out at the moment.  But you have had other opportunities in the past to come to that conclusion, and unfortunately temptation has got the better of you when you have been free to do what you want.  I think the Elders made it very clear that you have got to give up the grog altogether.  It is no good you having a taste, because it seems that you are not able to control your drinking.  You will learn more about that the more you engage with Alcoholics Anonymous or other programs designed to assist you away from alcoholism.

12The future is in your hands, but at the moment I cannot rate your prospects of rehabilitation as anything but poor.  I have to take into account current sentencing practice.  I have to be aware of the fact that the offence of recklessly causing serious injury is less serious than intentionally causing serious injury.  The maximum term of imprisonment is 15 years, as distinct from 20 years for the offence of intentionally causing serious injury.  The maximum term of imprisonment for recklessly causing injury is five years.  I have to bear that in mind.  The maximum term of imprisonment for criminal damage is ten years, and although those are serious examples of that offence, they pale into relative insignificance compared with the offences of causing injury to your two victims.

13I am doing the best I can to reach the right balance of sentencing.  I am ready to impose sentence upon you, so would you please stand?

14For the offence of recklessly causing injury, the subject of Charge 1, I convict you and sentence you to imprisonment for a period of five years.  For the offence of recklessly causing injury to your young daughter, I convict you and sentence you to imprisonment for a period of 18 months.  On Charge 3, of criminal damage involving the mobile phone, I sentence you to imprisonment for a period of one month, and convict you.  And on Charge 4, of causing criminal damage to the electrical equipment and furniture specified, I convict you and sentence you to imprisonment for four months.

15The sentence of five years on Charge 1 is the base sentence, and I order that nine months of the sentence on Charge 2 be served cumulatively upon that sentence, making a total effective sentence of five years and nine months' imprisonment, and I order that you serve a period of three years and ten months before you becoming eligible for parole.

16What is the presentence detention, please?

17MS TAYLOR:  One hundred and fifty three days, Your Honour.

18HIS HONOUR:  One hundred and fifty three days.  I declare 153 presentence detention as time to be reckoned as served on the sentence that I have just imposed, and to be deducted administratively from the time that you will actually have to serve.  And I order that that fact be noted in the records of the court.

19But for your pleas of guilty, I would have sentenced you to a term of imprisonment of seven years and six months' imprisonment with a non-parole period of five years.

20Are any other orders sought?

21MS TAYLOR:  No Your Honour.

22HIS HONOUR:  All right, yes.  Thank you.

23MS TAYLOR:  Your Honour, I just wanted to clarify, Charge 1 is recklessly cause serious injury.

24HIS HONOUR:  Did I not say that?  I must have left that out.

25MS TAYLOR:  I thought you said injury.

26HIS HONOUR:  Recklessly cause serious injury of course, yes.  Yes.

27MS TAYLOR:  Thank you, Your Honour.

28HIS HONOUR:  All right, yes thank you.

29MR VERHOEVEN:  As Your Honour pleases.

30MS TAYLOR:  As Your Honour pleases.

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