Director of Public Prosecutions v Crockett

[2015] VCC 1857

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

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR-14-02044

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

WILLIAM CROCKETT

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JUDGE:	HER HONOUR JUDGE GAYNOR
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	15 December 2015
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Crockett
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2015] VCC 1857

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:
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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr M.J. Gibson
For the Accused	Mr C. Dane QC with Mr A. Halse

HER HONOUR:

1William Crockett, you have pleaded guilty before me to two charges of dangerous driving causing death. 

2The facts underlying this offending are as follows in brief form.

3Soon after 4 pm on Saturday 1 June 2013, you were driving a rented car after leaving a wedding east along the metropolitan ring road towards the Greensborough bypass.  Your wife, Sarah Crockett, was a front seat passenger.  As you were driving in the right-hand lane of the metropolitan ring road you suffered an epileptic fit.  You lost control of the vehicle, which, in short compass, crossed a piece of grassland and then moved across two lanes of an east-bound carriageway, ultimately coming to rest on the other side of a reasonably complicated series of roads.  Your erratic course of driving was over a distance of approximately one to one and a half kilometres.

4As a result of your car leaving its carriageway and travelling across the major freeway intersection that you were on, you collided with two vehicles, one of them a silver Subaru being driven by Matthew Cerminara.  That car ended up on the side of the road very badly damaged, as did your car.  You also collided with a small green Hyundai XL which had been stopped in a laneway to the right of Mr Cerminara's car, waiting to turn right into the ring road.  Fortunately the occupants of that car were not injured but Mr Cerminara was killed in that accident, as was your wife, Sarah.

5I am going to append the very detailed prosecution opening to my sentencing remarks, but in short compass that is what occurred.

6Originally you were charged with culpable driving, the view of the prosecution being that the usual alternative charges to which you have now pleaded guilty, were not open upon the facts of the case.  The matter therefore proceeded as a trial.  At the end of the Crown case, however, negotiations apparently took place on the basis of a change of opinion about the availability of the charges to which you have pleaded guilty and the matter was resolved.

7I now turn to your personal circumstances.

8You are 64 years old.  You have no prior convictions.  You married your wife in 1973 and you have two sons in their late 30s.  You worked for the National Australia Bank for over 30 years, during which time you worked both as a bank manager and then later moved to the human relations section which necessitated you driving to country towns all over New South Wales.  You drove thousands of kilometres over many years without incident.  

9You developed epilepsy after a serious car accident in the 1970s.

10You were happily married and you planned to travel with your wife on your retirement.  Sadly, she developed an aggressive form of Alzheimer's disease in her early 60s and deteriorated rapidly.  Soon you were her carer.  I am satisfied this was an extremely onerous role.  I note, in particular, a letter written by your two sisters-in-law about their sister, they describing her total dependency upon you, she being terrified if taken away from your presence, and unable, therefore, to be placed in any form of respite as a result.

11I accept that you have a history of careful attention to your medication as an epileptic and in relation to the New South Wales requirements accompanying the renewal of a driver's licence to an epilepsy sufferer.  I accept that at the time of driving the demands on the occasion that I have referred to and the demands arising from her care, including a recent move to Queensland, may have led to you being somewhat neglectful of your own medical regime.  However, you were certainly open about it with the specialists and doctors that you saw and I accept that on balance it appears not to have so concerned them that any of them made a note in their records of advice given to you about the desirability of you resuming your medication, nor was any prescription for the medication that you required issued.  However, no person with an epileptic condition who wishes to drive should take the unilateral decision that you did.  It may have been many years since you had had a seizure and medication may itself have only lessened the risk of seizure behind the wheel rather than eliminate it, but the results of such an episode are clearly so catastrophic that every effort should be taken to ensure, as far as possible, this never occurs.

12Having said this, I have no doubt that you have deep-seated, abiding terrible grief and remorse for what you have done.  The awful irony in part is that after years of devoted and relentless care of your wife, you were the cause of her death.  And of course you have caused the death of a young man, Matthew Cerminara.  He was a most beloved son and brother.  His parents and sisters read their incredibly moving Victim Impact Statements, which, it is fair to say, moved more than one person in this courtroom, including yourself, Mr Crockett, I noted, to tears.  Mr Cerminara clearly comes from a wonderful family, and again the court offers its most sincere sympathy and condolences over their terrible loss.

13I am satisfied the original plea of not guilty did not involve any lack of remorse on your part.  Your own grief is clearly crippling.  I am also satisfied you are a good and decent man who has led a productive and worthy life and that you cared, almost heroically, with your wife's awful dementia.

14A series of supportive references from family and friends were tendered on the plea and confirm my assessment of your character in that regard.  You also continue to be supported by your sons, both of whom attended the court throughout these proceedings.

15I accept that the position you find yourself in today is a world away from the entirely blameless life you had led until that fateful day in June 2013.  Overall this is a terrible case.  Both you and the Cerminara family are now in the grip of devastating grief, which is likely to be ongoing.

16Your counsel submitted I should deal with you by placing you on a Community Corrections Order and the prosecution agreed this was appropriate.  Given the circumstances of the case, given your grief and your remorse and your previous entirely law-abiding and productive life, I am satisfied that this is an appropriate disposition.  Unsurprisingly, you have been found suitable for such an order.  The operation of a Community Corrections Order can only be transferred interstate for administration if work hours are not included.  Submission was made that I impose such a condition.  This was an understandable request but in my view impractical in the circumstances and I do not formally require you to undertake work hours as to be supervised by the Community Corrections Order, as I would have done if you lived in Victoria.  An appropriate alternative, in my view, has been suggested in relation to you undertaking to complete a number of hours work with your local Meals on Wheels service, and this instead I intend to attach to the order.

17My decision, and I wish to make this clear, does not involve any trivialising or overlooking of the tragedy that has occurred, and in particular befallen the Cerminara family.  No disposition could adequately reflect the loss of life of their son and brother and that of your own wife.  No disposition is in fact meant to serve as any sort of measure of the worth of any person's life and is not designed to do so.  So I hope that that is clear, that the imposition of a Community Corrections Order in this case is in no way a measure either of the loss being suffered by the families involved or as a measure of the worth of the lives that were lost.

18I can only impose a Community Corrections Order with your consent, Mr Crockett, so I need to outline to you the basic conditions, the core conditions that apply in such an order.

19Whilst you are on the order you must not commit any offence punishable by imprisonment inside or outside Victoria.  You must report to the Community Corrections Office within 48 hours of the making of this order or two working days, that is by Tuesday of next week.  Whilst you are on the order you must accept visits from the Community Corrections Office and attend upon their office as directed.  This will, of course, take place in Queensland.  Ordinarily you may not leave Victoria without the permission of the Community Corrections Office - clearly an exception has been made in this case.  You must inform the Community Corrections Office of any change of address or employment within 48 hours of that change and you must obey any lawful directions of the Community Corrections Office.

20I am going to order that a Community Corrections Order be imposed for a period of four years.  I am also going to impose a special condition that you undertake to complete 250 hours of voluntary work with the Meals on Wheels organisation at 4 Community Lane, Paradise Point in Queensland.  Are you prepared to enter into this order?

21OFFENDER:  Yes, Your Honour.

22HER HONOUR:  Thank you, we will just print that out.  The order is an aggregate one and relates to both charges. 

23Your licence is cancelled and you are disqualified from obtaining any further licence for a period of five years.  Could you sign this, thank you, Mr Crockett.

24MR GIBSON:  Your Honour, would it be appropriate to have the special condition, that is the work performed over a period of time, say two years, and thereafter some confirmatory document be forwarded to the informant by Mr Crockett just evidencing the completion of it.

25HER HONOUR:  I'm not going to set down a particular period of time but I will order that there be confirmation.  We have included confirmation that this is to be provided to the informant.  Do you want a time limit?

26MR GIBSON:  Yes.  Maybe a couple of years or thereabouts.

27HER HONOUR:  I will just include "within two years."  Before we finally leave are there any questions family have?  Is there anything they need to say?  I hope to some extent this does bring you a small amount of relief, at least, or some sort of closure, and I wish you all the very best for the future.  And you too, Mr Crockett.  I thank counsel very much indeed for their assistance in this matter.

28COUNSEL:  If Your Honour please.

29HER HONOUR:  Thank you.

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