Director of Public Prosecutions v Crockford

[2024] VCC 1536

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

Revised

(Not) Restricted

Suitable for Publication

AT MELBOURNE

CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 24-00908

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

BRAYDEN CROCKFORD

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE M.P. BOURKE
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	5 June 2024 and 6 June 2024
DATE OF SENTENCE:	2 October 2024
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Crockford
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2024] VCC 1536

REASONS FOR SENTENCE

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Ms Bristow	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Mr D. Taylor

HIS HONOUR: 

1Brayden Crockford, you are to be sentenced for eight charges of damaging property, under s197(1) of the Crimes Act.  The maximum sentence is
10 years' imprisonment.

2You pleaded guilty before me on 6 June. When originally arrested and questioned by police in July 2023, you admitted  the offending.  There were committal proceedings in the period November 2023 to April 2024.  The matter resolved to pleas of guilty to this indictment on 22 May.  The matter was very quickly brought on for plea hearing also on 6 June. 

3You receive the benefit of that early cooperation and your plea of guilty.  It has facilitated the interests of justice, that is helped the interests of justice, accepted responsibility, and expressed remorse.  I accept that you are genuinely remorseful, genuinely sorry.

4At your plea hearing, Mr Cameron for the Crown, tendered a written prosecution summary.  Mr Taylor, for you, tendered on your behalf character evidence material and the forensic psychological report of Gina Cidoni dated 2 June 2024.

5The circumstances of offending are set out in the tendered Crown opening (Exhibit A).  My own summary may therefore be shorter.

6In the period July to October 2021, you and co‑accused James Hall damaged by shooting eight different transformers in surrounding Bairnsdale areas.  They were owned and managed by the company AusNet Electricity Services Pty Ltd.  You used a long-armed weapon or weapons to do so.  Which of you or whether both of you shot is not to the point.  Paragraphs 4 and 5 of the Crown opening state as follows:

The total cost to SP AusNet to remove and replace the eight damaged transformers was valued at $129,371.40.

The potential impacts on the power network and the potential risk to the community when critical infrastructure, being transformers, are maliciously damaged include a fire, electrocution, power outages and network surges.

7Fortunately, these potential impacts did not come to be.  On one occasion, Charge 5, there was a loss of power supply to Optus equipment. 

8The offending occurred in mid to late 2021.  After about eight months a covert police investigation had placed you both as persons of interest.  You were spoken to by police operatives in July 2023 and made admissions.  I accept those admissions were important to the investigation and prosecution of you.

9You are a 25-year-old man and with no criminal history.  You have been,  in the course of this proceeding,  diagnosed with an intellectual disability and found eligible for services under the Disability Act 2006 (Vic).

10You live with a half-brother in Maffra.  You grew up in Gippsland, New South Wales and Queensland.  You come from a large family and have a number of half‑siblings.  Your parents are separated.  Your mother lives in Moe, your father in New South Wales.  You are closer to your father and have some plans to live with him when able.  School was not successful, being subject to bullying and also the difficulties of a then diagnosed learning disability and speech impediment.  You left to work and have had a number of jobs, mainly in various farm work.  You are presently unemployed but are looking for work.  You are in a serious and supportive relationship.  Your partner works.  You do not live together.

11Forensic psychologist, Gina Cidoni, identified with limited testing a likely intellectual disability. This led to my request under s80 of the Sentencing Act 1991 for a justice plan and other relevant documents from Forensic Disability Services under the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing. That further testing established a mild intellectual disability and eligibility for assistance. You have particular vulnerability, relevant to this offending, in areas of organisation, problem solving, decision making and judgment. The shared opinion is that your disability was a contributor to this offending.

12You also suffer symptoms of mild anxiety and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, arising out of the suicide of a very close friend.

13This was serious offending,    random, inexplicable destruction, of high potential damage to your community.  The cost of repair was high.  Your offending was not isolated and continued for a number of months.  There was potentially dangerous use of firearms. 

14The objective circumstances make relevant sentencing considerations of your moral culpability, deterrence, condemnation of what you did, and proportionate punishment of it.  A sentence of imprisonment was my original intention; however, I have been persuaded against that by a number of factors.  They include the following

i.Your plea, cooperation, and what I find is genuine remorse.

ii.Your relative youth now and at the time of offending.

iii.In that context, the delay since offending of now over three years.  The investigation was, I find, necessarily prolonged;  however, no part of the delay can be properly attributed to your fault.  You have not reoffended and with assistance have good prospects for rehabilitation.

iv.Related to that, there is the evidence of your good character.

15Your personal history and circumstances.  This particularly relates to your intellectual disability.  Given the impacts of that upon you, stated by the expert evidence, I am persuaded that the principles stated in R v Verdins apply, for example, your moral culpability is not removed but it is reduced in view of relevant connection of your disability to the offending.  Purposes such as general deterrence have lesser importance.  Imprisonment would be especially difficult for you.

16I must apply the principle of parity.  I sentenced your co-offender James Hall to a community corrections order of two and a half years duration with a condition of 250 hours of unpaid community work.  No distinction has been made between your roles.  He suffers no disability.  Very impressive evidence of his good character was before me.  He is of a similar age.

17I have decided that I should impose a community corrections order on you also, but with a greater emphasis on therapeutic and rehabilitative assistance.  It should include a condition of compliance with the justice plan which has been provided to the court.

18Having considered and weighed what I see to be the relevant matters, I sentence you as follows.

19On all eight charges you are convicted, and I impose a community corrections order of two years duration.  The usual terms apply.

20The additional conditions are:

i.That you perform 150 hours of unpaid community work.

ii.That there be supervision.

iii.That you comply with the justice plan provided and filed with the court.

21Hours of program work, including under the justice plan, can be set off against the work hours I have set.

22Under s6AAA, had you not pleaded guilty, I would have imposed a community corrections order with the same terms and conditions, but for a longer period and with more hours of community work.

23Now, Mr Crockford, we need to prepare the document which is the order that says all of that, and I need to read it out to you and ask you for your agreement, and that it be sent where - to Mr Taylor, to your office or to the ‑ ‑ ‑

24MR TAYLOR:  Yes, Your Honour.  Yes.

25HIS HONOUR:  - - - for you to sign.  All right, we will do that now.

26There is no condition of mental health treatment.

27Ms Kent, in the normal course when you have got program conditions under an order like this, you are able to set off the work done under the program conditions, against the community work.  I do not see any reason, in fairness to him, why that cannot be done with what program work he does under the justice plan.  Now do you have any experience of that happening?

28MS KENT:  Yes, Your Honour.  So any hours that Mr Crockford engages with the justice plan, we can certainly inform Corrections and that can come off those hours.

29HIS HONOUR:  So I will include that.

30MS BRISTOW:  Apologies if I missed it, Your Honour, did Your Honour specify the length and number of hours under 6AAA that you would have imposed?

31HIS HONOUR:  Yes, I said a community corrections order of longer duration and more hours.  I am not going to say any more than that, I don't think it is feasible.

32MS BRISTOW:  Thank you, Your Honour.

33HIS HONOUR:  Are there other orders, disposal orders and the like?

34MS BRISTOW:  No ancillary orders.

35HIS HONOUR:  Good.  Now, Mr Crockford, I am going to read out the formal conditions of the order to you, all right.

36OFFENDER:  Yeah.

37HIS HONOUR:  It is important that you understand it and it will be sent to you and Mr Taylor will no doubt talk to you, and Ms Kent and/or her others will talk to you as well.  It is important that you obey these conditions because if you do not, you could well end up back in court before me.  Do you understand that?

38OFFENDER:  Yes.

39HIS HONOUR:  All right.  Now the best way of making sure you do that is this; if you have got any doubt about anything, or you feel something might be going wrong, you have got to let the people under the justice plan know.

40OFFENDER:  Yeah.

41HIS HONOUR:  You follow me?  I mean that is the trick.  I've seen over many years, people who can do that, get through it okay.  They get through it well.  The people who cannot let people know, the people who are taking care of them and trying to help them, the people who can't let those people know, usually end up in strife.

42OFFENDER:  Yeah.

43HIS HONOUR:  All right, can you do that?

44OFFENDER:  Yes.

45HIS HONOUR:  All right.  I am going to read them out to you now.

46The order will last for two years and starts today.  The usual terms are that you do not commit another offence, for which you could be imprisoned, during the time of the order. 

47You must comply with this, that you do not attend any program or appointment under the effect of alcohol or drugs, or in possession of any illegal drugs.

48You must report to Community Corrections at McLeod Street, Bairnsdale.  Do you know where that is?

49OFFENDER:  (Indistinct words)

50MR TAYLOR:  I can explain where it is, Your Honour.

51HIS HONOUR:  I'd put some money on Mr Taylor knowing where it is, so he will tell you.  You have got to go there within two days.  I would do it today, if I were you, all right.

52You must let Community Corrections know within two days of changing your address or a job you have.

53You must not leave Victoria without getting their permission to do that.  Now they will be fair about that if there is a need but let them know.

54You must obey all of their lawful instructions, and that includes the justice plan people, the people at the Department of Disability Services, as well, all right.

55OFFENDER:  Yes.

56HIS HONOUR:  All right.  Now the extra or special orders are that you perform 100 hours of unpaid community work over that time and they will tell you what that is, but all of the work you do, all of the things you attend and participate in, join in under the justice plan, can be taken off your work hours.

57You must be under supervision of a Community Corrections officer, and you must take part in those services, in what the justice plan people tell you or make available for you, help you with, all right.

58OFFENDER:  Yeah.

59HIS HONOUR:  Now do you understand all of that?

60OFFENDER:  Yes.

61HIS HONOUR:  And do you agree to it?

62OFFENDER:  Yes.

63HIS HONOUR:  All right, well I am going to sign it now and it will be sent to
Mr Taylor and he will get you to sign it as well and you should take it down to McLeod Street, Bairnsdale, where the Community Corrections people are.  You will be contacted further by other people about what you need to do next, all right.

64OFFENDER:  Yeah.

65HIS HONOUR:  I repeat, any doubt about anything, or if anything is going wrong, let people know what's happening.

66OFFENDER:  Okay.

67HIS HONOUR:  If you do that, I think you'll be all right.  All right, so anything else I need to do?

68MS BRISTOW:  Nothing further, Your Honour.

69HIS HONOUR:  Thank you, we will turn people off now.  Thank you.

70MR TAYLOR:  The court please.

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