Director of Public Prosecutions v Dean
[2018] VCC 169
•28 February 2018
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA AT MELBOURNE CRIMINAL DIVISION | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
Case No. CR-17-02537
CR-18-00255
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| TRISTANN DEAN |
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JUDGE: | HER HONOUR JUDGE HOGAN | |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 12 and 28 February 2018 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 28 February 2018 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Dean | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2018] VCC 169 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject: CRIMINAL LAW
Catchwords: One charge of using a carriage service to harass (Charge 1); two charges of recklessly causing injury (Charge 2 and 4) and one charge of recklessly causing serious injury (Charge 3).
Legislation Cited: Crimes Act 1958 ; Sentencing Act 1991
Cases Cited:
Sentence: Charge 1 – convicted and fined $1,000
Charge 2 – convicted and sentenced to be detained in a Youth Justice Centre for a period of 10 months
Charge 3 – convicted and sentenced to be detained in a Youth Justice Centre for a period 2 ½ years.
Charge 4 – convicted and sentenced to be detained in a Youth Justice Centre for a period 3 months.
Base sentence of 2 ½ years on Charge 3. 5 months on Charge 2 and 1 month on Charge 4 to be served cumulatively on sentence on Charge 3 and upon each other.
Total effective sentence on Charges 2, 3 and 4 is 3 years in a Youth Justice Centre.
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the DPP | Ms J Fallar | Solicitor for the Office of Public Prosecutions |
| For the Accused | Ms E Millar | Victoria Legal Aid |
HER HONOUR:
1 Tristann Dean, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of using a carriage service to harass, which carries a maximum penalty of 3 years’ imprisonment; two charges of recklessly causing injury, each of which carries a maximum penalty of 5 years’ imprisonment; and one charge of recklessly causing serious injury, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years’ imprisonment.
2 The circumstances of your offending are summarised in the Prosecution Opening for Plea (Exhibit “A”). The background circumstances are that you and two of your victims, Nicholas Cooper and Shamess Cooper, who had been long-term childhood friends, had been drinking with some others after working together cleaning up a farming property at Wyndham Vale. It seems that you and your victim, Nicholas Cooper, consumed about a slab of Woodstock alcohol cans over an indeterminate period. Apparently you had recently broken up with your girlfriend, Robyn Brown, with whom you had been in a relationship for some four years. Nicholas Cooper told another friend, Samantha Spiteri, that he knew that Robyn Brown had been cheating on you with one Jordan Micallef for about six months before the relationship had broken up. For reasons best known to herself, Ms Spiteri told you about it. Nicholas Cooper was angry with himself for having mentioned the matter, and you initially told him not to worry about it. The group left the farming property in separate cars and agreed to meet at Nicholas Cooper’s home later on. Everyone departed from the property at some stage between 10.00pm and 11.00pm.
3 At 11.05pm it would appear that Ms Spiteri gave you her phone to use, and you rang your former girlfriend, Ms Brown. You made threats that you were going to come and find her and her boyfriend, Jordan Micallef. Ms Brown recognised your voice and, after receiving three missed calls over a 20-minute period from the same number, she then recorded the next call from you where you used foul and insulting language and made threats towards her and repeatedly demanded that she tell you where she and her boyfriend were. Ms Brown was so afraid that she promptly attended Werribee Police Station to inform them of her concerns. This is the conduct constituting Charge 1, use of a carriage service to harass.
4 While Ms Brown was at the Werribee Police Station, you turned up at the home of the Micallef family. By this stage it was around midnight. Mr Robert Micallef and his wife, Lisa, opened the door. They are the parents of Jordan Micallef, the boyfriend of Robyn Brown. On opening the door you yelled “Where the fuck is Jordan” and then punched his father, Robert Micallef, to the left side of his face in the area of his left eye, which knocked him to the ground. Mr Micallef began to get back onto his feet and you hit him a second time, knocking him back to the ground. Mr Micallef received a bloody nose, a laceration to his left cheek, approximately 2.5cm in length, and a black eye. These injuries are demonstrated in Exhibit “E”. This is the conduct constituting Charge 2, recklessly causing injury.
5 After assaulting Mr Micallef, you were restrained by three unidentified males and returned to Ms Spiteri’s car. Shortly afterwards, you arrived at Nicholas Cooper’s home. Your behaviour was aggressive, and you suggested to both Nicholas and Shamess that they knew about Ms Brown’s infidelity. Their mother, Tina Wilcocks, came out into the back yard and asked for everyone to be quiet. It would appear that Nicholas Cooper had told you that he did not want to tell you because he was protecting you. Another friend, Darryl Lapthorne, tried to calm you down, but a scuffle broke out. You then approached Nicholas Cooper and pushed, punched and head-butted him. Some evidence suggests that you head-butted him as many as four times, and then struck him to the face with your right hand and he then fell unconscious. However, Ms Spiteri claims that you head-butted him once and punched him twice to the face. It seems that, after apparently being unconscious, Nicholas Cooper then regained consciousness and somehow obtained a Samurai sword and endeavoured to chase you away. Ms Spiteri then came to your aid by driving you to your grandmother’s house in order to leave the scene. By 12.41am police had arrived at the house where Nicholas Cooper was located in the laundry area, visibly distressed, with blood coming out of his mouth and into his left cheek, and an ambulance was called to transport him to hospital. Photographs of his injuries comprise Exhibit “C”. They show his mouth to be badly bloodied and lacerations and bruising on his face and hands, and a very markedly black left eye. The medical records show that he suffered a left-eye haematoma, tenderness of the left side of the head, a laceration or hole approximately of 1 centimetre in length on the left side of his lip, a left lip-cheek laceration and depressed acute left temporozygomatic arch fracture. He was seen in the Ophthalmology Department, where left traumatic optic neuropathy and left commotion of the retina was found. Nicholas Cooper complained of vision impairment and he was recommended for follow-up.
6 On 19 July 2017, Nicholas Cooper underwent surgery, where a metal plate was inserted into his left cheek to fuse the bones together. A number of follow-up appointments were held in relation to his left optic nerve injury, together with a Mental Health Plan devised for him suffering generalised anxiety and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The long and short of it is that, through your violent assault, Nicholas Cooper has suffered permanent traumatic optic neuropathy. A report from Dr James English from Melbourne Health, dated 4 February 2018, noted that there is no treatment for this condition, and he recommended that Mr Cooper not drive, and seek an appointment with an optometrist, as well as engage in protective measures for his other eye. He noted that clinical examination revealed significant central and peripheral vision loss in the left eye, with clear insult to the neural tissue of the optic nerve, and that he would be unlikely to regain further vision in his left eye.
7 The most recent report relating to Nicholas Cooper’s left eye is Exhibit “J”, a report of a test conducted on 15 February 2018 by Ahmed Azzam, an optometrist with Specsavers. This testing showed that in Mr Nicholas Cooper’s left eye, he had no vision when unaided and no vision when aided. The optometrist noted that the damage appears to be at the back of the left optic nerve, leading to no vision of that eye due to trauma.
8 Whilst you were attacking Nicholas Cooper, his brother, Shamess, tried to pull you away from Nicholas. Once Nicholas fell to the ground, you then turned and head-butted Shamess Cooper, causing his lip to open. He sustained a small hole to his lip and a cut inside his lip. These injuries purport to be photographed in a rather blurry photograph of Shamess Cooper, Exhibit “D”.
9 On 16 August 2017, you participated in a record of interview with investigating police officers. In relation to Charge 1, you stated that, after hearing about your former girlfriend’s infidelity, you were pretty drunk and called her and had an argument. You stated that you then went to look for her boyfriend, Jordan, and were banging on the door. You claimed that, when it was opened, Jordan’s father, Mr Robert Micallef, went to grab you, so you hit him in the face and then hit him again, and he fell.
10 You gave a confused account of what later happened concerning the assault on Nicholas and Shamess Cooper. You claimed that they had run towards you yelling and screaming and pushing you against a brick wall, and you thought they were about to fight. You claimed that Nicholas hit you but missed, so you punched him and threw him away. You claimed that Shamess had run to you, so you punched Shamess, who got you in a headlock, and you asked to be let go.
11 You claimed that, whilst Nicholas was on the ground you went to see whether he was alright, and later he got up and chased you with a Samurai sword. You claimed that you head-butted Nicholas only once and hit him twice. However, you conceded that you were intoxicated and had a bad memory. You told police that, on average, in a night you would have probably six or seven drinks before you go to bed and, on the night of the offending, you definitely drank way too much and were intoxicated. You stated that you had been “chucking beforehand when we were at the farm”[1].
[1] Record of interview answers to questions 174-178
12 You were shown the photographs of Nicholas Cooper’s injury and minimised his injuries, referring to them as “a split lip” and “looks like a little gash”.[2] You effectively portrayed Nicholas and Shamess Cooper as the aggressors. When it was put to you that Nicholas Cooper had received a laceration to his left cheek, swelling to his left temple, and vision impairment to his left eye, you stated “he’s always had that as a kid. So that one’s just chucking in with the rest of the lies”. You described him as a compulsive liar.[3]
[2]Answer to questions 180-181
[3]Answer to questions 276 & 277
13 You denied that you had done that damage to him and later said that his injuries could have been previous or it could have happened afterwards.[4] You claimed you did not hit him that hard.[5] You essentially blackened the character of Nicholas and Shamess Cooper, stating one brother does drugs and one’s a compulsive liar and will steal and do anything.[6]
[4]Answer to question 318
[5]Answer to question 323
[6]Answer to question 336
14 You did express some regret in relation to having injured Mr Robert Micallef, stating “I didn’t intentionally try to hurt him” and “I actually want to apologise, I feel bad about it”.[7]
[7]Answer to questions 98 & 99
15 As far as the harassment of Ms Brown is concerned, you stated that the conversation with her “didn’t go too good, so it kinda got me in a real bad mood”.[8] You described that as “that was probably the angriest I’ve ever seen myself”. You agreed that you were “raging” when you went to her new boyfriend’s home.[9] You went on to say that “the mood and state I was in, I wasn’t thinking”.[10]
[8]Answer to question 55
[9]Answer to questions 58-62
[10]Answer to question 73
16 You are presently aged 20 years, having been born on 1 March 1997. You will turn 21 years of age tomorrow. You come before the court with no prior convictions.
17 In a plea on your behalf by Ms Millar, the court was told that you had a very disruptive childhood with parents who were constantly fighting and, at times, physically violent towards each other. From a relatively early age, you lived at times with your mother, at times with your father, and at other times with your grandmother. There were reconciliations from time to time between your parents and a fresh start in Tasmania. You attended many different schools and lived at many different addresses, oscillating at times between living in Tasmania and living in Victoria.
18 You had behavioural issues at school and were not permitted to graduate from Werribee Primary School because of a fight. Later, in Year 8, you were only permitted to attend school two days per week due to having sustained many suspensions. It appears that this was in Tasmania and you then moved back to Melbourne and endeavoured to repeat Year 8, but then quit school altogether.
19 I accept that you have had very poor parenting and a disrupted upbringing with poor role modelling from each of your parents by reason of being exposed to violence and substance abuse issues. In addition, you were exposed to traumatic events while living with your grandmother, particularly relating to a relative who lived there who suffered significant mental health issues.
20 A report from Mr Warren Simmons, psychologist, dated 20 February 2018 was tendered as Exhibit “3” on the plea. He took a history of cannabis abuse since age 15 and that by the date of his report, this had grown to a habit of a gram per day, which you claimed was treatment for your long-term anger problems. Mr Simmons took a history that you had started consuming alcohol at age 16 and would drink every one or two weekends but, after a friend died by being hit by a car, you reduced your alcohol consumption and claimed that you only drank once every three to six months on social occasions.
21 It would appear that at the time of writing his report, Mr Simmons did not appreciate the extent of your intoxication on the night of your offending, although a subsequent amended report noted that he had read your record of interview and a number of other documents. He noted that the prosecution summary had indicated that you had been consuming alcohol at the time of the offences, but you did not mention this or use it as a justification for your behaviour. He considered that you would have met the criteria for alcohol intoxication at the time of the offence.
22 Mr Simmons noted that you suffer poor memory and difficulties with concentration and problems with becoming frustrated and angry, although you claim that you can manage the latter. He stated that you had intrusive thoughts of violence in your childhood and witnessing distressing events from the relative who suffered mental injuries and harmed himself. He noted a long-standing pattern of hyperarousal and hypervigilance, claiming that you were always aware of what was going on around you and that you believed that your fighting when younger was a factor in this. Mr Simmons considered that these features, combined with the intrusive memories which have abated somewhat, and the other symptoms which you detailed, indicated a diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and he noted that you had suffered deaths of a number of people in the family over the last 10 years.
23 Mr Simmons considered that your behavioural difficulties might be due to Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), but your situation at home may have also impacted on your behaviour and would confuse any diagnosis of a potential childhood disorder. He noted that you did acknowledge difficulties with anger and frequent fights, but whether this was part of ADHD, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or some other disorder was unclear to him. He considered that your childhood would have left you vulnerable to substance abuse, although he noted generally that your abuse of substances had been limited to reliance on cannabis to self-medicate for your anger. Although you acknowledged that there may be times when you drink heavily, you did not seem to give the same history to Mr Simmons as you did to police in your record of interview of, on average, having six or seven drinks per night before you go to bed.
24 Mr Simmons noted that your parental example did not give you a solid foundation for forming any long-term relationship and there seemed to be a degree of immaturity in your description of the relationship with Ms Brown. He considered that you would benefit from drug and alcohol counselling, anger management counselling, and referral to a psychologist to address your post-traumatic stress symptoms and the multiple losses in your life.
25 Mr Simmons stated that you express remorse for your actions and did not seek to justify them, but I have already referred to the lack of remorse in your record of interview concerning your offending against Ms Brown and Nicholas and Shamess Cooper. However, I accept that it is possible that you have gained some insight since your offending, and I note that Mr Simmons stated that you recognise that your behaviour may have had a significant impact on the victims and accepted that you needed to be punished for it.
26 On your behalf, Ms Millar did not submit that any of the material in Mr Simmons’ report attracted the principles of R v Verdins.[11] Indeed, in my view, had such submission been put, it would have encountered significant difficulty in establishing the nexus between any symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and the offending conduct. This is because it is plain from the prosecution opening and the depositional material generally, that your offending late on the evening of 8 July 2017 and early in the morning of 9 July 2017 was effectively a drunken rampage by you in response to learning that others were aware that your former girlfriend, Ms Brown, had been unfaithful to you. Interestingly, the fact of the infidelity itself was apparently not news to you as you had told Mr Simmons that you “acknowledged that she cheated on [you] and [you] decided that, [you] would cheat also”.[12]
[11]R v Verdins (2007) 16 VR 269
[12]Page 4 of Mr Simmons’ report, Exhibit “3”
27 It seems that you have a long term anger control problem and, on the night of your offending, your anger was significantly fuelled by alcohol. However, I do take into account that you have had a disrupted upbringing and education and very poor example from your own parents, both in relation to a dysfunctional and violent relationship and, also, substance abuse. I understand that these sorts of childhood disadvantages can be difficult to overcome, but abusing substances, whether they be alcohol (as you did on the night of offending) or cannabis (on other occasions), is not the way with which to deal with emotional issues.
28 I acknowledge, as Mr Simmons has indicated, that there was a certain degree of immaturity by you as far as the relationship is concerned, and that you have a lot of growing up to do. However, your foul-mouthed abuse and threats to Ms Brown were very nasty and your vicious attack on the completely innocent father of her new boyfriend, who was minding his own business in his own home when rudely awoken around midnight by your banging on the door and then twice being struck by you, was truly appalling.
29 You acknowledged to police that you had worked yourself up into such a state of anger that you were not thinking and were the angriest that you have ever been. To be in such a state of uncontrollable anger is a very worrying factor, and I do not agree with the Office of Corrections’ assessment (Exhibit “L”) that you are at low risk of re-offending and that an anger management program would not be recommended.
30 Your later assaults were even more violent and unrestrained.
31 Your counsel acknowledged that you knew that Nicholas Cooper had a heart condition which rendered him vulnerable. This is a condition of atrial fibrillation. You certainly did not take the trouble to think about what impact your conduct might have on him, and now you have rendered an already vulnerable man more vulnerable by destroying the sight in one of his eyes. The impact upon Nicholas Cooper has been profound.
32 In his Victim Impact Statement (Exhibit “B”), he stated that he is now unable to get a drivers’ licence and it makes it very hard for him to get a job, since he normally undertook outside labouring work, like roof tiling or brickies’ labouring work. He is worried about how he will provide for himself and his daughter in the future. Further, he expresses fear about going out unless he has someone with him. These are understandable consequences of your drunken, violent assault upon him, and it is clear that he is going to have to be very careful to protect his one good eye in the future. Not only did you lay into Nicholas Cooper on this night, but, when his brother, Shamess, tried to pull you away, you head-butted him as well, splitting open his lip. It is outrageous, antisocial conduct borne of irrational drunken anger. In sentencing you, emphasis must be given to general deterrence so that others will know that if they cause injury to anyone in a fit of drunken rage like you did, then they will be appropriately punished.
33 In sentencing you, I do take into account that you did plead guilty to the charges at a relatively early stage. As mentioned, although you have demonstrated some remorse in relation to the assault upon Mr Micallef, I am not satisfied that you do have true full remorse in relation to your offending conduct against Ms Brown, Mr Nicholas Cooper or Mr Shamess Cooper. However, it would appear that you are gradually obtaining some insight into the impact on your victims, after having minimised your conduct on the night in question and denied causing the serious injury to Mr Nicholas Cooper. Nevertheless, Ms Brown, Mr Nicholas Cooper and Mr Shamess Cooper have been spared the trauma of having to relive this horrible night. Thus, you are entitled to a discount on the sentences which otherwise would have been imposed.
34 Also in your favour is the fact that, following your offending in July 2017, you did eventually get a referral from your general practitioner to Headspace for psychological treatment for anger/conduct issues and cannabis abuse on 15 December 2017. Unfortunately, it took until 23 January 2018 before you were first seen, and you had a second consultation on 30 January 2018. You failed to attend an appointment with the psychologist on 6 February, but the following day indicated that you were keen to continue treatment.[13] Unfortunately, you have not returned to seek treatment at Headspace. Your counsel stated that the treating psychologist, Ms Wu, was on leave until March, however, it seems that you were somewhat lukewarm about the treatment you were getting as Mr Simmons noted that you had been referred to Headspace for treatment and had seen a counsellor on four occasions, but felt this did not particularly help and you did not feel that you related to the woman in question.[14] It is difficult to know how much of your attendance at Headspace was related to wanting to have material to put before the Court on the plea, as distinct from a genuine willingness to engage with your behavioural and substance abuse issues.
[13]Exhibit 1, report from Headspace dated 9 February 2018
[14]Mr Simmons’ report, page 4
35 I appreciate that you are, until midnight tonight, a young offender. You were 20 years old and had no prior convictions at the time you committed these offences and there has been no subsequent offending. Given your disruptive upbringing, lack of guidance, and hopelessly interrupted and shortened education, it is to your credit that you have not been before the criminal justice system in the past. It is also to your credit that, since leaving school at the age of 14 years, you have endeavoured to try to maintain employment. You engaged in some nine months or so of a carpet laying/flooring apprenticeship at Carpet Court in Hoppers Crossing, before you lost that employment as the person teaching you the trade moved away. Thereafter, you have done various unskilled jobs assisting with plastering, and held down a job assisting in furniture removal for some nine months or so. You have done some tiling and some further cash in hand work for Carpet Court and have had various bits and pieces of work for contractors who are involved in laying out the National Broadband Network (NBN).
36 Your counsel stated that you have only had a couple of days work with such contractors recently, as you have had many assessments to attend for the purpose of the adjourned hearing of your plea. However, the court was told that there is work available to you doing such contracting work and, also, Carpet Court have, again, offered you a position, although no documentary support for such offers was put before the court. Nevertheless, I do take into account that you have shown a capacity for work, in spite of your limited education.
37 On both of the days that your plea was heard, there were a considerable number of family and friends to support you in court. A number of references were tendered as Exhibit “2” on the plea. I must say I have difficulty with the content of a number of these references. One from a family friend, Yvonne Mercante, refers to her never having witnessed any form of bad behaviour or violence by you within the five years she has known you, yet you acknowledge that you have suffered anger control problems for years. Your father’s reference makes it sound as though you have been constantly employed in doing NBN installation work since you ceased your carpet laying apprenticeship at the age of 14, which is clearly not the case. He and your grandmother seem to say that your anger-driven offending is out of character, yet it is clear on the material before me that you have had anger problems and fights and been suspended from school and suffered substance abuse issues for many, many years.
38 Indeed, Mr Timothy Edward Archer, who is a friend of your grandmother, states of you in his reference that “in some cases his temper has blacked him out to the point he doesn’t know what he is saying or being able to control his actions” and he has witnessed such behaviour since your early adolescence. He describes you as having always had severe anger management issues over the eight year period that he has known you.
39 A family friend, Tanya Hoare, states that you are truly sorry for hurting your friends, but I have already expressed my reservations about this. She further states “Tristann’s violent outburst was related to the deterioration of a childhood romance with infidelity at the forefront …”. As I have already commented, it would appear that you were well and truly aware of the infidelity of your former girlfriend and had retaliated by being unfaithful yourself, although I accept that this is indicative of an immature relationship.
40 Another family friend, Jacinta Kneale, states that you are very remorseful for what you did and sorry for all the pain that you have caused, but I have already referred to this factor earlier and commented that, although early remorse was not evident (except in relation to Mr Micallef), it may be that your insight is developing.
41 What does emerge from the references is that you do have a better side to your character and are capable of being loyal and well-mannered and helpful, as well as working hard. If these better character traits can be nourished and you manage to get psychological treatment for your emotional issues, as well as treatment for your substance abuse issues, it may be that your prospects of rehabilitation are reasonably good.
42 Having weighed up all the competing sentencing considerations, I have determined that a pecuniary penalty or fine is the appropriate sentence on Charge 1. In arriving at this determination, I have taken into account such relevant matters as are known to me pursuant to s16A of the Crimes Act (Cwth), as well as your financial circumstances pursuant to s16C. In this regard, I note that your counsel stated that you have $1,000 in savings and a capacity to earn $800 net per week.
43 On the assault matters, I consider that the overall seriousness of these vicious attacks on three different victims must be denounced by this Court and the emphasis to be placed on general deterrence and just punishment is such that only a custodial sentence is appropriate. I certainly do not consider that a Community Correction Order, as urged by your Counsel, is appropriate to reflect the overall gravity of these assaults, even taking into account your young age and lack of prior convictions.
44 I have had the benefit of reading the report assessing you as suitable for a Youth Justice Centre Order. This report, authored by Mr Gene Bell, Senior Court Advice Officer, Youth Justice, Melbourne Central Courts, is dated 23 February 2018 and is Exhibit “K”.
45 Mr Bell noted that you did not present as being particularly immature or impressionable but that you did clearly have long-standing issues relating to emotional regulation and anger outbursts and presented with a stereotypical hyper-masculine view towards counselling and therapeutic treatment. However, he noted that your view in relation to treatment had shifted recently. He considered that you were willing to accept full responsibility for your actions and acknowledged that your behaviours were damaging to others and did not attempt to minimise the seriousness of your actions or shift blame onto others. If this is so, I can only reiterate that this is a developing feature of insight which was not present in your record of interview. (Save for your attitude in relation to Mr Robert Micallef).
46 Mr Bell considered that if you chose to engage in some form of therapeutic counselling, he considered your prospects for rehabilitation were positive. He noted that you had no prior history or experience of incarceration and, given the complexities of your significant and long-standing dysfunctional family history, it is highly likely that you will be subject to undesirable influences if placed into an adult prison environment. He considered that this may have a significant negative impact upon your current motivation to receive treatment and, hence, you meet some of the criteria stipulated in the Act and are considered suitable for a Youth Justice Centre Order.
47 I have determined that your young age and the steps that you have made towards rehabilitation so far, albeit very early steps, should, if possible, be encouraged. Thus, although I consider that a custodial sentence is warranted, I am very concerned about you being subject to undesirable influences in an adult gaol and fear that this may adversely impact upon the prospects of rehabilitation which you have.
48 Accordingly, I propose to sentence you to a Youth Justice Centre Order on Charges 2, 3 and 4. I am mindful of the fact that all assaults occurred on the same night, whilst you were fired up with anger and intoxicated, and of the principle of totality. However, the offending did occur at two quite separate venues and there are separate victims. Accordingly, some cumulation is warranted.
49 On Charge 1, using a carriage service, you are convicted and sentenced to pay a pecuniary penalty order in the sum of $1,000. I allow a stay of 18 months in relation to payment of this amount.
50 On Charge 2, recklessly causing injury, you are convicted and sentenced to be detained in a Youth Justice Centre for a period of 10 months.
51 On Charge 3, recklessly causing serious injury, you are convicted and sentenced to be detained in a Youth Justice Centre for a period of two and a half years.
52 On Charge 4, recklessly causing injury, you are convicted and sentenced to be detained in a Youth Justice Centre for a period of three months.
53 The base sentence is that of two and half years detention imposed on Charge 3. I direct that five months of the sentence imposed on Charge 2 and one month of the sentence imposed on Charge 4 be served cumulatively upon the sentence imposed on Charge 3 and with each other. The total effective sentence is thus three years detention in a Youth Justice Centre.
54 Pursuant to s464ZF(2) of the Crimes Act 1958, I order that you undergo a forensic procedure for the taking of a sample of saliva in accordance with sub-division 30A of Part 3 of the Crimes Act until a sample of sufficient standard is obtained for placement on the database. I am satisfied that in all the circumstances, the making of the order is justified by the seriousness of the circumstances of the offending.
55 What you need to understand, Mr Dean, is that you will be given a cotton swab which you will to place inside your cheek to give to police a sample of saliva. I need to inform you that if you do not cooperate with the taking of such a sample, then the police are entitled to use reasonable force to ensure that a sample of sufficient standard is obtained for placement on the database.
56 In due course, the Youth Parole Board will consider your eligibility for parole. I hope that you can apply yourself to whatever treatment and courses are offered to you and that, if granted parole, you will use the supports available to continue to rehabilitate yourself. You have had a very unfortunate start in life, Mr Dean. This court wishes you well with your rehabilitation and sincerely hopes that you can turn your life around.
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