Director of Public Prosecutions v Dessent

[2019] VCC 730

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

AT LATROBE VALLEY
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 19-00162

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

ZANE ANTHONY DESSENT

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE SMALLWOOD
WHERE HELD:	Latrobe Valley
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	22 May 2019
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Dessent
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2019] VCC 730

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 L. Monagle	Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Mr B. Newton	Stephen Peterson Lawyers

HIS HONOUR: 

1Zane Anthony Dessent, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of make available child pornography, one charge of access child pornography, once charge of possession of child abuse material and one charge of possess a drug of dependence.  Those crimes carry maximum penalties of 15 years, 15 years, 10 years and one year. 

2Charges 1 and 2 are Commonwealth matters and the other two are State.  The situation is that Charge 1 of make available material is a one day charge, Charge 2 is over a period of approximately four weeks and Charge 3 is a one day charge. 

3Because of the nature of the sentences I am to impose, you will be placed on the Sex Offenders Register and I must advise you, the reporting conditions will be for life.  I will just ask you to sign that now.  You do not mind going with my associate, thanks, Mr Newton.

4MR NEWTON:  Yes, certainly.  Your Honour, I've already organised for that document to be taken by his mother for ‑ ‑ ‑

5HIS HONOUR:  Yes, understand that.

6MR NEWTON:  Just for safety reasons. 

7HIS HONOUR:  Understand that.  Yes, totally.  All right. 

8Further, because of the sentences I am to impose, you will be sentenced on Charge 3 as a serious sexual offender.  I am aware that in that situation, community protection becomes a principle sentencing purpose and the sentences are to be cumulative, unless otherwise ordered.  And in this situation, the Crown do not seek a disproportionate sentence.

9Because the indictment contains Commonwealth and State offences, the cumulation aspects of it become impossible to even deal with really and it is a situation where I do not regard you as a threat to the community, there being no contact offending here, but I do take into account that the - your legislative intent in regard to public or community protection.

10The circumstances of the offending contained in the Crown - actually what I will do, I will also, while I think of it, Ms Monagle's submissions, I will exhibit as Exhibit B2.  I forgot to do that before.

EXHIBIT B2 -    Ms Monagle's submissions 

11MS MONAGLE:  Thank you, Your Honour.

12HIS HONOUR:  So people know what I have read.

13Are that on 18 January, Australian Federal Police made a direct connection with devices ascribed to you.  It was understood that as a result of that connection, you were downloading files identified as child pornography.  They are unable to tell me the number of files involved in that, but the automatic aspect of how you were doing it, was that they would automatically be made available to others as well. 

14A search warrant was executed on 14 August 2018, where a Pixel mobile phone was taken, five portable hard drives were taken and two plastic bags containing what turned out to be methamphetamine.  So far as methamphetamine is concerned, I have simply sentenced you to imprisonment for a period of seven days and I have just made that concurrent with the other State sentence imposed today. 

15The mobile phone revealed that you had been using it to access child pornography, which is Charge 2 and the portable hard drives had a significant amount of child abuse material on them, which gives rise to Charge 2.

16It is a situation where it is easier, I think, to - rather than just rotate - just read all this out, to annex the Crown opening to my sentencing remarks. 

17The end consequence of all this, was that when you were interviewed, you said that you were aware - and in certain situations, you were making child pornography available to others.  You were clearly aware that you were downloading child pornography of all the various grades and provided realistically very little reason for all this. 

18Charge 2, which I have indicated, in my view for these purposes, to be the most serious.  It has a very significant number of images within it.  The total was something in the order of 14 and a half thousand stills and over 2,000 videos. 

19Each of the charges has to be regarded as serious and it becomes something of a mathematical exercise in working out how to go about it.  I am well aware that numbers do not necessarily dictate sentences involved in all this and I am aware from what your counsel tells me, that there may well be a compulsive obsessive aspect to it all.  But the fact remains that that is an awful lot of victims.  Some people do not understand the overall circumstances of this offending and the damage, the untold damage that it causes to young children all over the world.  It is clear that behaving in this way and accessing such material, it is only encouraging others to abuse children in that way.

20There is no real material before me as to why you were doing all this and in the end result, all I can do is really impose a custodial sentence, which must be in accordance with the seriousness of what you have done and the personal circumstances of yourself.

21You pleaded guilty at the earliest reasonable opportunity.  You have expressed limited remorse.  You must get the utilitarian benefit of the plea of guilty and at 36 years of age, you have no relevant priors. 

22The offending has to be regarded as serious.  It calls for the application of general and specific deterrence, as well as denunciation and appropriate punishment.  It is not argued that anything other than an active custodial sentence, with a period of supervision afterwards is the appropriate disposition.  That simply becomes a question of how long the sentence should be.  I make it very clear for the purpose of anybody reading this, that I have read all the submissions of both counsel for the Commonwealth and counsel for you. 

23Your personal circumstances are that you potentially dropped out of school at around about age of 10.  You had been, in the end, brought up in the Traralgon area.  You entered the workforce when you were 10, working at McDonalds in Traralgon.  At the age of 17 you moved to Canberra to live with your sister and her husband and children.  You obtained work there. 

24You had a maternal grandfather who had served in the Australian navy and you were very interested in that and upon turning 18 years of age in July 2000, you joined the army.  At 19 you were posted to Darwin, where you remained for some four years.  You worked in specialised combat engineering duties and were ultimately voluntarily discharged in 2005.  While you were in Darwin, you had a relationship with a lady for a period of approximately three years, as
I understand it.

25When returning to Melbourne, you spent approximately there months on road construction on the South Gippsland Highway.  Then in August of 2006, you obtained local employment with BJ Bearings, who I am well aware of in this particular area.  You remained in full-time employment with them for the next 11 and a half years and obviously progressed reasonably well.  You resigned ultimately and since then you have struggled.  Your present partner you met in July of 2014 and married in 2015.  You have been living together in a premises in Traralgon.  In 2016, she fell pregnant and I am told and accept from the Bar table that it was a very difficult pregnancy.  That had caused difficulties and from that period of time on effectively. 

26As I understand it, that as around January of 2017, you were not working, bills were mounting, you were getting into some difficulties covering the mortgage.  You had used ice in your earlier years and you, in those circumstances, returned to it. 

27It was in those circumstances this offending commenced.  I am aware that it is a one day charge in 2018. 

28As I said before, you have got no priors and as I understand it, there is nothing pending.  During the course of your time on release, you have successfully completed the CISP program, which is very much to your credit.  That is mainly to do, as I understand it, with the use of ice and illicit substances and that is as much they can do for you, insofar as this sort of offending is concerned.

29There has been a fairly - sorry, I will withdraw that word, a very significant ‑ ‑ ‑

30MR NEWTON:  Your Honour, I understand that there is one subsequent driving with detection of ice in the system in October of 2018.

31HIS HONOUR:  I am not worried about the drugs, yes. 

32MR NEWTON:  Which is mentioned in the CISP report, which hasn't yet been dealt with.

33HIS HONOUR:  Yes.  I should also - when I revise this, I will be saying 'no relevant priors'.

34MR NEWTON:  Yes.

35HIS HONOUR:  I think I have said 'no priors', which is incorrect, yes.  All right. 

36As a result of you being apprehended for this offending, you are now residing with your mother.  Your wife has left you.  DHS have become involved.  There is an intervention order out against you.  You are only able to see the children, there is one natural child, as I understand it and one other child, on a supervised basis.  I have no idea what is going to happen with that, insofar as the sex offenders register is concerned.  This is not a matter that I am allowed to take into account.  What has happened is, that you have basically reached rock bottom, all as a result of the lifestyle that you were living leading up to this apprehension and what has occurred subsequent to it. 

37The risk of your re-offending, as I have indicated to counsel, is very difficult to ascertain in these circumstances.  Your rehabilitation is very much up to you.  I think that all that can really be done here is, impose a sentence of active custody which reflects the seriousness of what you have done and the need to deter others from behaving in this certain way for the protection obviously of children. 

38You will always have a period of supervision, whereby if you re-offend again, you will be dealt with again for this and you will clearly understand that with this as a prior conviction, were you to be apprehended offending in any way, shape or form along these lines, the sentence that would be imposed, I have no doubt would be condign indeed.

39I have taken into account the references that have been tendered on your behalf, the CISP report that has been tendered on your behalf and in the end, this is what the result is.  In all those circumstances, the appropriate sentence - and I will ask counsel to follow this fairly carefully for me, if you would.

40On Charge 1, three months.  That sentence to commence today.  I have to do them in this order because of the serious sexual offenders legislation. 

41On Charge 2, six months.  I direct that that sentence commence two months before the expiration of the State sentence on Charge 3. 

42I direct that you be released upon recognizance on Charge 2 after serving two months of that sentence.  That recognizance will be in the sum of $500 and it will be for three years. 

43On Charge 3, six months.  That being a State charge and I said, on Charge 4, seven days. 

44There is no PSD.

45I say that, pursuant to s.6AAA, although I have got grave doubts whether it is applicable, I would have sentenced you to be imprisoned for a period of two years, with a minimum term of one.

46Now what I have intended with this, is that that will be an active custody commencing now of six months.  That there will then be four months effectively suspended on a three year recognizance. 

47If counsel can tell me if that does not work. 

48MS MONAGLE:  Would Your Honour be minded to stand down just for five minutes, just so that I can double-check that all the mechanisms are correct? 

49HIS HONOUR:  I will not do that.  It has got to be right, does it not?  I can always change it if it is not.  But if you work on the basis there is six months State - we can discuss it now.  Mr Newton is here. 

50MS MONAGLE:  Your Honour, Charge 3 commencing today? 

51HIS HONOUR:  Yes.

52MS MONAGLE:  And Charge 4 commencing today?

53HIS HONOUR:  Well it is a State sentence.  Yes, Charge 3 commences today and six months.  And because the sex offenders register, I have got to do it in this order, if you understand what I am saying to you, otherwise I would have ‑ ‑ ‑

54MS MONAGLE:  Yes, Your Honour.

55HIS HONOUR:  Yes.  Charge 2 - Charge 1 is three months commencing today, which makes it automatically concurrent with the State sentence.  Charge 2 is six months, but that is not to commence until two months prior to the expiry of the six months on Charge 3.

56MS MONAGLE:  Yes. 

57HIS HONOUR:  That leaves, it is to be released after two months of that. 

58MS MONAGLE:  Yes, Your Honour.

59HIS HONOUR:  So that leaves him with four months unserved.

60MS MONAGLE:  Yes, Your Honour.

61HIS HONOUR:  On a three year recognizance.

62MS MONAGLE:  Yes, Your Honour. 

63HIS HONOUR:  All right? 

64MR NEWTON:  Yes.

65HIS HONOUR:  Yes, all right.  Does that all make sense to you, Mr Newton?

66MR NEWTON:  Yes it does, sir. 

67HIS HONOUR:  No, all right.  All right.  He has got to sign the recognizance, of course, yes.  If you would not mind going down with her.  Thank you, Mr Newton. 

68MS MONAGLE:  Thank you, Your Honour. 

69HIS HONOUR:  All right, what I will also do, as I say, that is subject to revision.  I will also point out when I do revise it, if I have not done it already, that the images, the subjects of 1 and 2 are incorporated within 3, so whilst they sit separately as separate charges, which is perfectly legitimate, there is an element of double-up, which is why I have done it the way I have done it. 

70All right, yes, you take him now, thank you.  Yes.

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