Director of Public Prosecutions v Dorset-Turner
[2012] VCC 1371
•14 September 2012
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL DIVISION
CR-12-00883
CR-12-00196
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| NATHAN DORSET-TURNER |
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JUDGE: | HER HONOUR JUDGE MAIDMENT | |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 26 April and 7 May | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 14 September 2012 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Dorset-Turner | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2012] VCC 1371 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Catchwords:
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Crown | Ms N. Burnett | |
| For the Accused | Mr W. Toohey |
HIS HONOUR:
1 Nathan Dorset-Turner, you can remain seated for the time being. You have pleaded guilty to two indictments, the first alleges that you negligently caused serious injury to Amy Downs on 30 September 2011. That offence carries a maximum term of imprisonment of ten years, and the second indictment in Charge 1 alleges that you stole a computer hard drive and mouse on 30 January 2012, and the second charge to which you pleaded guilty alleges that on 17 February 2012, you recklessly engaged in conduct by driving a motor vehicle at an excessive speed placing persons in danger of serious injury.
2 Those offences carry maximum terms of imprisonment respectively of ten years, and five years. You have also pleaded guilty to a number of related summary offences, for dangerous speed on 17 February 2012. That carries a maximum term of imprisonment of two years and also a requirement that I cancel you from driving and disqualify you from driving for 12 months at least. Also on the same day, an offence of driving whilst your license was suspended, driving an unregistered vehicle, fraudulently using a false number plate, and giving the police a false name. An offence of failing to obey a lawful direction from the police, an offence of dealing in property suspected to be the proceeds of crime. That carries a maximum term of imprisonment of two years and an offence of possessing ammunition on 16 February 2012.
3 You have also admitted a number of prior convictions, which include offences of dishonesty and offences of violence, and at least one offence of driving whilst disqualified. I note that the last offence or series of offences involving dishonesty and violence were dealt with by the Court in 2007. The only offence that you have on your record as occurring thereafter was on 27 June 2008 for breaching an intervention order which I am informed was an intervention order taken out by your mother.;
4 So it is noteworthy, I think, that since 27 June 2008, you have not registered any other criminal convictions prior to today.
5 The prosecution has tendered, as Exhibit A, a summary of the facts in relation to each of the charges on the indictment, and some of the related summary offences to which you have pleaded guilty. I do not propose to read those out. They have been canvassed in some detail. I incorporate those document into my reasons for sentence. I note that the incident on 20 September of last year, whereby you caused the mother of your child serious injury by throwing a pair of scissors at her occurred in circumstances where you were bickering with her, and which suggest that it was a momentary loss of self-control on your part that caused you to act in the way that you did. There was no element of premeditation or intention to cause her serious injury. Suffice to say that it was nevertheless a serious offence of its kind, and may well have resulted in more severe injuries than in fact occurred.
6 There is no victim impact statement. It seems that she has forgiven you for what you did. I am told that it is expected that the two of you will get back together again, and hopefully live together once you are free to do so. The second series of offences, and the second indictment which occurred during the period between about 30 January 2012, and 17 February 2012 this year, occurred whilst you were on bail in relation to the first indictment, and in circumstances where it seems you had gone back to your habit of substance abuse. I accept that those offences occurred against a background of substance abuse, and of obtaining monies to support your drug habits, and at a time when you were not employed and when you were in bad company. But nevertheless they are serious offences of their kind. I am sure you acknowledge that the offence of theft is serious enough. That carries a maximum term of imprisonment of ten years.
7 The offences that occurred on 17 February 2012, it seems to me, are particularly serious offences of their kind. Even though you may have panicked or acted impulsively, and upon the request of your companion, Ms Karalambous, it really does not excuse the conduct and the manner of your driving, which was highly dangerous. You, of course, must have been aware that you were a disqualified driver. You were driving a vehicle which was unregistered, had false number plates on it, and you behaved in a manner which showed very little if any regard for the Road Safety Act, the safety of persons who might have got in your way whilst you were driving in a manner which you did and generally of the law.
8 I regard this offending conduct as putting you beyond the scope of a suspended sentence, or other sentencing options. Had it simply been for the offence involving your former de facto, those options may well have been available. You are now 29 years of age. I have been supplied by your counsel with reports from a psychologist dated 15 April and 24 April respectively. And a report from Dr Sullivan, psychiatrist, dated 1 August of 2012. Those reports are Exhibit 2 on the plea, and I incorporate them into these reasons for sentence. I am not going to go through them in great detail, suffice to say that they catalogue the personal history, educational history, family history and your drug abuse history and identify your level of intelligence, and indicate the degree of personality difficulties that have beset you over the years.
9 It seems that you had an unremarkable childhood until your father died when you were 13 years of age. It is I think to be expected that that would have had a very significant impact upon you. It seems that it did, because your life seems to have deteriorated since then. You got into substance abuse from the age of 13 onwards, and it seems that that has been the blight of your life since then. It would have affected your performance at school, and would no doubt have affected your ability to hold down a job. It would have affected your personal development, your natural course of maturity, and it is not surprising perhaps that during that period you did not develop the normal anger management controls that a normally maturing young man could be expected to achieve. I have got no doubt that those factors have all contributed to the offences which are catalogued in your prior convictions. Your record goes back to the Frankston Children's Court in 1998. Offences of theft and burglary; Melbourne County Court (2000), you have gone up a notch to armed robbery. But it seems that of course that was committed against the backdrop of alcohol and drug abuse, because you are placed on a community based order at that time, with conditions that you undergo assessment and treatment for alcohol and drug addiction. So that went on until, as I have indicated, November of 2007 and 27 June 2008, which were your last two court appearances. It is not quite clear to me exactly what the chronology of the events of your life are, but it seems likely that the period following June 2008 through to about 20 September 2011 coincided with a period when you were in work, holding down a job as a tree-lopper. You did have a relationship (albeit that that relationship became problematic) with a young lady and you had a young child.
10 Despite your continuing drug use, which itself it caused problems in your relationship, I think it is reasonable to infer that you were showing signs of maturity and signs that you have prospects of rehabilitation subject to your ability to control your substance abuse. I find those circumstances that I have just outlined a cause for some optimism, and I might say that but for that there would not have been much in the history of the last 12 months that would have led me to that feeling of optimism.
11 It is unfortunate, I think, that the events of 20 September occurred when they did and how they did. And it may well be that it was the anxiety caused by the expectation that you may face a term of imprisonment, or other serious consequences as a result of that, that probably contributed to your offending conduct in the early part of this year. Hopefully, that might be seen in the longer term as an aberration, or as a period of aberration and that the period between June 2008 and September 2011 may be a better reflection of what the future holds for you.
12 There is no submission made on your behalf that the reports of the psychologist and the psychiatrist identify a mental impairment such as that I should regard that factor as reducing your moral culpability for the offences. However, I think it is fair to say, that this is a situation where your drug addiction, your substance abuse stems from a period very early in life which is referable to a very traumatic event in your life. And therefore, there does seem to me to be some mitigatory effect to be derived from the proposition that these offences were committed against a background of substance abuse and continuing substance abuse. I take that account in assessing the appropriate sentences in your particular case.
13 You have pleaded guilty and that is very much to your credit. I think that it is accepted that in respect of the events of negligently causing serious injury, you pleaded guilty at the first reasonable opportunity in respect of the other offences. I am told that the pleas were indicated after a period of negotiation, during which other offences that were levelled against you were dropped and whilst you cannot perhaps put forward the proposition that the pleas were the first available opportunity, I think they were probably indicated at the first reasonable opportunity in all the circumstances. I think you are entitled to credit for that; for saving the community the costs and inconvenience and also as an indication that you are remorseful for your conduct. Also tendered on your behalf were certificates which show that you have engaged in courses whilst on remand which suggest that you are keen to improve yourself and to facilitate your rehabilitation. You will appreciate that that is not the only sentencing consideration that I am bound to to give effect to in passing sentence upon you. I am required to consider the maximum terms of imprisonment, or maximum penalties for each of the offences to which you pleaded guilty. To express the denunciation of this court of the conduct in which you have engaged, to punish you appropriately for the offences, and to deter you from committing further offences. Perhaps most significantly, and in particular in relation to the offences the subject of the second indictment, and the related summary offences, to deterring others of from committing offences of that kind.
14 General deterrence applies to all of the offences, but it seems to me that it applies particularly in relation to that latter series of offences because the first offence - the negligently causing serious injury was more one of impulse or loss of control than one of premeditation. Balanced against all of that, I am required to facilitate your rehabilitation as far as I reasonably can, and I think that that is a worthwhile exercise. As I have indicated, I do not think that you have reached that point where the court figuratively speaking might think about throwing away the key, and giving up on you. There are some positives, I think, to be derived from the history that I have outlined and hopefully from the prospects of reconciliation with your de facto and your young child, and the prospects of being able to lead a life with them and hopefully supported by members of your family also.
15 And much of that, the success of that, will depend upon your willingness to knuckle down and tackle the substance abuse problems. Hopefully, there will be programs available to you in prison. Hopefully there will be further programs available to you when you are paroled, and it is to be hoped that you will avail yourself of those programs with enthusiasm because unless you do, life is going to be a lot harder as time goes on.
16 You are quite capable of working, and with the help of those programs, and hopefully a steady job I think you ultimately may show that you have good prospects of rehabilitation. I am urged by the prosecution, I think fairly, to be guarded about your prospects of rehabilitation and I think that is a fair assessment at this stage because very much will depend upon your willingness to tackle the problems yourself. It has got to come from within. Anyway, I think that is probably enough of a lecture from me. I must pass sentence upon you weighing up all of those facts and trying to do the best I can to strike the right balance.
17 So if you would please stand up; in respect of the first indictment, that is that in which you pleaded guilty to negligently causing serious injury, I convict you and sentence you to imprisonment for 18 months. In respect of the second indictment, on Charge 1 of theft, I convict you and sentence you to 18 months imprisonment. And on Charge 2, of reckless conduct, I convict you and sentence you to imprisonment for 18 months. Dealing with the related summary offences, in relation to the offence of Charge 3, of driving at a dangerous speed; I sentence you to imprisonment for six months. In relation to Charge 4 of driving whilst your authorisation was suspended, I convict you and sentence you to imprisonment for four months. If I did not say that I convicted you on the dangerous speed, I convict you on that too. Charge 5; I convict you and discharge you pursuant to s.73 of the Sentencing Act. Charge 6, I convict you and discharge you. Charge 7; I convict you and discharge you. Charge 8; I convict you and discharge you. Charge 13; of dealing with property suspected of being the proceeds of crime, I sentence you to imprisonment for six months. On Charge 14; of possessing ammunition, I convict you and discharge you.
18 The sentence on the first indictment, causing serious injury is the base. And I further order that nine months of the sentence on Charge 1 of the second indictment, and nine months on Charge 2 on the second indictment, and two months on Charge 4 of driving whilst suspended, and two months on Charge 13 of dealing with the proceeds of crime will be served cumulatively on one another and cumulatively on the sentence of 18 months imprisonment on the first indictment. That, according to my calculations, makes a total effective sentence of three years and four months. In respect of the non-parole period it seems to me that the circumstances lend themselves to a more lengthy period on parole than might otherwise be appropriate, and I therefore order that you serve a period of 20 months before you become eligible for parole. So the total effective sentence is 40 months. And the minimum non-parole period is 20 months. But for your pleas of guilty, I would have sentenced you to a total of four years and six months imprisonment with a non-parole period of three years and three months. In respect of the offence of driving at a dangerous speed, I am required to cancel your license and disqualify you for a period of 12 months, but in fact I disqualify you for a period of three years. So that will have some bite after your release from prison. That will after a period still permit you to recover your license and I impose that because it seems to me that the speed in this case was particularly high and requires the condemnation of the court and also requires the court to offer some protection to other road users.
19 I declare that 244 days of pre-sentence detention be reckoned as time served on the sentence that I have imposed upon you, and that that be period be deducted from the sentence that you will be required to serve. And that those facts be entered into the records of the court. I have also indicated that I would make an order for you to provide a forensic sample. That forensic sample would ordinarily be provided by you providing a scraping from the inside of your mouth. I don't know whether you have done that before, but an authorised officer will request you to provide the sample by that means. If you fail or refuse to provide the sample by that means, then the officer will be authorised under the terms of the order to take a blood sample from you in the alterative and may use reasonable force to obtain that if you do not consent to the blood sample being taken.
20 I am sure that there will not be a problem and you will consent to the provision of the scraping from the inside of your mouth. I have not received the drafts of those orders yet. You will be given a copy of the order in due course when I have signed it. Are there any other orders that I need to make.
21 MS BURNETT: No, Your Honour.
22 HIS HONOUR: Yes, thank you.
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