Director of Public Prosecutions v Edwards
[2019] VCC 1975
•14 November 2019
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA AT WODONGA CRIMINAL DIVISION | Revised (Not) Restricted Suitable for Publication |
Case No. CR-16-01253
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| IVAN EDWARDS |
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JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE C RYAN | |
WHERE HELD: | WODONGA | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 12 November 2019 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 14 November 2019 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Edwards | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2019] VCC 1975 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject: CRIMINAL LAW
Catchwords: Sentence – Contravention – Plea of guilty – Armed robbery – Contravention of community correction order – Contravention proven.
Legislation Cited: Sentencing Act 1991
Sentence: 2 years imprisonment; Non-parole period of 18 months imprisonment; 81 days pre-sentence detention; 6AAA declaration: 5 years imprisonment with a non-parole period of 3 years imprisonment.
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the DPP | Mr N. Goodenough | Solicitor for Office of Public Prosecutions |
| For the Accused | Ms T. Khor | Victorian Aboriginal Legal Services |
HIS HONOUR:
1 Ivan Edwards, on 10 January 2016, you committed an armed robbery in company on an occupant of a private house.
2 On 3 April 2017, you were sentenced by Her Honour Judge Harbison to 79 days’ imprisonment together with a three year Community Correction Order with conditions. Seventy-nine days were declared by way of pre‑sentence detention. One of the conditions of the Community Correction Order was that you perform 300 hours’ unpaid community work. You have completed this aspect of the order by way of treatment at Odyssey House.
3 The Community Correction Order is due to expire on 20 April 2020.
4 You have breached the order of Her Honour Judge Harbison by non-compliance with the order and by further offending. The various acts of non-compliance appear as a schedule to the charge and summons that was issued on 27 August 2019 and served personally on you on 8 September 2019. By order of the Magistrates’ Court the contravention proceedings issued in that court were transferred to this court.
5 Available to me are the sentencing reasons of Her Honour Judge Harbison together with the reports from Odyssey House tendered on your plea and which you relied upon.
6
In these proceedings I have the benefit of a chronology which I annex to these reasons as well as a report from the Department of Justice and Community Safety dated
19 July 2019 and signed by Ms Kerrie Frank (Supervisor) and Mr David Byle (Supervisor, Court Assessment and Prosecution Service) that particularises your failure to comply with the order and that recommends that the order be cancelled and that you be resentenced.
7 During the course of the plea I was informed by Mr Goodenough of counsel, who appeared on behalf of the Director, that his instructions from the department were that all sentencing options under the Sentencing Act 1991 in respect to contravention of a Community Correction Order were available to me.
8
At the beginning of the order, you were a resident at Odyssey House and many of the references relied upon by Her Honour Judge Harbison came from that organisation. Suffice it to say that you were progressing well at Odyssey House. However, on
23 May 2017, you discharged yourself from Odyssey House and relocated to Wodonga to care for your mother who was diagnosed with cancer. Unfortunately, your mother succumbed to her illness and died in late October 2017.
9 A transfer was organised for you to Wodonga and after your mother’s death to Bendigo in January 2018 to facilitate you reuniting with your estranged wife and children, but by February 2018, you requested a transfer back to Wodonga.
10 In summary, every attempt was made by those who supervised you to assist you by the provision of treatment and rehabilitative services and you failed to take up the assistance offered to you. You have offended on seven occasions in December 2017, March 2018, June 2018 and finally in October 2018. You were dealt with at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on 6 May 2019 for this offending and were convicted and ordered to be released on an eight month good behaviour bond with a special condition that you comply with the lawful directions of Odyssey House. I was informed that you spent a month at Odyssey House and were discharged from that place.
11 During the course of the plea I was informed that the New South Wales police service had obtained an extradition warrant for you for offending alleged to have occurred in North Albury on 19 October this year. This information of itself is irrelevant to the exercise of my sentencing discretion. However, as part of the material presented to me was a reference to an appearance made by you on 16 October 2019 at the Albury Local Court where in relation to drug, fraud, malicious damage and driving offences, you were convicted and sentenced to an Intensive Corrections Order for a period of 12 months. This conviction was admitted by Ms Khor, solicitor for the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service who appeared on your behalf, and is offending committed while serving the sentence imposed on you by Her Honour Judge Harbison and adversely affects any assessment of your prospects for rehabilitation.
12 It is now nearly four years since you offended. It is over two years since you were sentenced. Your sentence is due to lapse in approximately four months, yet your non-compliance has been substantial.
13 You have an extensive criminal history commencing when you were aged approximately 28 years, which includes offences for violence, drug offences, offences of dishonesty, breaching non-custodial orders and a family violence offence.
14 Your subsequent offending in Victoria includes driving offences, offences of dishonesty and bail offences.
15 The basis for Her Honour Judge Harbison’s sentence has fallen away as you failed to remain at Odyssey House and have since been non-compliant.
16 In her reasons for sentence Her Honour Judge Harbison described your offending in the following terms:
“The offence occurred at a house at McCrohan Street, Wodonga on 10 January 2016.
The circumstances of your offending with Mr Darke are unusual. Briefly, you had found out that a ring and a bracelet had been stolen from a friend of yours. The background to that theft had been the involvement of a group of your acquaintances in drugs and the accumulation of drug debts. You had not been involved in any of this but you took it upon yourself to retrieve the bracelet for your friend. You had been, I understand, successful in retrieving the ring at some earlier time, but not the bracelet.
You attended this house believing the owner of the house had the bracelet. You took with you a friend, your co-accused, Mr Darke. Mr Darke was disguised with a mask. You were not disguised at all.
When you arrived you knocked on the door. The owner of the house was not at home. There was a man at the home by the name of Robert Blundy. You had never met each other before but you persuaded him to let you inside.
Once inside you accused him of having the bracelet. He denied it. You made him empty his pockets. He did so, putting his wallet on the table and taking $110 in cash out of the wallet, which he also put on the table. At one stage Mr Darke produced a knife. Mr Blundy was understandably scared. Mr Darke then took the cash of $110 and you and Darke left the house. You were later seen on CCTV drinking at a local nightclub presumably spending Mr Blundy’s money which has not been recovered.”
17 However, included as part of the “breach package” is the summary of prosecution opening on the plea which is a more fulsome account of your offending and which I annex to these reasons for sentence.
18 As to your background, you are 41 years of age. You were brought up in the Albury area. Your mother and father divorced when you were about seven years of age. You have an older brother and a younger sister. You and your brother stayed in the care of your father for a period of time while your mother took custody of your sister and moved to Melbourne where she eventually remarried. You had limited contact with your mother between the ages of seven and 16 years. However, thereafter you seem to have had regular contact with your mother and stepfather, Richard, who you described to Ms Khor as the only positive male role model in your life.
19 You remained in the care of your father for only three months or so, when you and your brother were farmed out separately to two aunts. You were physically and sexually abused by your older cousins. The house in which you lived was characterised by the presence of and the abuse of drugs. I was informed that you enjoyed school as it was an escape from your home environment.
20 You were good at sports and completed Year 10 and left school at about 15 years of age.
21 Your drug abuse commenced with cannabis when you were but eight years of age. The abuse of cannabis continued until you were 22 years of age, when you moved onto what was described as other drugs.
22 You have had two families. You met your first partner when you were about 15 years of age and there are two children of that union, Emily who is aged 24 years and who resides in Albury, and Ethan who is aged 22 years and resides with you in Wodonga.
23 During your first relationship, you did a pre-apprenticeship and trained in garden maintenance while working at a resort on Lake Hume. You worked there for a period of three or four years. During this time you also obtained a certificate qualification in small business in the hope that eventually you would take over management of the resort.
24 During the course of your first relationship your partner was unfaithful to you and a child was born of that relationship. As a consequence of your partner’s conduct, the relationship failed and I was informed that you resorted to alcohol and drug abuse as a form of solace. The drugs were principally methylamphetamine and heroin and were provided to you by one of your cousins with whom you had lived with as a child. You became homeless and spent the next period of your life on the streets or couch surfing.
25 After separating from your partner, she moved to Queensland and you lost contact with her and your children, although you attempted to maintain some contact with your children by phone.
26 Some years later, when you were aged about 33 years in or about 2010, you formed a second relationship with Jasmine. There are three children of that relationship, aged eight years, six years and 18 months. At the time of the commencement of this relationship, you were regularly abusing drugs but when Jasmine became pregnant for the first time, you gave up drugs by going “cold turkey”. You were clean for three years and you worked as a labourer until 2014.
27 The relationship with Jasmine also failed and your former partner resides in Bendigo with your three children. It was in an attempt to reconcile with your estranged partner that you moved to Bendigo during the currency of the Community Correction Order and after the death of your mother. You appear to have reconciled with your older children at or about this time as well. I was informed that while working in 2014 you suffered a work-related injury and presently there is litigation on foot in respect to that matter.
28 I was further informed that after the end of your relationship with Jasmine, you turned to drug abuse.
29 During the course of the plea, it was put to me that you suffer from an acquired brain injury but no further information was forthcoming in respect to this issue.
30 I have had access to and read each of the reports from Odyssey House that were relied upon by you in your plea hearing before Her Honour Judge Harbison. You spent 12 months at Odyssey House from April 2016 until the time of your sentence in 2017. It was intended that you would remain at Odyssey House for a further three to four months after sentence. However, on 25 May 2017, some seven weeks after sentence, you discharged yourself from Odyssey House for reasons to which I have already referred.
31 It is plain from the many reports that your progress to rehabilitate yourself was exemplary and that you had taken on a leadership role to Aboriginal residents at Odyssey House. Further, I was informed that you presently want to take on a mentoring role at local schools through an organisation that you formed as a social group but which has developed over time. The group is called One River, One Mob.
32 In respect to your personal circumstances, you are presently without work and receive Newstart payments and have applied for the disability pension.
33 Ultimately, it was submitted by Ms Khor that you be permitted to continue with the Community Correction Order or that in the alternative your sentence be deferred so that you could reconnect with Community Corrections to demonstrate your present determination to continue with the Community Correction Order.
34 To my mind, for personal reasons, some of which are understandable, you failed in your obligation under Her Honour Judge Harbison’s sentence. Many of your moves were facilitated by your case managers and further they attempted to provide therapeutic services to you to assist you in your rehabilitation, which you simply ignored. Save for remaining at Odyssey House for seven weeks or so, and thereby completing your 300 hours of unpaid community work, you have failed to comply with the order. In addition, you have committed further offences, both in Victoria and New South Wales.
35 In all the circumstances, it is appropriate to resentence you.
36 I must take into account your plea of guilty and what flows from it, being that it has utilitarian benefit and was some evidence of your remorse. I must take into account the time which has passed since sentence was originally imposed on you and your limited compliance with it.
37 You have been marked by your deprived childhood and I must take that into account. Over your life you have abused illicit drugs and in particular methylamphetamine and have taken steps to overcome this addiction. You have had two failed relationships and have tried to maintain employment during your life. However, you have relevant prior and subsequent convictions in Victoria and New South Wales and I regard your prospects of rehabilitation as guarded. Will you please stand?
38 By this sentence, I must punish you, publicly denounce your conduct and deter others from committing this kind of crime. Taking into account the circumstances of the offence and its effects, together with your personal circumstances and antecedents and endeavouring to produce a sentence which reflects and promotes the purposes of sentencing in a manner appropriate to you and your offending, in respect to the offence of armed robbery, I sentence you to two years' imprisonment. I fix a period of 18 months as the period that you must serve before you will become eligible for parole.
39 In respect to the contravention of the Community Correction Order I sentence you to a term of one month's imprisonment. I declare that you have spent 81 days by way of pre-sentence detention. Pursuant to s.6AAA of the Sentencing Act I declare that but for your plea of guilty I would have sentenced you to five years' imprisonment with a non-parole period of three and a half years. Please be seated.
40 Are there any other matters?
41 MR GOODENOUGH: No, Your Honour.
42 HIS HONOUR: The 81 days is calculated by the original 79 plus the two days which the prisoner has spent in custody.
43 MR GOODENOUGH: Yes, Your Honour.
44 HIS HONOUR: Remove the prisoner please.
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Contravention of CCO: Ivan EDWARDS CR-16-01253-1600517
Coram: Her Honour Judge Harbison
Chronology
| Date | Event |
| 10 January 2016 | Original offence date – Charge 1: Armed robbery |
| 3 April 2017 | Sentence – County Court at Wangaratta – Coram: Judge Harbison Convicted and sentenced to 79 days’ imprisonment (79 days PSD) Convicted and ordered to serve a CCO for 3 years: • 300 hours of community work • Treatment and rehabilitation – Offending behaviour programs • All hours of treatment creditable towards community work |
| Commencement of CCO | |
| 29 August 2017 | Alleged non-compliance: failed to attend community work |
| 5 September 2017 | Alleged non-compliance: failed to attend community work |
| 5 October 2017 | Alleged non-compliance: failed to attend treatment and rehabilitation – drug |
| 22 November 2017 | Alleged non-compliance: failed to attend supervision |
| Alleged non-compliance: failed to attend treatment and rehabilitation – drug | |
| 7 December 2017 | Alleged non-compliance: failed to attend community work |
| Further offending – Informant Craig Beyer • Unlicensed driving | |
| 9 December 2017 | Further offending – Informant Ricky Keast • Unlicensed driving |
| 21 December 2017 | Alleged non-compliance: failed to attend community work |
| 30 December 2017 | Further offending – Informant Stephen Bice • Unlicensed driving |
| 11 January 2018 | Alleged non-compliance: failed to attend treatment and rehabilitation – drug |
| 6 February 2018 | Alleged non-compliance: failed to attend supervision |
| 12 February 2018 | Alleged non-compliance: failed to attend treatment and rehabilitation – drug |
| 19 February 2018 | Alleged non-compliance: failed to attend treatment and rehabilitation – drug |
| 28 February 2018 | Alleged non-compliance: failed to attend treatment and rehabilitation – drug |
| 1 March 2018 | Alleged non-compliance: failed to attend treatment and rehabilitation – drug |
| 6 March 2018 | Further offending – Informant Troy Bakic • Handle/receive/retain stolen goods |
| 19 March 2018 | Further offending – Informant Craig Beyer • Unlicensed driving |
| 31 March 2018 | Further offending – Informant Daniel McGrath • Theft-from shop (shopsteal) • Commit indictable offence whilst on bail |
| 24 May 2018 | Alleged non-compliance: failed to attend community work |
Contravention of CCO: Ivan EDWARDS CR-16-01253-1600517
Coram: Her Honour Judge Harbison
| 31 May 2018 | Alleged non-compliance: failed to attend community work |
| 1 June 2018 | Further offending – Informant Michael Uhrane • Unlicensed driving |
| 7 June 2018 | Alleged non-compliance: failed to attend community work |
| Further offending – Informant Tamara Cunningham • Unlicensed driving | |
| 21 June 2018 | Alleged non-compliance: failed to attend community work |
| 5 July 2018 | Alleged non-compliance: failed to attend community work |
| 19 July 2018 | Alleged non-compliance: failed to attend community work |
| 26 July 2018 | Alleged non-compliance: failed to attend community work |
| 22 August 2018 | Alleged non-compliance: failed to attend treatment and rehabilitation – drug |
| 29 October 2018 | Further offending – Informant Adam Presutti • Unlicensed driving • Use unregistered motor vehicle • Fail to answer bail |
| 6 May 2019 | Further offending – Sentence – Melbourne Magistrates’ Court • With conviction, adjourned to 2 December 2019 • Released upon giving undertaking starting 6 May 2019 • To appear before adjourned date if called upon • To be of good behaviour during the period of adjournment • To comply with all lawful directions of Odyssey House |
| 27 August 2019 | CCS charge and summons issued |
| 5 September 2019 | CCS charge and summons served |
| 24 October 2019 | Contravention Hearing at the County Court at Wangaratta |
| 2 April 2020 | Expiry of CCO |
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA AT LATROBE VALLEY | Court Reference: 16-01246 & 16-01253 Indictment No: C1610602 |
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION
IN THE MATTER OF Section 182 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2009
| Prosecution of ROBERT JAMES DARKE AND IVAN EDWARDS |
SUMMARY OF PROSECUTION OPENING
| Date of Document: | Date of Document: The Director of Public Prosecutions Solicitors code: Reference: Telephone: File Number: | 9 September 2016 7539 |
Background
The two accused are Ivan Edwards and Robert Darke. In early January 2016 the two were residing together at Mr Edwards unit at 19/65 McFarland Rd Wodonga. Also residing there were Jessica Webster and Renae Lautenbacher.
The alleged victim is Robert Blundy. At the time of the alleged offence he was staying at the house of his friend Kerryann Oats at 1 McCrohan Court Wodonga.
The two accused and Ms Oats were well known to each other. Mr Blundy had never encountered either accused prior to the day of the offence.
The lead up
At some time during the day on Sunday 10 January 2016 Ms Oats came into possession of a bracelet and a ring. She obtained them from a person named Cassie Schaeffer. After some phone calls, Ms Oats came to understand that the ring was stolen, and it belonged to a person named April Hunt. Ms Hunt was a neighbour of the accused man Ivan Edwards.
Mr Blundy and Ms Oats drove to see Ms Hunt. They spoke to her and to Mr Edwards outside her unit. The conversation was friendly. The ring was returned to Ms Hunt and Ms Oats and Mr Blundy left. Ms Oats says that she did not appreciate at that point that the bracelet also belonged to Ms Hunt.
After they left, they received a series of calls and text messages from Ivan Edwards concerning the bracelet. Ms Oats says that she was unable to immediately return to Ms Hunt’s residence, but intended to return the bracelet soon.
Ms Oats became concerned about what might happen, and at some point in the evening of 10 January she left her house to go to a friend’s place. Mr Blundy remained at her house.
The offence
At approximately 10.30pm on 10 January the two accused men, together with Ms Webster and Ms Lautenbacher, drove to Ms Oats house at 1 McCrohan Court in Ms Lautenbacher’s car. The car was parked near but not directly out the front of the house, and the four approached the house on foot.
Mr Edwards knocked on the door. The other 3 attempted to conceal themselves by waiting in positions where they could not, or not easily, be seen from the front door. Mr Darke put on a mask which concealed his face. He had a knife which he concealed in the left sleeve of his jumper.
10.Mr Blundy opened the front door. There was also a screen door which was locked. He spoke to Mr Edwards through the screen door. Mr Blundy recognised Mr Edwards from their meeting earlier that day.
11.Mr Edwards asked for Ms Oats, and was told she wasn’t home. He asked for the bracelet and Mr Blundy said he didn’t have it. Mr Edwards asked to come inside, but this request was refused.
12.Mr Edwards insisted he be allowed inside, and ended up saying “if you don’t open the door I’ll rip it off its hinges.” Mr Blundy decided that since Ms Oats wasn’t home, and the bracelet wasn’t there, then the best way to defuse the situation was to allow Mr Edwards in so that he could see that for himself.
13.Mr Blundy opened the front door, and all four persons entered. Mr Edwards entered first, then Mr Darke. Mr Darke produced the knife from his sleeve as he entered. The two females entered after the men.
14.There were 2 CCTV cameras above the front door. Recorded footage shows the four persons at the front door, then shows them entering the house. There is no CCTV covering the inside of the house.
15.As soon as they entered the two females went to a bedroom where they disabled the CCTV camera. They left the house at some point. Mr Blundy did not see them leave.[1]
[1] Just as background information for the court, Ms Webster and Ms Lautenbacher were charged with aggravated burglary and armed robbery but were discharged at committal.
16.The two accused confronted Mr Blundy. Mr Darke held the knife up and waved it in a threatening manner. Both accused asked about the bracelet. Mr Blundy said he didn’t have it. Mr Edwards said “don’t lie to me or we’ll carve you up cunt and you’ll be leaving in an ambulance.” The accused then demanded that Mr Blundy produce his wallet, which he did. One of the accused, probably Mr Edwards, then took all the cash out of the wallet. This amounted to $110. Mr Edwards then said to Mr Blundy that if he brought drugs around to their house he could have his money back. The two men then left.
17.Mr Blundy noticed that the man with the knife who was wearing the mask had a tattoo on the back of his right calf. It consisted of black block lettering which included the letters L and V.
18.After the men left Mr Blundy telephoned Ms Oats to tell her what had happened.
19.A short time after the men left there was a knock at the door. Mr Blundy did not open the door but yelled out “who is it.” A man asked “where’s Kerry?” Mr Blundy recognised the voice of the masked man (Mr Darke). He did not open the door. Mr Darke eventually left[2].
[2]The CCTV had been disabled so there is no footage of any of the four leaving, or anyone coming back.
20.Ms Oats attended her house with a friend Scott Charubin. When they arrived in McCrohan Court they saw a small blue car, being the offenders vehicle. The offenders began to chase Ms Oats and Mr Charubin, who ultimately drove to Wodonga police station.
21.While sitting at Wodonga police station, Ms Oats received a phone call from Mr Darke. She recognised his voice. He said “you stupid little slut, you’ve run to the coppers, you’re going to lag us, we come for you with a machete.”
22.The two accused plus the two females drove to Elgin’s hotel, where they purchased drinks and played poker machines. They can be seen wearing the same clothing as depicted in the CCTV at Ms Oats house. The prosecution case is that both accused can be identified on the CCTV footage from the hotel.
23.In the early hours of Monday the 11th of January 2016, Ivan Edwards Facebook messaged Ms Oats, again asking for the bracelet. Ms Oats replied with abusive messages towards Edwards. Edwards sent a message saying “Run back down the jak shop u dead whore”.
24.Both accused were arrested on 27 January 2016. Mr Edwards made a no comment interview. The top which can be seen on the CCTV footage being worn by Mr Edwards was found at his house on a search.
25.Mr Darke in his interview denied any involvement or any knowledge of the incident. Mr Darke’s tattoos were photographed. It is argued that Mr Blundy accurately described the tattoo on his calf. It is also argued that Mr Darke’s neck tattoos can be seen in the CCTV footage.
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TRIAL PROSECUTOR
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