Director of Public Prosecutions v Eversham
[2013] VCC 1067
•23 July 2013
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
AT BENDIGO
CRIMINAL DIVISION
Case No CR-12-02242
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| JONATHAN EVERSHAM |
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JUDGE: | His Honour Judge Maidment | |
WHERE HELD: | Bendigo | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 23 July 2013 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 23 July 2013 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v. Eversham | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2013] VCC 1067 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the DPP | Mr P. Jones | Office of Public Prosecutions |
| For the Accused | Mr M. Page |
HIS HONOUR:
1 Jonathan Bryan Eversham – you can remain seated for the time being – you have pleaded guilty to an indictment charging you with three offences of armed robbery, one offence of attempted armed robbery and two offences of theft and you have admitted a number of prior convictions and court appearances, many of those for offences of dishonesty and also for offences involving violence. The maximum term of imprisonment for armed robbery is 25 years, the maximum term of imprisonment for attempted armed robbery is 20 years and for theft the maximum term of imprisonment is 10 years.
2 All of those offences are regarded as very serious offences and the circumstances of this offending are themselves serious in that on a number of occasions you took with you a weapon, a knife – a lethal weapon, not a small knife, quite a decent sized knife. Had any of your victims thought of tackling you, goodness knows what might have happened and whether you intended the consequence or not it could easily have had seriously consequences for the victim as well as yourself.
3 If you go into a retail outlet with a knife and threaten somebody with a knife you are running the risk that you will lose control over that situation and it is of course a very serious matter because the threat to people who are simply going about their ordinary business, doing an honest days work and are generally regarded as soft targets is calculated to put them in fear of their lives and the effect on them will remain with them probably forever.
4 I know we have not got any victim impact statement here but nevertheless it seems to me to be common sense that anybody threatened with a knife in those circumstances is going to have very serious ongoing emotional disturbance and it may be a very long lasting and serious emotional disturbance. Again, you have no control over that and your actions obviously showed that you did not care at the time you carried out your act, as to what effect your actions would have on those persons.
5 The courts must offer some measure of protection for persons such as that and it is necessary for the court to punish you properly, to express the denunciation of the court for conduct of this nature as well as to deter others from committing offences of this kind and also to deter you from committing offences of this kind.
6 However it is also important and particularly important for a young man who was 18 at the time of committing these offences and only 19 now that the court facilitate your rehabilitation as far as it reasonably can.
7 Your counsel has provided me with a copy of a report dated 24 June of this year from Mr Jeffrey Cummins, a psychologist. In his usual thorough way he has provided a history of your childhood and education and work history such as it is which shows that you had a disrupted childhood and by no means as bad a childhood as many who come before this court but nevertheless not an easy childhood and that you strayed into abuse of cannabis initially and then amphetamines and ultimately into methylamphetamine in the form of Ice. You left school partway through Year 10 and apart from short periods of employment you ultimately succumbed to the temptation of pursuing your career in drug abuse rather than in gainful employment and of course got yourself into further trouble.
8 You have been in custody now for 382 days and I am told that you have been clean during that time. For somebody with a history of drug abuse going back to – well for five or six years, that is significant. Obviously you have been in custody but it is not uncommon for people to be able to get hold of drugs if they want to in gaol and it is to your credit that you have not and you have stayed clean.
9 Your past history and your track record to date suggests that you are very much at a crossroads in your life. You can pursue the previous life that you had before you went into gaol on this occasion and you will get into deeper and deeper trouble I have no doubt. If you pursue a career in drugs rather than honest employment then that is the inevitable consequence and you will become institutionalised and your home will be prison rather than somewhere better.
10 I do not know how you are going to turn out and I think very much will depend on how you take the opportunities that may be offered to you whilst you are on parole. The principle of facilitating rehabilitation is particularly important in a young person and whilst these are serious offences, whether they are committed by an adult or by a young person the basis of the principle is that it is hoped that people will grow up as they mature and learn to lead an honest life and that by facilitating the rehabilitation of a young person the public is better protected because if they are rehabilitated they are less likely to offend again.
11 So there is a measure of leniency which is offered to young people that would not be offered to persons committing offences of this nature who are older and more mature. You are still a young person and you get the benefit of that principle.
12 As I say the public will be the better protected if you are persuaded to lead an honest life and it is to be hoped that by giving you the opportunity of a substantial period on parole that you would take that opportunity.
13 You would realise I am quite sure that the law now is that if you breach parole you will certainly have to serve the balance of your term of imprisonment. It is conceded on your behalf that youth justice centre has been tried and has not worked and that a prison sentence is inevitable having regard to the seriousness of these offences.
14 I am very pleased that your mother has come here today. I am sure you are, and I am told that you have the support of others and that there has been a lady I think who has been visiting you in prison who offers her support to you and that you have friends who will help you in the future, that you may wish to go to Canberra and pursue work opportunities there. All of those are possibilities and you will have to negotiate some of that no doubt with the parole board when you get your release.
15 I think that you are fortunate in that the prosecution too has recognised the importance of – at this stage of your life – trying to rehabilitate you rather than incarcerate you for a lengthy period of time and run the risk that you will become institutionalised. As I said to your counsel in the course of the plea the prosecution range is a fairly generous one.
16 It seems to me – nevertheless, that it is a range that is consistent with current sentencing practice for offenders as young as you who for one reason or another have become drug dependent and I think that the range is a realistic one and I propose to sentence you within that range. Would you please stand?
17 Jonathan Bryan Eversham for the offence the subject of Charge 1 of armed robbery I convict you and sentence you to imprisonment for two years. On Charge 2 of armed robbery I convict you and sentence you to imprisonment for two years. On Charge 3 of theft I convict you and sentence you to imprisonment for one month. On Charge 4 of theft I convict you and sentence you to imprisonment of one month. On Charge 5 of attempted armed robbery I convict you and sentence you to imprisonment for 18 months. On Charge 6 of armed robbery I convict you and sentence you to imprisonment for two years and six months.
18 That is to reflect the fact that you had had warning shots across your bows as it were from police attention in relation to the second of the armed robbery offences and having been caught with a 30 centimetre knife in the early hours of the morning of 2 July of last year.
19 The sentence on Charge 6 is the base sentence and I order that one month of each of the sentences on Charges 1, 2 and 5 be served cumulatively upon one another and with the sentence on Charge 6, making a total effective sentence of two years and nine months; imprisonment and I order that you serve a total of 17 months before becoming eligible for parole.
20 Of course that will mean you have to serve some further time but 382 days of pre-sentence detention I declare is to be deducted from the sentence that I have passed upon you, administratively, and I order that fact be noted in the records of the court.
21 But for your pleas of guilty I would have sentenced you to imprisonment for four years and nine months with a non-parole period of three years
22 The orders for disposal of property and for compensation will be made in the terms of the drafts that I have been supplied with. Are there any other orders gentlemen? All right you can just take a seat for a moment whilst I just deal with all of those orders.
23 Yes, the order will be drawn up. I think probably it would be more convenient if the prisoner stayed up here until the order is completed and signed and then you can take him away after that, all right. Well I will leave the bench, we can adjourn the court and that can be done. Thank you counsel for your assistance.
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