Director of Public Prosecutions v Frezghi

[2016] VCC 759

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

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 16-00468

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

NATU BAKARAT FREZGHI

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE MAIDMENT
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	1 June 2016
DATE OF SENTENCE:	2 June 2016
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Frezghi
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2016] VCC 759

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Ms G. Overend
For the Accused	Mr C. McLennan

HIS HONOUR: 

1Natu Berakat Frezghi.

2OFFENDER:  Yes, Your Honour.

3HIS HONOUR:  You can stay seated for the time being.  You pleaded guilty to an indictment charging you with aggravated burglary on 24 September of last year, along with five related summary offences involving assault with a weapon and unlawful assault.

4The prosecution has tendered and relied upon a summary, which is Exhibit A.  That was read to the court this morning; I am not going to read it again.  It sets out the circumstances in which you attended the premises of the Department of Human Services Housing offices, obviously upset with them, apparently because of incidents that have been occurring at your home and leaving you to conclude that you wished to me moved from your address to alternative accommodation.  You behaved quite appallingly, with a weapon.

5OFFENDER:  Yes, Your Honour.

6HIS HONOUR:  You behaved in a manner that was calculated to frighten people.  It did frighten people.  And armed as you were, it would have been a traumatic experience for all of those people involved.  I think you realise that now.

7OFFENDER:  Yes, Your Honour.

8HIS HONOUR:  Aggravated burglary is serious offence, and it is particularly serious when you go along with intention of assaulting persons inside the premises, and when you are armed with weapons such as a machete.

9In the condition you were in, and obviously upset, your victims could not have known the extent to which you would have gone in using your weapons against them, and no doubt that experience will live with them for a very considerable period of time.  I have to take all that into account.  There are no victim impact statements, but one can only imagine that it would have been an experience that no doubt those victims have relived on a number of occasions since.

10You were arrested that day and you declined to participate in an interview with police, but that is not to be held against you in any way.  You have cooperated in pleading guilty to these offences, and I give you full credit for your plea of guilty, and that will be reflected in the sentence that I have indicated that I intend to impose.

11You must realise that offences of aggravated burglary often carry terms of imprisonment of four years or more, particularly when weapons are involved.  And the reason why I am not imposing a sentence as severe as that upon you is because firstly, you do not have a bad record.  You have a criminal record for offences that are serious enough in their own way, but they do not involve offences of violence.  And it also clear that you have been attended by mental health issues for your adult life.  How, whether that was in part as a product of your abuse of drugs, in particular cannabis, I do not know, but there is no doubt that you have had a long history of mental illness involving schizophrenia.

12Your counsel provided me with a helpful outline of submissions, setting out a bit about your background history, coming from Eritrea as you do.  Sadly, you have not been able to hold down a job over the years and you have been on a disability support pension, no doubt largely because of your mental health issues.

13Fortunately, you have been under the care of Dr John Cox over a number of years and you have been compliant with your medication, and for that reason you have been able to function independently, and to live out your life in housing commission accommodation.

14The prospects for the future, provided you stay on your medication and provided you can overcome your feelings of anger towards the Department of Human Services, look reasonably good.  It seems that you are quite capable of living independently.  It is to be hoped that you will not get behind the wheel of a motor vehicle again, because you have got a number of driving offences, but I hope that you will have learnt a considerable lesson from your imprisonment for these offences.

15OFFENDER:  I did, Your Honour.

16HIS HONOUR:  Because if you have not, and if you repeat conduct of this kind, you will go to prison for a very considerable period of time.  Do you understand that?

17OFFENDER:  Thank you.

18HIS HONOUR:  Yes.  Now I am bound to punish you adequately for your offending.  I am bound to denounce your conduct in a suitable way by imposing a proper sentence upon you, and not just to deter you from committing further offences, but to deter others from committing further offences of this kind.  It is necessary, therefore, that I impose a term of imprisonment more than the period you have already done.

19The fact that it will be harder for you to serve your term of imprisonment, with the mental impairments that you have is taken into account.  I think, although it is not clear from the medical evidence, that your moral culpability, your blameworthiness for your offending conduct is mitigated somewhat by your mental condition, and had it not been for that, I would have imposed a more significant sentence upon you.

20OFFENDER:  Thank you, Your Honour.

21HIS HONOUR:  Your counsel has invited me to order a community correction order in addition to the term of imprisonment that I must impose, and I accept that submission entirely.  It seems to me that you will benefit from, and the community will benefit from, you getting some proper treatment when you are released.  It is likely that you will be on a treatment order in any event, but I think under the terms of the community correction order, you have opportunities to engage with mental health professionals, and also to undergo some counselling, with a view to dealing with drug abuse issues and to help you settle back into the community, and to lead a settled and productive life.  All right?

22OFFENDER:  Thank you, Your Honour.

23HIS HONOUR:  So for that reason, I intend to impose a community correction order upon you, and a I understand, you are willing to abide by the terms of that order; is that right?

24OFFENDER:  Yes.  Yes, Your Honour.

25HIS HONOUR:  All right, well I am ready to pass sentence upon you, so would you just stand, please?

26Natu Berakat Frezghi, for the offence of aggravated burglary charged on the indictment, I convict you and sentence you to imprisonment for a period of 20 months.

27In addition, I order that you be the subject of a community correction order for a period of two years.  You will be under the supervision of the Department of Corrections during that period.  The order will commence upon your release from prison.  You will be required within two working days of your release from prison to report to the Carlton Community Correction offices and to commence your order.  Do you understand?

28You will also be required to submit to testing for and participate in such rehabilitation programs as are directed, to deal with your drug abuse issues, mental health issues, and programs to reduce your risk of reoffending.

29OFFENDER:  Thank you, Your Honour.

30HIS HONOUR:  You must understand that, if you breach the terms of the community correction order, you may be brought back to this court for breaching the order, and you would be up for as much as three months' imprisonment just for breaching the order.  Plus you could be resentenced for these offences and given a more severe sentence.

31Also, if you breach the order by committing further offences punishable by imprisonment during that two year period, you could up for further punishment for that or those offences.  Do you understand?

32OFFENDER:  Yes, Your Honour.

33HIS HONOUR:  So it is like having a suspended sentence hanging over your head for a period of two years after your release.

34OFFENDER:  Thank you, Your Honour.

35HIS HONOUR:  The summary offences to which you have also pleaded guilty, I convict you in relation to Charge 3 of assault with a weapon, and sentence you to imprisonment for a period of two months.

36On Charge 4 of assault with a weapon, I convict you and sentence you to imprisonment for a period of two months.

37On Charge 5 of assault with a weapon, I convict you and sentence you to imprisonment for a period of two months.

38On Charge 10 of assault, I convict you and sentence you to imprisonment for a period of one month.

39On Charge 11 of unlawful assault, I convict you and sentence you to imprisonment for a period of one month.

40All of those sentences will run concurrently with one another, all right?  So you will just have to serve a total of 20 months' imprisonment.

41And I order that 252 days of pre-sentence detention be reckoned as time served on the sentence that I have imposed and deducted administratively from that 20 months' imprisonment, so that you will have to serve 20 months, less the 252 days.  Do you understand?

42OFFENDER:  Yes, Your Honour.

43HIS HONOUR:  And I order that that fact be noted in the records of the court.

44I make the order for a forensic sample, which will require you to provide a scraping from the inside of your mouth.  If you do that when asked to do so by an authorised officer, that is the end of the matter.  If, however, you fail or refuse when asked to provide that sample, then the officer will be authorised to take blood from you, and may use reasonable force to do that.  I hope you will not put them to that trouble.

45OFFENDER:  Thank you, Your Honour.

46HIS HONOUR:  I also make the disposal order in terms of the draft, with which I either have been or will be provided.  Have been provided, I think.

47But for your pleas of guilty to these charges, I would have sentenced to imprisonment for a period of three years with a non-parole period of two years.  Do you understand?

48OFFENDER:  Yes.  Yes, Your Honour.  Thank you, Your Honour.

49HIS HONOUR:  All right.  Well take a seat for the moment, whilst the community correction orders are drawn up.

50MS OVEREND:  Your Honour, the orders have just been emailed to your associate now.  We'd now just forgotten them.  Apologies.

51HIS HONOUR:  All right, well we will fix those up in the next day or so and let you have them.

52MS OVEREND:  Thank you, Your Honour.

53MR MCLENNAN:  There's no issues with that.

54HIS HONOUR:  Yes.  Mr McLennan, would you accompany my associate to your client and make sure he understands what he is signing?

55MR MCLENNAN:  I would.  Thank you, Your Honour.

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