Director of Public Prosecutions v Goodison

[2016] VCC 702

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

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR-16-00405

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

ALLEN GOODISON

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE MAIDMENT
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	25 May 2016
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Goodison
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2016] VCC 702

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	Mr. P. Pickering	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Mr. J. Taaffe

Pages 1 - 1

 

 

HIS HONOUR:

1Allen Michael Goodison, you can remain seated for the time being.  You have pleaded guilty to an indictment charging you with four offences of indecent assault and one offence of gross indecency with a girl under the age of 16 years.

2The offence of indecent assault occurring during the period or periods that arise on this indictment, carries a maximum term of imprisonment of five years imprisonment and the offence of gross indecency with a girl under the age of 16 occurring as it did between 1 January 1970 and 24 December 1970 carries a maximum term of imprisonment of two years.

3I am conscious of the fact that I have to have regard to those maximum terms of imprisonment and have regard to sentencing practice that was existent in those days, in determining how those facts overlap with, are consistent with and are to be applied to current sentencing practice today.

4The prosecution tendered and relied upon a prosecution opening upon plea which I understand to set out an agreed set of facts upon which I can proceed to sentence you.  That is Exhibit A, and I incorporate that document in its entirety into these reasons for sentence.  I do not propose to read it out again, but briefly, the first of the charges concerned a victim who was then 11 and 12 years of age during the course of conduct which supports the charge on the indictment. The conduct to which you have pleaded guilty involved you cuddling her, touching her breasts and kissing her on the lips on a number of occasions. That conduct went on for the whole of that 12 month period. 

5The second offence involves a separate victim at another school. In that victim's case, she was about 8 or 9 years of age at the time the offence was committed and during the period during 1 January of 1970 and 24 December of 1970 there was an occasion upon which she remained at school after classes had ended.  You were alone with her at the school, you led her to a room and laid her on a table, touched her genital area without penetration, and whilst you touched her, you masturbated to ejaculation.  That is an offence of gross indecency. 

6In Charge 3, yet another victim was involved.  She was then in Grade 6, and the period during which the offending occurred was between 1 January 1972 and 30 April 1972. The offence involved you touching her in her pubic area while she sat on your knee in the classroom.  You slipped your hand under the elastic of her underpants.

7In respect of Charge 4, a fourth victim who was, the younger sister of the third victim who was then aged about 9 years, during the period between 1 January of 1973 and 30 June of 1973, whilst you sat her on your knee, you digitally penetrated her with your finger whilst in the classroom at the school of which you were the Principal, that is, you inserted your finger into her vagina.  Her response was to scream out. Not long after that incident with the same victim, you grabbed her from behind to hug her, you touched her genital area without penetration on this occasion.  That offence took place in the school's staffroom. 

8You were interviewed by police on 17 October of 2014 and whilst you admitted your teaching career history, both at the first school and at the second, when asked about the alleged sexual misconduct with the three of your victims, you made no comment answers.  The second interview was conducted on 26 February of 2015 after police had received a complaint from the victim subject of Charge 2 on the indictment.  You were again interviewed, and again elected to give no comment answers in respect of the allegations of sexual misconduct.

9Of course you were quite entitled to make no comment answers, quite entitled to contest the matter, and indeed test the evidence at the committal hearing earlier this year. But that conduct does not lead readily to a conclusion that remorse that you have expressed, has been present prior to the matter resolving on or about 10 March of this year. 

10The prosecution also tendered and relied upon victim impact statements from each of the four victims.  Three of those were read by those victims and the fourth was tendered and I have read that. 

11I note from the chronology that by the time your offending conduct commenced, you had already fathered two daughters.  You fathered a third daughter in 1971 and a son in 1972, during the period in which these offences were committed.  You were also either acting principal or permanent principal at each of the two schools where the offending took place. 

12Although it may, I think fairly be said, that individually the acts relied upon by the prosecution in relation to each of these offences, were not the most serious sexual acts in the criminal calendar, they are nevertheless to be regarded as serious criminal offences.  They, each of them, represent a gross abuse of trust, an equally gross, flagrant abuse of power.  You were the principal at both of those schools and your capacity to dominate and to exert authority over those children, whilst it was your duty - not just to protect them - but to set an example to others within the school, leads one to conclude that your moral culpability for those offences is very high. 

13You exhibited a self-centred disregard for the consequences of your action or your actions, in pursuit of nothing more than self-gratification.  You had plenty of opportunity during the course of conduct that it is the subject of Charge 1, much less over the period of four, four and half years during which the offending conduct took place, to consider, re-consider, re-consider again, reflect upon, examine your conscience, and to desist from further conduct of that kind.

14To the extent you did any of those things, it did not stop you continuing to abuse the victims whilst you had control over their environment. You had placed them in a situation where, if they were to protest, as at least one of them did apparently, you were in a position to avoid the consequences of your action.

15These were very young children, and the abuse that you inflicted upon them was gross.  You left what can only be described, and is set out in the victim impact statements eloquently, as a trail of destruction.  Your conduct led to the very serious consequences to the lives of all four of your victims that are set out in the victim impact statements and you ought, between the ages of 23 and 27 and having been given the responsibility of Principal, to have appreciated that consequences of that kind, may flow.  It is impossible to believe that you did not have some insight into the possible consequences of your actions. 

16You have, to varying degrees, ruined the lives of the four victims whose victim impact statements I have to consider.  All of that needs to be factored into a determination of an appropriate sentence in this case. 

17It is important that I observe the law in placing protection of the community as the principle sentencing consideration in relation to the three offences, that is, in respect of Charges 3, 4 and 5, for which I have to sentence you as a serious sex offender. 

18It is important that I denounce publicly, conduct of this kind, and your conduct in particular.  It is important for community rehabilitation.  It is important that I punish you adequately for your offending conduct.  It is important that I impose a sentence that has the capacity to deter others from committing offences of this kind.

19It is put, on your behalf, by your counsel that although these are serious offences, you have led a blameless life since the conclusion of your offending conduct, and that you have rehabilitated yourself.  The material that is placed before me supports that conclusion.  The references, some of them coming from your own offspring, some of them coming from persons who know you socially and in business, or in the teaching profession, show that there are many good qualities that you have exhibited in the period since your offending conduct.

20You have a wife who unfortunately has some serious health issues.  You have family members who have, or are facing serious health issues.  You, yourself, have less than perfect health.  You are now aged 70 and a good deal of water has gone under the bridge since 1973.

21As your counsel points out, delay is a relevant consideration, in that it has given you the opportunity of demonstrating your ability to rehabilitate yourself and for that, proper consideration needs to be given. Since these matters were first drawn to your attention, I have no doubt that they weighed heavily upon you, not just for the consequences upon yourself, but the consequences upon your family members for you being at jeopardy, until you have pleaded guilty and then in reality, deprived of your liberty for a period of time. 

22All of that will have weighed heavily upon you.  I accept entirely that it will be harder for you to undergo your term of incarceration knowing that you have deprived your wife of her principle carer, and inflicted that burden upon others and indeed, you have deprived other family members of your physical and emotional support during the period that you will be incarcerated.

23So all of that needs to weighed up and what I also need to weigh up is the need to facilitate your continued rehabilitation.  There are many aspects of the last 40 odd years which are clearly to your credit and you are entitled to pray that in aid at this time. 

24Nevertheless, I am required to consider other sentencing considerations. My attention was drawn to cases which help me identify current sentencing practice and some of the principles that bear upon sentencing in this particular case.  I do regard your prospects of further rehabilitation and staying out of trouble in the future and not repeating conduct of this kind as good.  I accept that it is - I think - unlikely now that you will offend again. Your counsel urges me to impose a suspended sentence rather than a sentence of imprisonment with a non-parole period, to give effect, to those conclusions. 

25The prosecution on the other hand, whilst accepting that it is open to me to impose a sentence which would enable me to suspect partially that term of imprisonment, urges me to consider imposing a non-parole period on the basis that there is no material upon which I am able to conclude the extent to which you retain any proclivities towards abuse of children and that therefore I am in no position at this time to make any proper assessment of the degree to which the public needs to be protected from you. And given that I am required by law to put public protection as the most important sentencing consideration in respect, at least of Charges 3, 4 and 5, it seems to me that that argument is soundly based.

26I think the Adult Parole Board will be in a better position to assess the stage at which you should be released from your incarceration and the measures which may need to be in place to enable you to be released prior to the conclusion of the sentence that I have in mind. 

27Doing the best I can to balance all of the matters that have placed before me and to give proper effect to each of the competing sentencing considerations, I am now ready to impose sentence upon you.  Would you please stand. 

28On Charge 1 which involves a course of conduct, I convict you and sentence you to imprisonment for a period of 15 months. 

29On Charge 2, which involved a child of 8 or 9 years of age, and in respect of whom your conduct involving masturbation to ejaculation must have been bewildering and clearly, from the victim impact statement that was read to me this morning, has had profound effect. Nevertheless I take into account that the maximum term of imprisonment for that offence is two years.  I convict you and sentence you to imprisonment for a period of six months.

30On Charge 3, which involved an 11 year old girl, I convict you and sentence you to imprisonment for a period of 12 months.

31On Charge 4, which involved a victim, the Charge 3 victim's younger sister in an act of digital penetration of her vagina, I convict you and sentence you to imprisonment for a period of 18 months. 

32On Charge 5, which involved a further indecent assault on that same victim, I convict you and sentence you to imprisonment for a period of 12 months. 

33The sentence I have imposed of 18 months on Charge 4, is to be regarded as the base sentence and I order that four months of the sentence that I have imposed on Charge 1, two months of the sentence I have imposed on Charge 2, three months of the sentence on Charge 3, and three months of the sentence on Charge 5, be served cumulatively with each other and upon the term of 18 months imposed on Charge 4, making a total effective sentence of 30 months imprisonment, and I order that you serve a period of 20 months before you become eligible for parole. 

34But for your pleas of guilty to these offences, I would have sentenced you to a term of imprisonment of 39 months with a non-parole period of 26 months. 

35On Charges 3, 4 and 5, I sentence you as a serious sex offender and I am required, by virtue of your pleas of guilty to these offences and your conviction upon them, to draw your attention to the fact that you are subject of the reporting requirements of the Sex Offender's Registration Act for the rest of your life and I order that you provide a forensic sample in accordance with the order that I have been given in draft form.

36That will require you, when approached by an authorised officer, during the course of your sentence, to provide a scraping from the inside of your mouth.  If you provide that sample when requested, then that is the end of the matter.  If however, you fail or refuse to provide that sample when it is requested of you, the officer will be authorised to take blood and may use reasonable force to obtain a blood sample.  I am sure you will not put the authorised officer to that trouble.

37Are there any other orders that I need make?

38MR PICKERING:  No, Your Honour.

39HIS HONOUR:  No?  Yes, all right, thank you. 

40MS TAAFFE:  Your Honour, I think Mr Goodison needs to receive paperwork in front of Your Honour's associate. 

41HIS HONOUR:  He does, yes correct.  Hold on, hold on.  Sorry, hold on.  There is one matter that needs to be attended to.  Thank you Mr Taaffe.

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