Director of Public Prosecutions v Hancock

[2025] VCC 252

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

AT BALLARAT

CRIMINAL DIVISION

Revised
Not Restricted
Suitable for Publication

Case No. CR-24-00921
 CR-25-00055

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

JAMIE HANCOCK

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE MOGLIA
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	4 February 2025
DATE OF SENTENCE:	11 March 2025
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Hancock
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2025] VCC 252

REASONS FOR SENTENCE

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Subject:Criminal Law – Sentence – guilty plea – Imprisonment

Catchwords:              Sentencing – Destroying Property - Recklessly cause Injury – Theft – Dangerous Driving while Pursued by Police – Damaging Emergency Service Vehicle – Handling Stolen Goods – False Imprisonment - Significant and Relevant Criminal History – Guarded Prospects Rehabilitation – Substance Abuse.

Legislation Cited:      Crimes Act 1958 (Vic); Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic)

Cases Cited:Verdins v R (2007) 16 VR 269; Brown (aka Davis) v The Queen [2020] VSCA 60; Worboyes v The Queen [2021] VSCA 169;

Sentence:Total effective sentence 2 years and 8 months with 19-month non-parole period.

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	F. Cameron	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	M. Kozlowski	Papa Hughes Lawyers

HIS HONOUR:

1Jamie Hancock, you have pleaded guilty to charges on two indictments.

2On Indictment A, Q10003032.A, you are charged with destroying property and recklessly causing injury to your then ex-partner LG[1] in November–December 2023.

[1] A pseudonym.

3On Indictment B, Q10003032.B, you are charged with burglary, theft (five charges), dangerous driving while being pursued by police; damaging an emergency services vehicle; handling stolen goods; and false Imprisonment, all occurring on 15 December 2023.

Summary of offending

4The agreed basis for your guilty pleas is set out in the prosecution opening for plea dated 4 February 2025.

5In summary, during the evening of 21 November 2023, you were at your partner's home where you argued. After she had gone to bed and was asleep, you went into her room, took out some of her underwear and tore or cut it up, leaving it on the floor before leaving. (Charge 1 - damage).

6A couple of weeks later, on 4 December 2023, at about 4am, you sent her messages asking her to let you into her place or you would kick her door in. She opened her door for you. Your daughter, then about one year old, was asleep in her own room.

7Soon after entering you got into an argument with LG while she was sitting on the toilet. You punched her to her head, knocking her to the floor. You hit her several more times then walked away, taking her phone with you.

8She tried to retrieve her phone from you, but you started hitting her again.

9Her housemate, hearing LG screaming, peered through her door, saw you standing over her, fists clenched, while she cried with her hands over her head. The housemate called 000.

10Your assault on your partner continued into the hallway and dining area where you threw her phone at the wall. You left before police arrived.

11As a result of your actions, LG suffered bruising and bumps to her face and head, ribs and back. (Charge 2, reckless causing injury).

12Within a couple of weeks of that incident, on 15 December 2023, just after midnight, you and a mate broke into Precision Agriculture in Alfredton. You stole a laptop and about 20 sets of keys to vehicles parked there. (Charge 1, burglary).

13Over the next half hour or so, you both stole five vehicles from the lot – a Nissan Navara belonging to the company, a Commodore belonging to Seth Johnston and three Toyota Hilux’s on hire from Hertz. (Charges 2 to 6, theft).

14The Navara was found later that morning at about 7am in Addington.

15Soon after, police tracked the Hertz vehicles’ GPS tracking device to locate two Hi-Luxes in the Creswick State Forest and the Commodore in the Canadian State Forest where you and another man were taking items from it before driving off in the remaining HiLux.

16Police set up stop sticks at the forest exit, but you turned back into the forest to avoid them. At another exit, confronted by a gate and seeing police approaching, you rammed the gate and drove through another set of stop sticks. You passed one police vehicle, then ignored another that had its lights and sirens on.

17While being pursued you made your way through residential streets and at times drove on the gravel verge and on the wrong side of the road to avoid police. (Charge 7, dangerous driving whilst being pursued).

18When police finally pulled alongside you, at a relatively low speed – about 20 kph and after your mate had thrown a wrench out the window at the police car – you moved in front of the police car clipping their mirror as you went. (Charge 8, damaging an emergency services vehicle).

19You kept driving with at least one shredded tyre, until you abandoned the HiLux in Ballarat East, and ran away. Police found various items in that HiLux, including your ID, a laptop and tools. (Charge 9, handling stolen goods).

20Soon after, at about 11.45 am, you approached a stranger in Ballarat East, Carly Foley, who was in her utility about to drive to work. You opened her passenger door, removed her daughter’s booster seat, threw it in the back and got in and told her to drive you to Victoria Street. Scared, she complied. (Charge 10, false imprisonment).

21When a police vehicle passed by, she asked if they were looking for you and you told her to 'keep fucking driving'.

22After arriving at a car park near Victoria Street, you got out and she called 000.

23Your ex-partner, LG, provided a victim impact statement dated 4 February 2025 (Exhibit A). In it, she stated that at the beginning of your relationship she felt safe, protected and loved in your home together. The attack on 4 December 2023 changed all that, occurring as it did with your daughter in the house nearby, although I accept she was not in the same room as you committing the assaults. She now suffers panic attacks and depression and does not sleep well. She is undergoing psychological treatment, including with medication.

Procedural history

24Police arrested you at Winter Valley a couple of weeks later, on 1 January 2024. You have remained in custody since.

25When they interviewed you about the allegations, in a mixture of lies and avoidance, you denied damaging her clothes or causing her injury – you blamed another boyfriend. You said you did not recall where you were at the time of the burglary and denied the driving, blaming a housemate for taking your ID. You said Ms Foley willingly gave you a lift. You then said you were in the stolen HiLux but that someone else drove it and you just ran away.

26You conducted a contested committal hearing involving nine witnesses, including LG, her housemate, Ms Foley and a number of police. You pleaded not guilty to the charges, albeit they included more serious ones than you now face.

27Your case was listed for trial in the Ballarat circuit in January 2025, but you came to an agreement with the prosecution just before it commenced.

28While it was a late plea, I accept that you had been making efforts to resolve the case for some months and had offered to plead guilty to the burglary and theft charges for some time.

29I accept that your plea demonstrates a willingness to cooperate with the justice processes, it represents your acceptance of responsibility for what you did and it saves the community the time and expense of a trial.

30I am not convinced that your guilty plea relating to LG is born of remorse, but I accept that you have indicated regret for causing Ms Foley the stress you must have caused her.

31During your time on remand, you have worked in the kitchen and laundry while being held at high security prisons and have participated in parenting programs. I accept that this demonstrates a willingness to make an effort and that the high security environment will have been onerous for you.

32I also accept that you have engaged in some Koori painting, although your connection to Koori community, through your family or otherwise, is at best emerging.

Personal circumstances

33You are now 32 years old and you grew up around Geelong, for some time in Queensland on the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast, and again in Ballarat, moving often during your early years.

34You are the oldest of four sons to your parents.  Your father left the family a little over 10 years ago and you have had no contact since.  You describe him to the psychologists as violent to everyone in the family, generally when drunk.

35As for schooling, you made it through to Year 11 in Queensland but left during that year.  The interruption to your schooling was partly contributed to by your moving between states, but also you were not having a good time at school, you were being bullied and getting into fights, sometimes in protection of your little brothers.

36Because you moved to the edge of the school community you were introduced to others who were using drugs, and you started doing the same.  This progressed over the years, including to methamphetamine, and formed part of the cause of your history with police and courts since your early 20s.

37You have a relevant criminal history.  In 2015, you were gaoled for three months and seven days for reckless conduct endangering life, burglary, theft, possessing a weapon and damaging property. You were also sentenced to seven months and a CCO on aggravated burglary and intentionally causing injury.  

38In 2016, you were gaoled for five months, combined with an 18-month CCO for burglary, theft and drug charges. You were also sentenced to three months later that year for theft and handling stolen goods, and further, for six months for breaching the 2015 CCO on the aggravated burglary.  

39In 2017, you received four months for retaining stolen goods and possessing weapons.  In 2019, you were gaoled for nine months for causing injury, dealing with proceeds of crime and breaching the 2016 CCO.

40In this court, in 2020, you were sentenced to two years and three months with a non-parole period of 15 months for assault, destroying and damaging property. In 2021, you received six months for theft and retaining stolen goods.

41Significantly, in August 2023, a few months before the offences in this case, you were sentenced to 11 months and placed on a drug treatment order in the Magistrates Court involving intensive treatment and supervision, all for failing to stop on police direction, burglary and theft and related offences - remarkably similar to the offences in this case.

42You were assessed by two psychologists in preparation for this hearing. Firstly, the report of Mr Simmons who assessed you earlier this year (Exhibit 1).  He records your early experience of trauma with a drunken father who was violent and that you saw little of your relatives as you were growing up, except those who were drinkers who would come and drink with your parents.  You describe your mother as a good lady, and you still get along well with her. 

43You describe school as being a place where you were an average student, but that when school fell away for you, you gravitated to those on the fringes who were using drugs.  You had been bullied there at school and if you did not fight back in protection of your brothers you would be beaten at home by your father.  I accept that is a terrible position to place a young man in.

44You have been in and out of custody for a number of years now. I am told, and accept, that generally you have spent about two-thirds of your time over the last 10 years in custody.

45Amphetamines and methamphetamines have been the main cause of your relapses when you are released, and the psychologist acknowledges that it does not take long when you are released for things to get on top of you and you turn back to drugs.

46You commented to Mr Simmons that you do not have issues with drugs in the community when you are released, and I suspect that that is a demonstration of relatively low insight into the problems that they cause you.  Your pattern of drug use over the years has also infected your relationships, and I find that it has been a chronic and pervasive problem for you.  Some of your relationships have been ones where you have used drugs together, albeit, not all of them.

47Whilst you were out of custody in 2023 the relationship with the mother of your oldest daughter, the one against whom you offended, had ended but you continued to parent together and you commenced a new relationship who is now the mother of your younger child, another daughter who was born about six months ago.

48The trauma of your childhood has not been the only trauma you have suffered, and in part due to being shot during an altercation in 2015, the psychologist says that you suffer from symptoms of post-traumatic stress - I note without a formal diagnosis - but nevertheless, I accept that all of those experiences will have led to you experiencing ongoing stress reactions.

49Unsurprisingly, Mr Simmons diagnoses you with stimulant and opiate use disorders, and that you are in need of treatment and supervision upon release.

50He expresses, at paragraph 33 of his report, that rehabilitation including residential rehabilitation might be important for you upon release, as well as engaging in appropriate psychological treatment for your stress reactions to past events.

51You were also assessed by Dr Mathew Staios, a neuropsychologist, which assessment was tendered as Exhibit 2. 

52Happily, Dr Staios, finds that you do not suffer from a cognitive impairment.  I say 'happily' because having such an impairment would have added even greater burden to you as you deal with your history. I do not take any possible of such an impairment into account in sentencing you.  However, he confirms that you have symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, although he calls them mild.  That does not mean I will ignore them, I will not.  He also finds that you are likely to have suffered, and continue suffering, with a depressive disorder and I expect that that makes prison harder for you alongside the stress reaction.

53Dr Staios recommends that on your release you should engage with case management, a referral to a psychiatrist to clarify your diagnoses, and a referral to a clinical psychologist who can help you get down the path towards dealing with your history.  He observes that suitable accommodation will be important to your return to the community, and I note that you instruct your counsel that you will be able to return to live with your mother.

54Dr Staios refers to protective factors in your psychological makeup, notwithstanding the challenges, they include your family support, that you have had periods in recent years of being substance-free and your motivation to be a good parent to your children.  I accept all of those things.

Sentencing issues

55As to sentencing issues, on Indictment A, the maximum penalty for Charge 1 is 10 years’ imprisonment, for Charge 2 it is five years.

56On Indictment B, the maximum charges for Charges 1 to 6 and 10 is 10 years. For Charge 7 it is three years. For Charge 8 it is five. For Charge 9, it is 15 years.

57The family violence you meted out to LG was horrible. Whether your relationship with her was as good as she portrayed in her victim impact statement, or something more like what you have described as being fraught, you betrayed the intimacy of that relationship, and that requires stern punishment.

58Destroying her intimate clothes was, I find, calculated to humiliate her. The protracted assault on her in the family home, with your daughter nearby, was particularly disturbing. It is not made any less serious by your drug relapse after finding out the possibility that the daughter may not be yours.

59The burglary and thefts were planned and carried out in company with another offender using tools to break in, and the only likely motivation, I find, would have been for profit at the expense of others.

60Your avoidance of police and the pursuit reflected the brazenness of your offending and your blind intention to get away with it. You drove through multiple obstacles placed in your path and disregarded concerted police efforts to stop you. Your disregard for the safety and rights of others in the community was on this day utterly appalling.

61Your role in all of the offences was that of a principal offender.

62At the time you were the subject of a drug and alcohol treatment order supervised at the Ballarat Magistrates Court, which makes this offending more serious. The offences in that case were similar to this. Your conduct in this case breached a number of conditions of that order. I note that the order included a curfew and conditions aimed at dealing with your drug habits, which you say contributed to the offences in this case.

63Having considered all the circumstances, I find that your moral culpability for this offending to be high.

64I must impose a sentence that imposes appropriate and just punishment on you, but also that deters others from what seems to be a cycle of similar offending. I must also do so in a way that deters them from committing like offences.  

65You have a significant and relevant criminal history, which requires some weight be given to specific deterrence and community protection from the ongoing risk that you pose.

66In calculating the individual sentences and orders for cumulation, I have had regard to the totality principle on the burglary and theft charges together, and to the driving charges together, as well as the overall circumstances.

67The different incidents each warrant some cumulation of sentence, in my view, but I have adjusted the total sentence to reflect that they all occurred close in time and while you were struggling with a long-term addiction.

68All-in-all, I find your prospects for rehabilitation to be guarded. You have now come before the courts over a number of years for similar offending. You were on a court order at the time, specifically aimed at addressing your addiction and related behaviours.

69I accept the information you gave psychologists about your violent and somewhat disjointed upbringing, moving between states, torn between fighting at school to protect your younger brothers or fighting your dad when at home.  I accept these early experiences are likely to be ongoing influences in your day-to-day attempt to avoid bad habits. I have taken this into account generally and have moderated your moral culpability accordingly.

70I was not provided material on your plea that demonstrates much progress on remand relating to those high-risk factors, including drug use. You are not to be punished for that, but I will have regard to it when determining the type of sentence that best matches your current situation.

71The prosecutor submitted that the only appropriate sentence is one that attracts a non-parole period. Your counsel, on the other hand, submitted that a combination sentence would meet all the statutory requirements. Having considered it all, however, I agree with the prosecutor.

72Your progress on the drug treatment order at the time of the offending suggests to me that you were not fully ready to engage in that type of order. On the material before me, I am not satisfied that that has changed to any great degree since. In my view, you will need the kind of intensive supervision and support that a parole order can achieve.

73When considering totality, I have had regard to the fact that you have now served 80 days on the breach of the drug treatment order, as well as previous remand time for that offending.

74I accept also that there is a risk of institutionalisation for you and I have taken that into account when setting the minimum term that you must spend in custody before parole.

75I sentence you as follows.  On Indictment A:

Charge 1, causing damage – 2 months' imprisonment;

Charge 2, recklessly causing injury – 12 months.

76The sentences are to be served concurrently and so the total sentence for that indictment is 12 months.

77On indictment B, I sentence you as follows:

On Charge 1, burglary – 12 months;

On Charge 2, theft of the first vehicle – 10 months with 2 months to be served cumulatively;

On Charge 3, theft – 10 months with 2 months cumulative;

On Charge 4, theft – 10 months concurrent;

On Charge 5, theft – 10 months with 2 months cumulative;

On Charge 6, theft – 10 months concurrent;

On Charge 7, dangerous driving under police pursuit – 12 months with 5 months cumulative;

On Charge 8, damaging a police vehicle – 4 months with 1 month cumulative;

On Charge 9, handling stolen goods – 4 months concurrent;

On Charge 10, false imprisonment, 12 months with 3 months cumulative.

78The total sentence on the second indictment is 27 months.

79Five months of the sentence on Indictment A are to be served cumulatively upon the total sentence on Indictment B, making a total effective sentence covering both indictments of 32 months.

80I fix a non-parole period of 19 months.

81I declare that you have served 355 days, and I note the days served in relation to the breach of the Magistrates Court drug treatment order of 80 days, and 355 days pre-sentence detention, and I direct that this be reckoned as a period already served under this sentence.

82In accordance with s6AAA of the Sentencing Act 1991, but for your guilty plea I would have imposed 4 years and fixed a non-parole period of 2 years and 8 months.

Ancillary orders

83I make the forfeiture order sought unopposed. 

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