Director of Public Prosecutions v Handy

[2025] VCC 1063

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

Revised

Not Restricted

Suitable for Publication

AT MELBOURNE

CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR -25-00190

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

MICHAEL HANDY

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE KELLY
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	17 July 2025
DATE OF SENTENCE:	28 July 2025
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Handy
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2025] VCC 1063

REASONS FOR SENTENCE

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Subject:  CRIMINAL LAW

Catchwords:  Aggravated burglary – criminal damage – contravention of family violence intervention order intending to cause harm or fear for safety – common law assault (3 counts) – make threat to kill – extensive criminal history – similar prior convictions – guarded prospects of rehabilitation – insufficient evidentiary basis for Bugmy or Verdins – early exposure to family violence – admissions – early plea of guilty

Legislation Cited:     Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic) ss 5, 6AAA, 18

Cases Cited:R v Verdins[2007] VSCA 102; Bugmy v The Queen (2013) 249 CLR 571

Sentence:                 3 years’ and 6 months’ imprisonment with non-parole period of 2 years’

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr D. O'Doherty	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Ms S. Kermath	Middleton Maisner Legal

HIS HONOUR: 

1Michael Handy, you have pleaded guilty to three charges of common assault, one charge of aggravated burglary, one charge of contravention of an order intending to cause harm or fear for safety, one charge of making a threat to kill and one charge of destroying property.

2The maximum penalties for these offences are as follows: 

a.Common assault — 5 years’ imprisonment 

b.Aggravated Burglary — 25 years’ imprisonment 

c.Contravention of family violence intervention order intending to cause harm or fear for safety — 5 years’ imprisonment 

d.Make threat to kill — 5 years’ imprisonment 

e.Criminal damage —  10 years imprisonment 

3The circumstances of your offending are set out in an agreed summary of prosecution opening dated 3 June 2025.

4You were in a relationship with the victim for approximately two months before separating in late of October to early November 2024.  A family violence safety notice was issued on 31 October 2024, listing the victim as a protected person and you as the respondent.

5On 7 November 2024 a final family violence intervention order was granted by the Mildura Magistrates Court. 

6On 8 October 2024 you were at the victim's address.  You became verbally aggressive, she retreated to the bedroom, you followed her and kicked her and verbally abused her for 15 to 20 minutes.

7This offending forms the basis of Charge 1 — common law assault.

8On 29 October 2024 you were at the victim's home.  You became verbally aggressive and struck her a number of times with a big wooden chopstick.  She suffered bruising to her right leg, left hip, right collarbone and left arm.  She reported continuing pain for approximately a week after the offending. This forms the basis of Charge 2 — common law assault.

9On 5 November 2024 the victim was at home when she saw you enter the house.  She retreated to the bedroom.  You verbally abused her and punched her in the sternum with a closed fist. This forms the basis of Charge 3 — common law assault.

10On 10 November 2024 your victim was in bed when she heard you yelling and banging on her front door and windows.  She told you she did not want to talk to you.  You smashed three windows and damaged a fence.  You yelled that you were going to kill her.  She called Triple 0 and retrieved a small hatchet to protect herself.  You kicked the front door in and picked up the hatchet from the floor.  You punched the victim’s face and ribs and threw the hatchet at her.  She estimates you missed her head by 50 centimetres.

11This offending forms the basis of Charge 4 — aggravated burglary; Charge 5 — contravene an intervention order intending to cause fear or harm; Charge 6 — make threat to kill and Charge 7 — criminal damage.

12You were arrested on 11 November 2024 and made a series of damaging admissions to the police, including that you smashed the victim's windows, threw the hatchet and punched her in the face or in the head.

13I was provided with a victim impact statement dated 7 July 2025.  The victim did not want it read aloud in court and I will not summarise it.  Your offending has left a deep impression on her, unsurprisingly.  Her sense of security and her capacity to enjoy life have been shattered.

14You are an Aboriginal man of the Barkindji people.  You have provided a limited personal history to Ms Christine Kennedy, the author of a psychological report tendered on your plea. 

15You told Ms Kennedy that you have been in four significant intimate relationships and that you have been the respondent in a number of intervention orders.  You said you grew up in a family significantly affected by alcohol abuse and domestic violence.  You said your parents were always arguing and fighting.  You said you began drinking at age 14, when not in custody you regularly abused alcohol, methylamphetamine and cannabis.

16Ms Kermath submitted on your behalf that imprisonment was within range but that your personal mitigating factors should reduce the time you serve.  She emphasised that you have already been in custody for 278 days - that was at the time of plea.

17Mr O'Doherty on behalf of the prosecution submitted that a head sentence with a non-parole period is the only appropriate disposition given your substantial prior criminal history.

18Ms Kermath conceded that your offending is serious.  Domestic violence of any kind needs to be denounced.  You have degraded, demeaned, terrified and injured your domestic partner.  You smashed her windows and kicked down her front door.  In doing so you let her know that she is not safe from you, even when locked in her own house.  Your police interview bristles with contempt for the victim.  You are quick to blame her for your predicament. 

19You have demonstrated a contemptuous disregard for court orders.  You re-offended on 10 November, a mere three days after the victim obtained a final family violence intervention order against you.

20You have an extensive criminal history with prior convictions similar to your current offending.  Concerningly, your offending here represents an escalation.

21On 10 February 2009 you received a community-based order for offences including making a threat to kill, assault with a weapon and breaching an intervention order.  On 15 May 2009 you received a suspended sentence of imprisonment for failing to comply with your community-based order and committing further offending, including contraventions of a family violence intervention order, wilfully damaging property and criminal damage. 

22On 17 June 2009 you breached your suspended sentence and received a term of imprisonment for offences including contraventions of a family violence intervention order, unlawful assaults and discharging a missile to cause injury or danger.  On 6 October 2009 you received a community-based order for contravention of a family violence intervention order.  You abstained from offending for a period from 2009 to 2012, but on 27 February 2012 you received a community correction order for contraventions of a family violence intervention order.

23Your prospects of rehabilitation are guarded.

24You are entitled to a reduction in your sentence to reflect the administrative saving of your early guilty plea.  You have attended, in part, to your rehabilitation.  You told me at your plea hearing that you have completed a number of programs including 'Skating on Ice.'  Your solicitors did not provide me with certificates confirming your participation.

25I am prepared to find that you have commenced rehabilitating yourself, but you have a long way to go.  You will receive a slight discount to acknowledge what you told me about participating in programs whilst on remand.

26Ms Kermath submitted that the principles in Verdins apply in your case, though she did not rely on any particular limb of Verdins or indicate how it should be weighed in my sentence.[1]

[1]R v Verdins (2007) 6 VR 269.

27Mr O'Doherty submitted that the psychological report of Ms Kennedy is not sufficient to ground Limb 1 of Verdins.

28Ms Kennedy writes that you have an antisocial personality disorder and that you suffer the effects of intergenerational trauma.  Ms Kermath could not point to any evidence grounding a submission that these diagnoses informed your offending to such an extent that your moral culpability is reduced.

29Ms Kennedy writes:

Overall, Mr Handy impressed me as a man whose capacity for generally good judgment and ability to plan and execute positive and self-sustaining behaviours has been negatively impacted by his dull intellect, substance abuse and intergenerational trauma.

30You broadly explained your offending to her as a product of interpersonal differences between you and the victim.  You expressed simplistic regret.  Ms Kennedy does not articulate how exactly intergenerational trauma informed your decision-making in your crimes against the victim and there is therefore an insufficient foundation for finding that Limb 1 of Verdins has been engaged.

31Ms Kermath submitted that Bugmy has a role to play, again citing your personal history outlined in Ms Kennedy's report.[2]

[2] Bugmy v The Queen (2013) 169 CLR 571.

32Mr O'Doherty submitted that Bugmy is not enlivened in this case, citing an insufficient evidentiary basis.

33Although you describe some circumstances of depravation to Ms Kennedy, you describe being 'mostly' raised by your grandparents.  You told her that your aunt and seven uncles also lived with your grandparents when you were being raised.  Your grandfather worked in a sawmill and had strict rules.  You spent your childhood playing with cousins.  You played football and travelled to Albury, Tennant Creek and Melbourne to play games.  Home sickness prevented you from pursuing this sport professionally.

34You told Ms Kennedy that your parents were always arguing and fighting.  Your parents separated and you did not see your father for about 10 years. 

35There is an insufficient evidentiary foundation to permit me to conclude that you had a deprived upbringing or that your upbringing reduces your moral culpability.  I accept that living with your parents was chaotic and that you were likely exposed to domestic violence in that setting.  I also accept that you were likely exposed to periods of alcoholism in the home.  I intend to discount your sentence modestly to reflect this feature of your rearing.

36Pursuant to s 5 of the Sentencing Act, the purposes for which you are to be sentenced are:

a)    To punish you in a manner and to an extent which is just in all of the circumstances.

b)    To deter you or others from committing similar offences in future.

c)    To facilitate rehabilitation.

d)    To manifest the denunciation of your conduct.

e)    To protect the community; or

f)     A combination of two or more of these purposes.

37Mr Handy, please stand.

38On Charge 1, common assault, you are convicted and sentenced to nine months' imprisonment.

39On Charge 2, common assault, you are convicted and sentenced to nine months' imprisonment.

40On Charge 3, common assault, you are convicted and sentenced to six months' imprisonment.

41On Charge 4, aggravated burglary, you are convicted and sentenced to two years, six months' imprisonment.

42On Charge 5, contravention of an order intending to cause harm or fear for safety, you are convicted and sentenced to six months' imprisonment.

43On Charge 6, make threat to kill, you are convicted and sentenced to six months' imprisonment.

44On Charge 7, destroying property, you are convicted and sentenced to six months' imprisonment.

45The sentence on Charge 4 will be the base sentence.  Three months on Charge 1, three months on Charge 2, two months on Charge 3, two months on Charge 5 and one month on Charge 6 are to be cumulated, producing a total effective sentence of three years and six months.

46I declare a period of two months as a non-parole period.  Sorry, it should be two months' cumulation then on Charge 7, destroying property. 

47That produces, as I say, a total effective sentence of three years and six months.

48You have served 258 days by way of pre-sentence detention, and I declare this period as time served against the sentence I have imposed.

49Pursuant to s6AAA of the Sentencing Act, I declare that but for your pleas of guilty I would have imposed a sentence of five years' imprisonment with a |
non-parole period of three-and-a-half years.

50You can sit down Mr Handy.

51MS KERMATH:  Your Honour, with the detention in prison, did you count the 11 days from 17 July to today.

52HIS HONOUR:  Yes, that produces, doesn't it, a PSD of ‑ ‑ ‑ 

53MS KERMATH:  I just want to make sure.  I think it's an extra 11 days.

54HIS HONOUR:  Mr O'Doherty, have you calculated the pre-sentence detention.

55MR O'DOHERTY:  I haven't added a time on since the plea, Your Honour.  What was it at the plea, 258.

56MS KERMATH:  I think so, yes, and I think 11 days extra from 17 July, which equals 11 days extra.

57HIS HONOUR:  Very well, I will declare 259 days pre-sentence detention.

58MS KERMATH:  As Your Honour pleases.

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