Director of Public Prosecutions v Hanson

[2016] VCC 1922

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

AT GEELONG
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 16-01909

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

PAUL JOHN HANSON

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE M.P. BOURKE
WHERE HELD:	Geelong
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	8 December 2016
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Hanson
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2016] VCC 1922

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	Ms S. Flynn
For the Accused	Ms R.A. Page

Pages 1 - 8

 

 

HIS HONOUR: 

1Paul Hanson, you are to be sentenced for one charge of aggravated burglary, one charge of common assault and one charge of theft.

2I stop my reasons now to ask this:  I now recollect that I was, I was told that the accused man was sentenced to one month.

3MS FLYNN:  Correct, Your Honour.

4HIS HONOUR:  For a breach of the Community Corrections Order; wasn't it?

5MS FLYNN:  Yes, it ‑ ‑ ‑

6MS PAGE:  Can you remember what it was for?

7MS FLYNN:  It was a breach of the CCO, Your Honour.

8HIS HONOUR:  All right.

9MS FLYNN:  We have made that amendment in the - in the s.18.

10HIS HONOUR:  Yes, that's right and I've just noticed, I just recollected it then, I've - my reasons already averted to the, to that matter but I will attempt to include the  fact that he was sentenced for the reasons when I come to that point.

11HIS HONOUR:  I'll start again.  You are to be sentenced for one charge of aggravated burglary, one charge of common assault and one charge of theft.  The maximum sentences are 25 years imprisonment for aggravated burglary, five years imprisonment for assault and 10 years imprisonment for theft. 

12You pleaded guilty before me on 1 December 2016.  When interviewed by police on 26 July 2016 you exercised your right to silence on some questions; but also denied the offending.  Committal went by hand-up brief on 28 October after which you entered a plea of guilty.  The matter was quickly listed for a plea hearing in this court.

13You receive the benefit of your plea of guilty and the level of co-operation that short history of the proceedings shows.  You have facilitated  the interests of justice and I accept that you are remorseful.  You are to be sentenced a little over five months after your offending. 

14At your plea hearing,  also on 1 December, Ms Flynn for the Crown tendered a written prosecution opening for the plea,   photographs depicting the scene and aftermath of your offences,  including injuries to your victim Donna Moroney, and also the victim impact statement of Ms Moroney.

15Ms Page for you, tendered the forensic psychological report of Carla Lechner dated 16 November 2016, the letter of drug and alcohol counsellor, Anthony Gallichan, dated 16 February 2016,  copies of the Intervention Order dated 19 June 2015 taken out on behalf of Donna Moroney and associated documents.  Ms Page provided a written outline of submissions on plea. 

16The circumstances of your offending are comprehensively described in the tendered Crown opening,  which is Exhibit A.  My own summary may be relatively short. It includes matters led and put on your behalf, not challenged by the Crown. 

17You are now 39 years of age and have struggled with alcoholism over much of your adult life.  You began your relationship with Donna Moroney in 2002.  You have a daughter, now 11,  and a step-son, Ms Moroney's child who is now aged 18, or 19.  There were periods in which the family seems to have functioned well.  For example, you abstained from drinking for over two years in the period 2011 to 2012.  You were living in Clifton Springs.  In 2015 you and Donna Moroney separated.  You had relapsed into alcohol since 2014. 

18On 19 June 2015 she was granted an intervention order which included that you not attend the Clifton Springs home.  You had attempted to hang yourself in the garage on 17 June.  You also threatened people assisting you with a chainsaw.  Police had applied for and a family violence safety notice was ordered on 18 June.  You seem to have breached these orders twice, immediately on 18 June and in December 2015.

19On 22 September 2015 you were sentenced to a community corrections order for offences including breach of the family violence safety notice.  The intervention order, that is the final order, expired on 19 June 2016 and therefore was not in place at the time of the offending.  Over this period, you were drinking heavily.  You lost your job and there were periods of homelessness.  About one month later,  on 27 July,  you were at the Drysdale Woolworths Supermarket where you had previously worked as a night stacker.  You were intoxicated. You stole a bottle of whiskey.  You knew the female attendant and blatantly stated your intention to steal it.  The police were called.

20Soon after and nearby, you spoke to three other persons you knew.  You told them that you had been living on the streets.  You spoke angrily about Donna Moroney and said that you were going to the home at Clifton Springs and, I quote, "kick her out."   You walked away.  One of the men was sufficiently concerned to tell police about this when they attended the supermarket about the theft.  All of this happened at about 8.30 pm. 

21Not long after, Donna Moroney was at the home with your then ten year old daughter, who was in her  bedroom.  At about 9 pm Donna Moroney heard a noise at the rear and a male voice yelling.  About five minutes later you kicked in the front door.  You approached her in the kitchen yelling about, I would infer, your situation of being out of the home.  You stopped her from going toward the front door.  You pushed her backwards telling her to get into her bedroom.  Donna Moroney was badly frightened and yelling to the child to leave. 

22Ms Moroney managed to get out to the front of the premises.  You followed, you swung her to the ground.  You chased her as she ran.  You threw her to the ground again,  still holding her.  You told her to get back inside.  Persuading you to let go, Ms Moroney ran to the other side of her parked car.  She tried to calm you down.  You were throwing wooden planks, there being used to build a retaining wall,  about the front yard. 

23Ms Moroney called 000 and her neighbour, who came.  Soon after police, in response to the information earlier given at Drysdale, arrived. 

24During all of this Donna Moroney suffered a grazing to her face, bruising to her arm, swelling to her knee and back soreness.  These injuries are minor but that does not measure the impact of your offending.   I have carefully read the tendered victim impact statement.  Donna Moroney graphically describes the events of the night and her fears for herself and her daughter.  She continues to feel hurt, anger and fear.  Living on her own with her daughter, she feels anxiety and is vigilant in a number of ways.  She fears what you will do upon release.  Her daughter,  Phoebe,  sleeps with her at night in a different bedroom.  Phoebe feels anxiety, upset and fear.  Donna Moroney's statement includes an exchange of text messages between her daughter and her son during the offending.  Phoebe texted her brother who was not at home.  These texts,  which seem to number over 30,  are an important insight into the impact of what you did on a conflicted and terribly frightened little girl.  It is clear that her brother, still young at 18 or 19, becomes increasingly anxious about his sister and his mother.

25I am not complete.  The victim impact of your offending must be taken into account in my sentence of you. 

26As stated, you are a 39 year old man awaiting this sentence in remand custody.  You have a 37 year old sister whom you do not see.  Your family lived in the Simpson and Colac areas.  Your father, although, it seems,  functional in other ways, was a violent alcoholic.  The main victim of his violence was your mother.  Your parents separated when you were 12.  Your father died in 2005 of liver disease.  At 13 you moved to Colac to live with your grandmother.  You were very close to her.   Psychologist Carla Lechner  states that you suffer alcohol use disorder and suggests a likely genetic predisposition.  Ms Page told me that your grandfather also drank heavily.  You are estranged from your mother and sister because of your drinking.  You left school at Year 10.  You used cannabis and at times some other drugs between 15 and 25;  however, alcohol became emphatically your main problem. 

27Despite this, you have worked quite consistently including at the Ballarat fruit market, at a flour mill, in earth moving and for seven years at a Colac timber yard where you were logistics supervisor.  You have competence in the work area.  In remand custody at Fulham Prison you are head billet which includes responsibility for placing other prisoners in various jobs.  You have done a computer course and a small business course.

28You have had two important relationships. The first produced a son, now aged 16.  That relationship broke up badly.  You were using drugs and drinking.  You recounted to Ms Lechner an incident in that milieu during which you had a gun held to your head.  She diagnoses past post traumatic stress disorder symptoms with a residual disposition to anxiety. 

29You were with Donna Moroney for about 14 years.  There were good periods.  As   stated, you did not drink for over two years.  For some time you left your job whilst Donna Moroney stayed and cared for the children, particularly your daughter.  You had built the Clifton Springs home.  In 2014 your grandmother fell ill.  You began to live with her for part of the time and helped  care for her.  She died,  which affected you badly.  You relapsed into heavy drinking. 

30Over time you have made attempts to address your alcoholism.   You have been prescribed Naltrexone without success.  There have been residential detoxifications,  including in June and December 2015.  You have always relapsed.  Admission to Geelong Withdrawal Unit in mid-December 2015 led to assistance to you by Anthony Gallichan of Salvo Connect Drug and Alcohol Services.  His tendered letter of 16 February 2016 states the extraordinary daily consumption of six to eight litres of wine and resulting physical health problems. When you moved to stay with a friend in Colac your connection with Mr Gallichan ended. 

31In prison you have little or no contact with your own family. There is no contact with Donna Moroney and her children.  You feel hard that you have lost them. 

32Ms Lechner also diagnoses anxiety and depression,  but secondary to your alcoholism.  She states you to be a person who should abstain from drinking,  one who needs, I quote, "quite intensive treatment.  That includes medical supervision and possible antagonistic medications, one on one counselling support and attendance at AA." 

33You attend Alcoholics Anonymous in prison,  when able,  bearing in mind that you are a remand prisoner.  You take anti-depressant medication. 

34Your criminal record filed with the indictment states seven prior court appearances between June 1995,  when you were 18,  and March 2016.  Three are in the 1990s.  There are four appearances since 2002.  There are drug offences, driving and dishonesty offences.  Many are alcohol related.   Specifically relevant are offences of recklessly causing injury which received a suspended sentence of two months and a breach of the family violence safety notice I have earlier identified.  That appearance was on 22 September 2015.  Ms Page made the point there are significant periods of non-offending in 2002 to 2007 and 2007 to 2015.

35I was also told that,  subsequent to this offending,  you were sentenced to imprisonment for one month for breaching the community corrections order imposed in September of 2015. 

36This was serious offending, marked particularly by the prescribed maximum sentence of 25 years for aggravated burglary.  You entered Donna Moroney's home with at least the intention of assaulting her by intimidation, albeit without weapon.  You did so in a dramatic, violent and frightening way.  It was at nine o'clock at night.  Your daughter was present at the home.   Your behaviour escalated quickly into incidents of you physically manhandling and throwing Ms Moroney to the ground. You prevented her escape both inside and outside the house.  You behaved throughout in an irrational,  quite terrifying way.  You caused very significant victim impact to those you had professed to love.  Your intoxication is, of course, no mitigation.  It is likely to have added to Donna Moroney's fear.  That you were subject to a community corrections order, one in part arising out of your breach of the family violence safety notice, is also an adverse feature of the offending.  However, I also bear in mind that you have received punishment for that. 

37Such circumstances make relevant sentencing considerations of your moral culpability, deterrence  (particularly general deterrence) strong denunciation of the offending and the need to punish proportionately.  I see general deterrence as a particularly important sentencing purpose.  Offending such as this is seen to be a particular community problem. 

38I take into account moderating factors such as your plea of guilty and remorse.  If you are able to abstain from alcohol you have, given for example your employment capabilities, genuine prospects for rehabilitation.   When you leave prison you will live in Colac and there is an available drug and alcohol service.  You suffer the loss of your family and have little support.  One can feel legitimate sympathy for you in the situation you have brought upon yourself.  You hold hope of some relationship with your children in the future. 

39Ms Page submitted that I should impose a community corrections order combined with a sentence of imprisonment.  That would entail a prison term of less than two years.  I have decided such a sentence would not be sufficient to be proportionate to the seriousness of your offending.  You would not meet the sentencing purposes, such as general deterrence,  I have identified. In so doing, I have borne in mind  Court of Appeal authority dealing with the adequacy of sentencing practice in respect of aggravated burglary of this kind.  Particularly the Crown provided to me a number of judgments and comparable sentences.  These included the judgment of the DPP v Meyers 2014 VSCA 314.

40The personal factors stated should still moderate your sentence and may be seen as particularly relevant to the setting of a minimum term.  I do not seek to crush your hopes of rehabilitation and a better future. 

41After considering and weighing what I see to be the relevant matters I sentence you as follows.  Stand up please.  .

42On Charge 1 of theft you are sentenced to imprisonment for one month.  On Charge 2, aggravated burglary, you are sentenced to imprisonment for 2 years and 9 months.  On Charge 3, assault, you are sentenced to imprisonment for 9 months.  I direct that three months of the sentence for Charge 3 be served cumulatively upon the sentence for Charge 2.  That is a total effective sentence of three years.  I set a minimum term of 18 months before eligibility for parole.  I declare,  under s.18, 106 days of pre-sentence detention. 

43So that it's clear, as was discussed at plea and again indirectly this morning, the one month you served for breaching that community corrections order is not counted.  Is not accounted for or not a part of that pre-sentence detention. 

44That is right; isn't it?

45MS FLYNN:  Yes, Your Honour.

46HIS HONOUR:  I indicate under s.6AAA that had you not pleaded  guilty I would have imposed a sentence of four and-a-half years with a minimum term of two and-a-half years.  What are the other orders?

47MS FLYNN:  Just that there was an order for an intimate sample pursuant to s.464.  I think that that was handed up but it - - -

48HIS HONOUR:  I would be surprised because I usually don't. 

49MS FLYNN:  I will have that given to Your Honour.

50HIS HONOUR:  I can discuss - - -

51MS PAGE:  It was discussed but Your Honour didn't rule on it.

52HIS HONOUR:    Yes, wait, is it opposed?

53MS PAGE:  No, Your Honour.

54HIS HONOUR:  In this case I would make it.  Take a seat.  The reason is the seriousness of this offending.  There are prior convictions and this man needs to deal with his alcoholism when he leaves gaol.  So one could not say that there may not be a need for such forensic material.  What will happen is that a time in prison to be arranged we will be asked to supply a sample of your saliva by cotton swab placed inside your mouth.  It doesn't sound very intrusive or difficult.  I have not seen it occur though.  If you co-operate in that, that's the end of it.  If you don't, a sample of blood may be taken by injection and reasonable force used.  Now, I'll sign that order when it comes into my chambers.

55MS FLYNN:  I will have it

56HIS HONOUR:  It will have to be provided to you to or your instructors.

57MS PAGE:  Yes, I - we do have it, Your Honour.

58HIS HONOUR:  All right, is there anything else?

59MS FLYNN:  No, thank you, Your Honour.

60HIS HONOUR:  Thank you for your assistance today.  Thank you for your assistance (indistinct).  Mr Hanson can be taken into custody.

61OFFENDER REMOVED.

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