Director of Public Prosecutions v Harrison

[2018] VCC 681

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

AT BENDIGO
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR-17-00693

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

TRENT HARRISON

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE DEAN
WHERE HELD:	Bendigo
DATE OF HEARING:	15 May 2018
DATE OF SENTENCE:	15 May 2018
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Harrison
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2018] VCC 681

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:

Catchwords:  Recklessly causing serious injury; contravening a family violence intervention order; extensive criminal history; related family violence offences; violent propensity; general deterrence; specific deterrence; polysubstance abuse disorder

Legislation Cited:
Cases Cited:
Sentence:

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr A. Moore	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Mr G. Davis	Tony Danos Lawyers

HIS HONOUR:

1Trent Harrison, you have pleaded guilty to the following charges –

2(i), one count of recklessly causing serious injury, contrary to s.17 of the Crimes Act 1958. The maximum penalty for that offence is 15 years' imprisonment.

3(ii), one count of contravening a family violence intervention order, contrary to s.123A of the Family Violence Protection Act 2008. The maximum penalty for that offence is five years' imprisonment or a fine of 6,000 penalty units, or both.

4You have also pleaded guilty to the related summary offence of committing an indictable offence on bail, contrary to s.30B of the Bail Act 1977. The maximum penalty for that offence is three months' imprisonment or a fine of 300 penalty units, or both.

5You pleaded guilty at committal mention in April 2017, but following the listing of this matter in court indicated that you then intended to plead not guilty.  The matter was accordingly then listed for trial.  Ultimately, however, you pleaded guilty following discussions between your legal representatives and the prosecution.  Your counsel conceded that yours is not an early plea, but I accept that it has spared the community the burden of a criminal trial, and the witnesses the ordeal of giving evidence.

6There is little evidence, however, of remorse in your case.  Nevertheless, I have taken your plea into account in your favour in mitigation of sentence.

7You have admitted an extensive criminal history, involving a number of court appearances, and convictions, for crimes of violence and related offences.  I have also been referred to a subsequent court appearance at the Latrobe Valley Magistrates' Court on 1 May 2017 in relation to further offences of violence, and breaching a Family Violence Intervention Order.  On that occasion you were sentenced to two years imprisonment, with a non-parole period of 15 months, which you are currently serving.

8On 8 September 2015 you appeared before the Echuca Magistrates' Court in relation to one charge of recklessly causing injury, and resisting an emergency worker on duty.  On that occasion you were sentenced to 60 days' imprisonment.  That offence, as was the offences that you appeared before the Latrobe Valley Magistrates' Court on 1 May 2017, concerned the victim of your offending in this case.  You have therefore appeared before courts on two other occasions in relation to assault her, and on those occasions you received terms of imprisonment.

9At the time of your offending, in this instance, you were also on bail for offences of violence, in respect of the victim.  Community based dispositions intended to support your rehabilitation have to date failed.

10A summary of prosecution opening was read to the court and tendered in evidence, and your offending may be summarised as follows –

11You and the victim in relation to these offences had been in an on/off relationship for approximately six years.  You have two children together, aged four and two.

12On 8 September 2015 an Intervention Order was granted at the
Echuca Magistrates' Court, in respect of the victim.  As I have already observed, on that day you were also dealt with for offences in relation to her.

13On 5 March 2016 you and the victim were at your mother's house at
227 Ogilvie Avenue, Echuca.  During the course of the day you and the victim consumed methylamphetamine.  Sometime in the afternoon you were engaged in an argument with her, and during the course of that argument stabbed her in her upper-right leg.  The knife that you used to stab her entered her leg and severed her femoral artery.  She began to bleed profusely and attempted to drive herself to hospital but was unable to do so.  You used a jumper to stem the bleeding and drove her to the Echuca Hospital.

14When she arrived there at approximately 2.15 pm, she was barely conscious and unable to explain to staff in a coherent manner what had happened to her.  She was resuscitated at the hospital and provided with two units of O negative blood, two litres of saline, and was given morphine and other pain relief.

15A CT scan conducted at the Echuca Hospital revealed that her femoral artery had been severed.  She was transported urgently to the Royal Melbourne Hospital by air ambulance, and there underwent surgery to repair her injury.  Had the intervention at the Echuca Hospital not taken place her life would have been at risk.  The victim remained in hospital for a period of one week and was transferred to the Echuca hospital, where she underwent rehabilitation.

16As a result of pressure by you, the victim refused to explain to investigators how it was that she had become injured, and initially told them that she had fallen from the roof while fixing a television aerial.  It was not until November 2016 that a full account was provided to police, and charges were laid against you.

17It is clear from this summary that your offending is a serious example of the offence of recklessly causing serious injury.  In the setting of you being subject to a Family Violence Intervention Order, and on bail for assaulting the victim, and in a methylamphetamine induced paranoid rage, you stabbed her and placed her life at risk.  Offending of this nature must be the subject of unequivocal denunciation by the court, and the sentence calculated to deter others from what you have done.

18Specific deterrence is also a prominent sentencing consideration in this case, having regard to your criminal history and violent propensity.  Vulnerable, defenceless women, such as the victim in this case, must be protected by the courts from violence at the hands of men like you.

19I have received in evidence a Victim Impact Statement of the victim, detailing the deeply traumatic affect your crime has had upon her.  And as I have observed, you have shown little remorse for this.

20I now turn to your personal circumstances. 

21You were born in Shepparton on 25 June 1991, and are now aged 26, you are a Yorta Yorta man.  I accept that your background was one of disadvantage and dislocation, and your home life characterised by alcoholism and physical abuse.  Despite your background of disadvantage you were nevertheless able to complete Year 10 at school, and it would appear from psychological material before that you are a person of some ability, and with some insight into your circumstances.

22You have two young children with the victim, and two other children with other partners.  I accept that your life of disadvantage has, in part, contributed to your offending, and I have taken this into account in your favour in mitigation of sentence.

23I have received in evidence a neuropsychological report prepared by
Ms Susan Carey, a clinical neuropsychologist, setting out your developmental history and psychological profile.  You do not suffer from an acquired brain injury, or any current mental illness.  However, it is clear, both from your history and the contents of the report before me that you suffer from polysubstance abuse disorder, and you have abused drugs of dependence since a young age.

24Your counsel submitted to me that methylamphetamine became the primary drug used by you and that you used that intravenously.  As I have already observed, at the time of your offending, in this case, you were intoxicated by that substance.

25The prosecutor also informed me that in conference with the victim of your offending, she informed him that when you were not intoxicated as the result of the effects of methylamphetamine, you were a stable, calm, and caring person; and I accept that this is the case.

26It is therefore plain that your prospects for rehabilitation are dependent upon you overcoming your drug addiction.  As I have already observed, you appear to be well motivated to obtain meaningful employment, and your counsel informed me that you have undertaken a number of courses whilst in custody.

27In all the circumstances of this case I have decided not to order that the sentence I impose today be served cumulatively on the sentence you are undergoing. In arriving at this conclusion I have had regard to the principle of totality.

28In the result, the sentence of the court is as follows –

29In the Charge of recklessly causing serious injury, you are convicted and sentenced to be imprisoned for four years and six months. 

30In relation to the charge of contravening the family violence intervention order, you are convicted and sentenced to be imprisoned for nine months. 

31I direct that three months of the sentence in relation to the charge of contravening a family violence order be served cumulatively on the sentence imposed, in respect of the charge of recklessly causing serious injury. 

32In relation to the related summary offence of committing an offence on bail, you are convicted and sentenced to be imprisoned for one month. 

33This makes for a total effective term of imprisonment of four years and nine months.

34I direct that you serve two years imprisonment before becoming eligible for release on parole.

35But for your plea of guilty, I would have imposed a total effective term of imprisonment of six years, and fixed a new non-parole period of two years and nine months.

36Are there any further orders required? 

37MR MOORE:  No.

38HIS HONOUR:  Mr Harrison, that means you will be eligible for release on parole in two years from today.  All right, thank you.

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