Director of Public Prosecutions v Harrison

[2016] VCC 1763

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

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 16-01800

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

SHARDEY HARRISON

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE SMALLWOOD
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	17 November 2016
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Harrison
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2016] VCC 1763

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:
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Cases Cited:
Sentence:

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	MS A. HASSAN	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	MR J. ANDERSON	VLA

HIS HONOUR:

1Shardey Harrison, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of recklessly causing injury.  That crime carries a maximum penalty of 5 years' imprisonment.  The matter understandably went to committal but was resolved at that point in time and I do regard it as a reasonably early plea.

2You have expressed, certainly through the psychiatrists that you spoke to, appropriate remorse and insight into the consequences that your actions had upon a totally innocent victim.

3You must also get the utilitarian benefit of your plea of guilty for avoiding the need for a trial and what would have been a fairly traumatic experience again for the victim.

4You do have a number of prior convictions and findings of guilt and you are only 22.  Clearly, looking at the material, you come from a very disadvantaged background and I take that into account.  When one does look at that background and looks at the priors, it is somewhat understandable.

5In any event, firstly pursuant to s.464ZF of the Crimes Act I make an order that you provide a saliva sample for DNA purposes.  That order having been made, I must advise you that should you refuse to provide such a sample, police may use reasonable force to take it from you.

6A summary of the offence is as follows; that is, the Crown summary which has been tendered and incorporating a number of matters which your counsel has pointed out to me.

7On the 22nd of April of this year you were at your home in Cape Nelson Road with your then de facto partner, a Mr Hutchins.  There had been violence during the course of the day directed by Hutchins towards you and I accept what your counsel says about that.

8You had been struck with a baseball bat.  You were in a very poor state.  You and Hutchins at some stage during the afternoon had commenced drinking and by the time all this took place I accept that you and, in all probability, Hutchins were intoxicated.

9Your counsel has offered to play me some of that violence that Hutchins was directing towards you which are captured on your mobile phone.  I declined that as I think I fully understand what you were going through.

10In any event, after the last of the assaults you were described by your brother as having a bloody lip, wobbly tooth and bruising to your face.  Police described you as dishevelled and distressed.

11Hutchins had gone outside purportedly to leave the address and had taken your mobile phone with him.  At approximately 9 pm, not long after he walked out, you walked out of the house simply in what has been described as a bra and white shorts onto the front yard.  You were in possession of a kitchen knife.

12Hutchins clearly had not gone very far because of what occurred later and I am prepared to accept in this situation that you had remained intoxicated, frightened and beaten, and you had the knife initially for your own protection.

13The unfortunate victim in this matter, Mr Webb, who is a man as I calculate must be in his early seventies, had just left his friend's place in Waratah Crescent, was riding his bicycle up the footpath.  He noticed you on the shoulder of the road face down and appearing to be distressed which is the condition your counsel said you believed you had been in.

14He had not been drinking that evening.  He stopped and asked you if you were okay.  You asked for his mobile phone to call police or asked him to call police.  He says that he told you he did not have credit on his phone and did not have his phone with him at the time.  He described you as being "wonky" on your feet, and that you were having trouble getting off the ground so he helped you up off the ground and told you to go inside.

15Your impression was that you had been told that he had rung the police and indeed obviously your intention was to get the police there, not to assault anybody and there appears to have been confusion with that.  In your intoxicated state, it seems quite clear that you were having difficulty getting up off the ground and Mr Webb, in good Samaritan fashion, tried to assist you.

16He put his hands on your hands and tried to lift you up to guide you inside.  You had dropped the knife previously but when these acts of assistance were being offered to you by Mr Webb, you somehow formed the view, and I can understand how it has occurred, that you were at risk and produced a knife from the ground and stabbed him.

17You only stabbed once and I accept that that is an indication that it was an attempt to get away from him rather than to hurt him.  You were yelling and screaming at him.  He felt dizzy, he put his hands to his head and saw blood.  He tried to walk a bit further but passed out.  Two other people were in the front yard of their place directly across the road.  They heard you yelling out "You're a pedo and I'm calling the cops on you".

18That tends to support the version of events that you gave your counsel and in part, at least, to the psychologist that it also does have an aspect of deliberateness in terms of the wielding of the knife and in these situations it would be dangerous for me to try and make any findings along those lines.

19In any event, Mr Webb was trying to walk his bicycle along Cape Nelson Road.  He ultimately managed to get to No.152 being assisted, somewhat credibly, by Mr Hutchins.  Mr Webb told Mr Hutchins that he had been stabbed and Mr Hutchins asked the occupants of the house to call an ambulance.  Police and ambulance arrived shortly thereafter.

20You apparently told you brother that you had stabbed somebody, the knife was then placed into the ground by him with an intent to conceal it or not, I am not quite sure, and police were unaware that you had been involved in the stabbing, or certainly the cutting, for quite some time that night.  It was only later on in the night that when the knife was found that the police realised what had occurred.

21Mr Webb was flown from the Portland Hospital to the Alfred Hospital intensive care unit where the stab wound was explored.  He received a scalp wound which is closed by approximately 15 staples.  The left superficial temporal artery on his scalp was legated with sutures.  He had significant blood loss and was clearly a very unwell man for a period of time.  He has been left with a 10 cm scar across his temple above his ear as a result of the stabbing.

22It is conceded that neither of you knew each other and Mr Webb simply sees himself as a man who was endeavouring to assist a young woman in distress and suffered the consequences in terms of the injury that he received.

23His victim impact statement eloquently outlines the consequences that that swing of the knife by you have caused.  He says that he is too scared to ride his push- bike at night for fear that something bad might happen to him.  He has nightmares and flashbacks and wakes up with sweats.  He says he has become timid, on edge and constantly feels anxious and is looking over his shoulder.  He would appear to have previously had depression and that's been increased and he is finding that he has terrible mood swings and is upsetting the people that he is living with.  He says he is forgetting things and he is going to seek psychological help.

24He said that prior to this occurring he was a happy-go-lucky man.  He said now he has become a recluse and has lost all trust in most people in general except those who are close to him and he says he has become suspicious of people and his life will never be the same again.

25It is very clear, and I do not sentence on the basis, that you in anyway intended those consequences but they are consequences which clearly render this crime serious and there must be an aspect of specific deterrence as well as denunciation and appropriate punishment.

26The Crown concede that in all the overall circumstances here, and they have access to the psychological report and the materials have been tendered on your half, that a community corrections order is within the range.  I have agreed to that proposition and I had you assessed for a community corrections order and you have been found to be acceptable and that is the sentencing disposition that I intend to impose.

27Your personal circumstances are that you are still only 22.  You are a young woman, young Aboriginal woman.  Your mother suffers from schizophrenia.  Your father has a bipolar mood disorder.  You have a two year old daughter to Mr Hutchins.  Mr Hutchins has done well over a year, on a couple of occasions, in prison for domestic violence against you.  However, I am told now that at least there is an intervention order in place which should keep him away.

28You had clearly been - I dislike going through these things in any form of detail in public because you have heard it all before and you are the one who lived through it but you were sexually molested as a child.  You had very little input into your upbringing.  You had a lot of problems developing in a social way.  You now are described by the psychologist as still being somewhat childlike.

29There was a long history of domestic violence in your relationship with Hutchins and that is confirmed in a statement made by your mother.

30The matters that give me confidence are the report of Dr Lechner which says that you do have insight into the frightening effect that this incident had on your totally innocent victim.  She says that you have depression and history indicative of complex developmental trauma has adversely affected your social and emotional development and the symptoms of post trauma have been aggravated by your involvement with Mr Hutchins.

31Your mother's statement to police said that you were a worry as a drinker as a teenager because when you drank you became aggressive.  She told you not to drink.  You agreed not to drink because it was starting to scare you and for a while you did not drink.  It was when you started seeing Mr Hutchins that you started engaging in alcohol and we have all now seen the consequences of that.

32When he was in gaol for assaulting you for about nine or ten months or something in 2015, you were not using alcohol and you were in another relationship.  However, when he got out of gaol again you ended up getting back together and he started to physically abuse you again.  When he was doing that, is when you started drinking again.  That is the situation, that when you drink you potentially can behave in this manner having been bashed or not.

33Since you have been released on bail, I accept that you have not been drinking and is quite clear that, from other material I will refer to in a moment, that when you are not drinking you basically do not offend.  It is the situation now that with a small child, obviously Mr Hutchins is the father, that the Department of Human Services, if that is what they are still called, has an interest in the matter and you are monitored and various programs have been put into effect for you.

34I have a very encouraging report from a Ms Johnson who is a senior worker at the Cradle to Kinder Centre in the south-west.  She says

"Ms Harrison has sought help with her mental health and completed a drug driver awareness course with the intention to eventually applying for her driving licence.  Ms Harrison has shown a willingness to work with services and demonstrates her commitment by prioritising and fully participating in weekly sessions with Cradle to Kinder.  Ms Harrison has maintained her commitment to Cradle to Kinder despite having a number of other mandatory obligations to undertake each week.  The most pleasing aspect to work with Ms Harrison has been observing the development of a young woman with a very troubled past into a competent and caring mother with a very loving bond with her daughter.  Ms Harrison is working hard to be the most appropriate parent that she can be to her daughter and has created a home environment that fosters positive growth and development in her daughter."

35That is encouraging indeed and it should be something that despite the difficulties of your background and the problems that you find yourself in, that you should be proud of.  In this situation, it is to the community's benefit as well as your own that a disposition is put in place which enables you to endeavour at least to continue with that rehabilitation to continue to endeavour to become a worthwhile member of the community.

36On the other hand, it is no way shape or form to be regarded as a trifling crime.  The consequences for Mr Webb have been dreadful, albeit that they were not intended.

37Accordingly, what I am going to do is impose a community corrections order with conviction which will have a significant number of work hours involved in it.

38Your counsel has told me, and I have addressed you already, that you are concerned about being able to comply with work hours and the like.  There has to be a significant punishment involved in all this and I simply say to you that if difficulties arise during the course of this period of time in doing the work hours, that you seek help, that you tell people and I have no doubt that people will endeavour to assist you to get through it.  Whatever you do, do not wait until it is too late and nobody can help you.

39I think it is important in this situation that you understand, and you do understand, that for you to drink is a terrible risk that something like this would happen again and you could find yourself in an even more serious situation.

40Ms Lecher says that you: "Express deep regret and shame for your actions in addition to appropriate victim empathy."  I will accept that on face value but simply say that whenever you are tempted to drink, you think back to what happened that night and it is always as risk so it is up to you.

41All right, so if she agrees it will be an 18 month community corrections order.  The only condition will be that she perform 125 hours of community work.

42If you can just go with her, Mr Anderson, while she signs it.

43MR ANDERSON:  Yes thank you, Your Honour.

44HIS HONOUR:  All right, that order is made.  Let me simply say this to you: that man is going to have to live with what you did to him for the rest of his life, all right.  It is important that you make sure that never happens to any other person again.  All right, yes you can come out of there now.

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