Director of Public Prosecutions v Healey
[2021] VCC 1002
•23 July 2021
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
AT SHEPPARTON
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION
CR 21-00491
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| BRENTON HEALEY |
---
JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE SMALLWOOD |
WHERE HELD: | Shepparton |
DATE OF HEARING: | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 23 July 2021 |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Healey |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2021] VCC 1002 |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
---
Subject:
Catchwords:
Legislation Cited:
Cases Cited:
Sentence:
---
APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Director of Public Prosecutions | Ms A. Roodenburg | Office of Public Prosecutions |
For the Accused | Mr S. Petrovich | Hilton-Wood Solicitors |
HIS HONOUR:
1Brenton Healey, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of grooming for sexual conduct, two charges of supply drug of dependence to a child, one charge of sexual assault by compulsion, one charge of production of child abuse material, five charges of sexual assault of a child under the age of 16, one charge of sexual activity in the presence of a child under the age of 16, two charges of sexual penetration of a child under the age of 16, and one charge of possess child abuse material. You have also pleaded guilty to two uplifted summary matters, one of possession of a drug and one of committing an indictable offence whilst on bail, and I will simply be making concurrent sentences on those.
2Those crimes carry maximum penalties ten years, 15 years, ten years, ten years, ten years, ten years, ten years, 15 years and ten years respectively. The Charges 2, 3 and 6 are indeed rolled up charges and I am well aware of the sentencing principles applying to such charges.
3A standard sentence applies in this particular situation. The sexual penetration is six, years, sexual assault, four years, and sex in the presence of a child is also four years, and I will be dealing with that again in a few minutes.
4You are now 34 years of age. You pleaded guilty at the earliest reasonable opportunity. In your record of interview you made certain admissions, but made certain denials as well. I accept that whilst it is problematic remorse is indicated by your plea.
5You must also of course get the utilitarian benefit of that plea of guilty. It has saved the cost of s trial and what would have been extreme trauma for your two victims giving evidence before a jury.
6I take into account also the situation I have just described in Worboyes, that a plea of guilty in these times of COVID should be given a recognition. That is evident, and you have now as I understand it been in custody for some
297 days for this matter with seven days which I take into account in a Renzella type of way.7You do have prior convictions dating back some period of time in relation to drugs. There is no real significance here other than it indicates that you had a connection in the drug business for a long time. Here you were supplying drugs to these children of a number of different sorts and you were clearly able to access it with a certain degree of ease, and you certainly have a knowledge of that particular scene.
8Of far more significance are the prior matters which were dealt with by His Honour Judge Sexton in this court on 24 October 2019 and he then sentenced you on 19 December 2019. He sentenced you to be imprisoned for a period of three months, together with a community corrections order to follow.
9I do not need to go through in great detail what that was about, it is simply this; that over a period of a couple of years you, as I understand it using a fake identification, had communicated with two female victims. You induced them to send photographs of themselves, being of their private parts and you were able then to by means of avoiding application keep those images.
10After a period of time you told each of them that you were going to display those images on social media or send them to relatives unless they complied with certain requests such as the sending of money.
11For one of those women you said that she had to leave money for you in a box with, 'The undies you've worn today'. Insofar as that victim was concerned you had also apparently gone around to her house previously and there was an underlying threat in some of the things that you said to her that she made be in physical danger.
12The same sort of offending occurred for the other victim over a period of time. In that particular matter you were interviewed by a psychologist and I will go to that in a moment.
13The sentencing judge at that point in time - this is in December of 2019 - told you what the victim impact statements by those two women had shown, that they had impacted certainly one of them emotionally, socially and financially, that she had felt fearful and anxious, and felt unsafe at work, and that her relationship with recent future partners has been affected.
14She is now hesitant to trust others and has ongoing feelings of anger, fear, shame and embarrassment and her confidence has been damage due to your offending behaviour. It was made clear to you back then that the offending involving the humiliation or degradation if you like of women has a very dramatic effect on them and men as well, in this particular situation women.
15For the purposes of that hearing you were examined by a psychologist, a
Dr McConachie. I will state in very brief fashion the way in which those offences of blackmail had been carried out. I am quoting Mr McConachie:'Mr Healey stated he always enjoyed pornography and also likes particular fetishes like peeing, sleep abuse and sole female pornography. Mr Healey stated he committed the current offences as he felt so lost in his own life and was, "Seeking mental pleasure and he felt like he wanted to bring someone else's life down". It is concerned that Mr Healey's offending behaviour was exacerbated by his low mood, low self-esteem and lack of happiness in his own life. Mr Healey appeared to show little care that he would cause the victims significant fear or distress. He was unable to explain why he had used blackmail other than reporting he needed money. His presentation was emotionally detached and aloof and he reported he enjoyed seeing images of naked women and he enjoyed seeking those out through contact via the internet.'
16Mr McConachie at that point in time had serious concerns about you and indeed His Honour Judge Sexton whose sentencing remarks said that your attitude that offending caused his concern, it seems pretty clear to me that you appear to have little victim empathy and perhaps little insight into the actual nature of consequences to others of what you do.
17In any event, you served that three month period and were ultimately released on 13 February 2020 as I understand it. The offending which I am about to describe started to occur within a month or two of your release from the last gaol sentence. That sentence clearly had minimal effect on you in terms of specific deterrence.
18This will be anonymised later obviously. You were 32 years of age at the time this offending occurred and you are now 34. There are two victims in the matter. The first, Zoe[1], who was 17 at the time, and the second, Alicia[2], who was 15 at the time.
[1] A pseudonym.
[2] A pseudonym.
19You met Zoe when you added her on Snapchat in or about March or April of 2020 and after that the two of you met in person, sexual acts took place between you, and I accept beyond reasonable doubt you were supplying drugs of dependence to her.
20Zoe and Alicia were school friends. Alicia was introduced to you by Zoe. You committed sexual acts with her and supplied her with drugs of dependence as well. Alicia said that you usually wanted sexual acts in exchange for the drugs you supplied, and that that happened about once a week.
21After adding Zoe as a friend you sent her images of your penis and videos of yourself masturbating. She told you to, 'Talk to me normal', and you began messaging each other and became friends. She told you she was 17 and I accept that you knew that, and you informed her that you were 28, which was not true.
22After messaging for some time you decided to meet in person. You would usually meet at your house, watch movies together, smoke marijuana that you would supply to her. Charge 3, which is a rolled up charge, of supplying drugs of dependence to a child relates to Zoe. Charge 2 relates to the same crime with Alicia.
23On those occasions some consensual sexual activity would take place and she can recall that occurring about three times before she introduced you to Alicia. At the time that you were introduced to Alicia she told you that she was 15 and I have no doubt that that is in fact the case and you were well aware of it.
24On an evening in May of 2020 you drove to Zoe's place to pick her up and drove to Alicia's house and collected her. The plan was that the three of you would go for a drive and, 'Smoke crack'. You drove to a park in Mildura, parked on a secluded track, gave the two of them alcohol, removed the glass ice pipe from your sunglasses case in the centre console of the car, showed them how to light and smoke methylamphetamine from the pipe, before handing it to them both and assisting them to smoke it.
25All these drug charges are part of the rolled up charges. That indicates their naivety insofar as that particular kind of behaviour was concerned, and your educating them, if that be the right word, in how to do it. You at that point became concerned the police might find you so you went back to your house and smoked cannabis together and you then dropped each of them home.
26On 6 May you again picked up Alicia and Zoe in your car, drove back to your house and again cannabis was smoked. They were sitting together on a couch. You moved to sit with them and turned the lights off. You then reached across Zoe to touch Alicia, who was at that point feeling very drug affected.
27You put your hand up the side of her skirt and tried to get inside her pants. That is part of the rolled up Charge 6 of assault. She says she started to cry and asked Zoe to get you off her. She went to the laundry to have some cannabis with Zoe. Zoe then went to the toilet and you found Alicia in the hallway. You grabbed her hand and tried to put her hand in her pants, inside her skirt, and that is the second part of Charge 6.
28On hearing Zoe come out of the toilet you removed your hand. You then said to Zoe that you had, 'Just touched her up in the hallway', referring to Alicia and said she wanted to go home and you then drove them home.
29Early that morning when you were doing that police intercepted you and it was said that essentially nothing untoward was taking place. Later that same morning you added Alicia to your Facebook and commenced messaging her over the Facebook messenger app. You apologised for what you had done the night before and on that day she told you that she was, 'Nearly 16'.
30On that day you sent messages of the effect of, 'I just wanted to kiss you but I knew you would get scared. Can I kiss you next time? I want to get your pussy with my mouth'. I think importantly on that very same day, the 6th, 'I want to take your virginity'.
31It is quite clear that she told you that she was a virgin. She said that in her victim impact statement, and I have got no doubt that that was the case and that you were well aware of it. Alicia said these types of messages continued for months and that you would send her naked Snapchats and photos of your penis, and videos of you masturbating and ejaculating in various locations. That goes to Charge 1, grooming for sexual conduct.
32That is a part of that charge which is again rolled up and includes the messages that I have referred to and will refer to again. On one occasion you sent Alicia a photo of your flaccid penis and asked her to help you out. She then sent photos of her naked breasts and a video of herself fingering her vagina. That is Charge 5, involving a child in production of child abuse.
33On 7 May, after supplying ice to the victims, which is part of Charge 2 and 3, you took Zoe into your bedroom. You were playing music on a Bluetooth speaker. Alicia was pacing in and out and said she felt jealous when you began in effect placing your fingers inside Zoe's vagina. That is sexual act in the presence of a child.
34Zoe used Alicia's phone to record a short video as you were touching Alicia, and that amounts to sexual assault of a child under the age of 16. You were touching her on the outside of her clothing and you said to her, 'No, that's fucking tight'.
35Later that night you removed Alicia's pants and licked her vagina, which gives rise to Charge 9 of sexual penetration of a child under the age of 16. You on that day texted Alicia again and amongst other things said repeatedly, 'I want to take your virginity. It is going in your mouth but was I okay eating your puss? I wanted to get my tongue in more but you held up'.
36The two girls continued to spend time with you and you provided them with drugs and you said at one stage that you were getting crack just for them. That continued and is all part of charges of supplying and I do not need to go through that.
37You showed these two young girls how to snort lines of cocaine and Alicia said you always wanted something in return for the drugs, so she started doing sexual things for you in return. Zoe said the same thing. She made clear that you were aware that she was only 15 and you would say that you wished she was 16 so it would be, 'Legal'.
38On an evening that followed the three of you were spending time at your house. You dropped Alicia home and were in the car with Zoe alone. You pulled your penis out of your pants and told her to touch she. She would not do it. You told her that you would not drive her home unless she did. You then got a tea towel from the back so she did masturbate you.
39You pulled the vehicle over just before you ejaculated and that gives rise to sexual assault by compelling touching. On another occasion you kissed Alicia, and that gives rise to Charge 10, of assault of a child under the age of 16.
40I do not need to go through all the messages that were sent or even a selection of them in terms of the grooming. They are all very explicit and certainly the ones in regard to Alicia are being sent by a man twice her age.
41Sometime after that around about mid-May it would seem you collected Alicia again from her home. You told her you would be getting Lorica tablets. That is a band name for a prescription medication which I understand is for pain relief.
42In any event you did not get it by prescription, you drove to a drug dealers and collected the drugs as I understand it. You then drove to your home, smoked cannabis. You provided her with two of the Lorica tablets which she took. Prior to taking them she asked you to drive her home before the drugs kicked in but you said that would be irresponsible because you were the one that gave her the drugs.
43You drove around together, she started to vomit, which I understand to be a typical side effect of that drug. She felt like that you drove around for hours. She could not open her eyes, her head would spin and make her feel even more nauseated.
44Eventually you stopped the car and said that you should have sex. She said no but you continued to ask. She says that she had her head hanging out the back door and was vomiting. She urinated in her pants while you were trying to get in the back of her jeans and touch her bottom. That gives rise to sexual assault of a child under 16.
45She could not push you away because of the state she was in. You told her that when girls wet themselves it turns you on. After she stopped vomiting briefly you got into the back seat with her and took her jeans off and started to touch her. You tried to put your penis into her vagina but did not go all the way in. Nevertheless it went sufficiently far for it be sexual penetration of a child under 16.
46You then rubbed your penis up and down against her vagina until you were about to ejaculate, which is Charge 13, sexual assault. She told you to get it away from her and at least you did that and you ejaculated onto the ground.
47You then told her she was home and to go inside and she realised that the two of you had been parked outside her house. Before she went in you asked her for her underwear but she said no. The following morning, as I indicated during the course of the plea, I think the penny finally dropped to the two of those girls and she removed you from her social media accounts.
48That particular incident in the car is almost incomprehensible. She was a
15 year old virgin and you knew that. She was obviously in a very distressed condition because of drugs you had given her and procured for her. She said no and you persisted and I am going to make it very clear, I am not sentencing you for rape.49In those circumstances she went through the humiliation of losing control of her bladder and urinating and you had the audacity to tell her that that turned you on. You then penetrated her and essentially as you said you would, took her virginity and then at least on her asking you to get your penis away when you were ejaculating, you did that.
50This all took place outside her home when she was in a very distressed, a very vulnerable situation. You were fully aware of what you were doing and it would be impossible for somebody I think not to have any comprehension as to the effect that this would have upon her.
51Here is somebody who clearly told you she had never had sexual experience with anybody and her first penetrative act, certainly penile penetrative act, with a man occurs in that degrading, humiliating and I would have thought for her terrifying way.
52She points out in her victim impact statement the effect that it has had upon her and it must be very distressing indeed for her parents to hear what you did with their 15 year old girl. That in my view is a serious example of sexual penetration and I will be dealing with that again briefly when I refer to standard sentencing.
53In any event, you were interviewed and made certain admissions, and I note with some interest that you denied the incident in the car, probably because you realised just how serious that was. You did admit to taking and sending pictures and you did admit to giving them ice and you did admit to orally penetrating Alicia, and you said you had Lorica for your own back pain. That is not true, you bought it from a dealer it would seem
54You apparently denied you were exchanging the drugs for sexual acts and I find with no reasonable doubt that that indeed you were, and basically denied some of the offending with Zoe. I had indicated you denied the offending in the vehicle with Alicia.
55You said to police that you believed she was 18 or 19 until right at the end when she told you she was turning 16. That is clearly untrue and later in the interview apparently when confronted with these messages you agreed that you did know exactly how old she was.
56As I have indicated, you had only been released from custody for a short period of time when all this commenced. You were on bail and when police ultimately raided your premises a total of 168 images containing child abuse material were located over five devices and there will be another sentence in relation to that.
57That, as I understand it from the Crown, does not relate to the imagery that was sent between you and the two girls. It is serious offending. It is against two children. It occurred in circumstances where they vulnerable, open to exploitation. It is patently predatory in my view and you exploited them for your own sexual pleasure, and one fears from what you told Dr McConachie you desire to control or have control over other people.
58Of course the application of general deterrence, in your case specific deterrence has to play a large part. In the sentence His Honour Judge Sexton gave you for not sexual offending, but offending involving around the same sort of material, obviously did not have any effect on you. It calls for denunciation, it calls for appropriate punishment, and bearing in mind the relative quickness with which you engaged on this conduct after your release from prison, clearly community protection is important.
59Indeed on Charges 5 to 14 inclusive you will be sentenced as a serious sex offender. I am aware that community protection becomes the principal sentencing purpose and I am aware that the sentences are to be served cumulatively unless otherwise ordered, and I will be so ordering for reasons of totality.
60The Crown do not seek a disproportionate sentence and in these circumstances I would not have given one in any event. Because of the nature of some of the offences you will be placed on the Sex Offenders Register and I advise you that reporting conditions will be for life and a copy of that will be sent to you at the gaol.
61The matters that I have mentioned, that is of sexual penetration and sexual assault, and sexual compulsion, are standard sentences. I am aware of the decisions from the Supreme Court in relation to standard sentencing and they are found to represent the middle of the range of objective seriousness. They are something that does not change the instinctive synthesis process and the legislative guidepost.
62In sentencing you for those matters I have to look at the objective seriousness of the offence, which does not take into account matters personal to you, but obviously when I then apply a sentence using my instinctive synthesis to matters personal to you do apply.
63I have indicated already that insofar as the matters in the car were concerned that is in my view not at the low end of offending in any way, shape or form. The other matters are apparently one offs. The one with Zoe occurred where there had been consensual sex in the past.
64The assaults, whilst not watering them down in any way, the sexual assault aspects insofar as Alicia was concerned are of the lower order, other than the ones that occurred in the car. In this situation I would normally give total concurrency for the one incident, but it seems to me that the three acts that occurred in the car, that is the indecent assault whilst she is urinating, the penetration of her in those circumstances where she is so badly drug affected and obviously distressed, and then after having done that, to persist to the point where it would appear from what she said that you were about to ejaculate on her, are three quite distinct acts, and whilst I am going to impose cumulation because each of those charges has its own moral culpability, that cumulation will be relatively moderate.
65I am aware that a minimum term in your situation cannot be less than 60 per cent of the sentence imposed and essentially they are the matters of law that need to be referred to. I am not going to do an essay on standard sentencing.
66In these circumstances where there are so many of the charges are of a standard sentence it is clear that totality at the end of the day has to play a significant part in it all, and in some circumstances this sort of thing can be rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, but all I can do is indicate as I have the objective seriousness of each of those matters as I see it.
67I have before me the victim impact statements of Zoe, the victim impact statements of Alicia and I have the victim impact statements of Alicia's parents. What you did with each of those children is disgraceful. There is no other way to describe it. I can only hope that somehow or another you began to understand, assuming you have read those victim impact statements, the devastating effect it has had on those two girls, the devastating effect it has had on their families, and the devastating effect it has had on the parents.
68In situations such as this people often feel that they have failed their child, they have failed to protect their child, they have a sense of their own guilt, and the victim impact statements here clearly bear that out. The victims lose confidence, lost faith in men and in Alicia's case it is pretty easy to understand in terms of what you did to her.
69They struggle with relationships. It causes all sorts of difficulties as it goes on. That is why this offending against children has to be dealt with severely by courts. Sometimes you might have a situation where the accused is only a few years older than the victim, perhaps a 21 year old with a 15 year old victim, but you as I have already pointed out, Mr Healey, were twice Alicia's age, and there is just simply no excuse at all in my view.
70A custodial sentence of very significant proportions has to be imposed and I then look to matters personal to you. Your counsel made a plea on your behalf and pointed out certain matters to me. I have had regard to the earlier reports that were tendered in regard to the first matter and as I have indicated, they were of concern themselves in terms of empathy and the like.
71Whilst I accept on all the materials before me that you do have anxiety, and that you do have depression, and that spending time in custody or spending a long time in custody for you will be harsher than it would be for a prisoner who did not have those circumstances, the moral culpability aspects in particular and general and specific deterrence aspects of Verdins simply do not come into play. It is as simple as that really.
72You background can be described in fairly short compass. You were born in Orbost. You have no knowledge of any difficulties with your early development. Your father was emotionally abusive and was alcoholic. Your mother moved to Melbourne and repartnered. You had a poor relationship with your stepfather and your mother and he separated some 12 years ago.
73There are incidents in your life which I have been informed of which I do not think had anything to do with what has occurred here and it is not suggested that they do. You had no counselling over the years. Initially at school apparently you were good but ultimately you became ostracised, you became a loner, and your mother threw you out of the house at the age of 15, and pressure was put on you to get a job.
74You returned to Orbost and lived there for a period of time, got in contact with your biological father and briefly lived with him. You smoked cannabis with him, and I accept on the material before me that it was around about that time that you developed chronic symptoms of anxiety and internalised anger.
75You have two children from a partnership with a lady, Brittany, and that relationship broke down as a consequence of your drug and alcohol abuse, mental health struggles and criminal offending. It was suggested that it broke down because of this offending but it seems pretty clear from the sentencing remarks of Judge Sexton that he had the view that it broke down because - he was told that it broke down because of the offending he dealt with.
76You said that the offending started on a whim and before you knew it it had gone too far and that you were surprised when the complainants responded in the manner they did. That in itself is a real concern. You tend to suggest that they became jealous when they each found out about the other. I suspect they knew about that beforehand.
77It was not until the incident in the car that the penny dropped for those two girls. They came to your flat, you were kicked and punched and your flat was smashed up and it was at that point in time that you told your mother about that. She called the police and they arrested the girls and that is when the disclosures came out.
78They have been cautioned for that and it is a situation where they could hardly be blamed for taking that course of action against you. I see that you have had occasional psychosis in the past, but that appears to have been drug induced and there has been a tendency to self-harm.
79As I said, giving you some credit in Verdins but certainly not for the first three propositions. They are really the matters that are put on your behalf. There is not much else I can say other than in gaol at least you have not put your head down and sulked, you have been doing courses within the gaol.
80I can indicate that I have read the reports of Dr Toll and as indicated I have read the reports of Dr McConachie. I am well aware that I must apply the principles of totality and try and avoid a crushing sentence.
81You are 32 so there is still some chance of you turning your life around if you are genuine in wanting to do that. Prospects of your rehabilitation are up to you. The risk of you reoffending if you keep the mindset that you came out of gaol with last time will have to be regarded as high.
82In any event, they are all matters of speculation from me at this point in time and ultimately they will become matters for the Parole Board when you ultimately become eligible for that parole. Taking all those matters into account as best I can and having read the very helpful, if I might say so, submissions of the Crown and of your counsel, you are sentenced as follows.
83On Charge 1, 24 months, Charge 2, 30 months, Charge 3, 24 months. I might indicate here that I have reduced the sentences for supplying drugs of dependence to children because I think they are significant because I think they are interwoven with the actual sexual offending itself.
84Charge 4, 12 months, Charge 5, 12 months, Charge 6, 12 months, Charge 7, 12 months concurrent, Charge 8, 12 months concurrent, Charge 9, 36 months, Charge 10, six months concurrent, Charge 11, 24 months, Charge 12, the sexual penetration in the car, 48 months, Charge 13, 24 months, and Charge 14, nine months.
85I direct that nine months of the sentence imposed on Charge 1, 12 months of the sentence imposed on Charge 2, nine months of the sentence imposed on Charge 3, three months of the sentence imposed on Charge 4, three months of the sentence imposed on Charge 5, three months of the sentence imposed on Charge 6, 18 months of the sentence imposed on Charge 9, three months of the sentence imposed on Charge 11, three months of the sentence imposed on Charge 13 and three months of the sentence imposed on Charge 14 be served cumulatively upon each other and upon the sentence imposed on Charge 12.
86On the summary matters, one month each concurrent. That gives a total effective head sentence of nine years and six months. I direct that you serve a minimum term of six years and three months before becoming eligible for parole.
87MS ROODENBURG: Sorry, Your Honour, can I interrupt Your Honour? I apologise for doing so but Charge 38 is a penalty unit offence only, the summary charge.
88HIS HONOUR: Thanks for that. I appreciate that. Convicted and discharged.
89MS ROODENBURG: Thank you, Your Honour.
90HIS HONOUR: I appreciate that, thanks, Ms Roodenburg. I direct that a minimum term of six years and three months. I direct that 297 days be reckoned as having been served under this sentence and so that but for your plea of guilty you would have been sentenced to - and on these matters, which is a bit unrealistic, but in any event you would have been sentenced to be imprisoned for a period of 13 and a half years with a minimum term of nine.
91Are there any other orders I need to make, Ms Roodenburg or Mr Petrovich?
92MS ROODENBURG: No, Your Honour. I think Your Honour made the disposal order yesterday.
93HIS HONOUR: Yes, I made that yesterday. No other orders, Mr Petrovich, that you need?
94MR PETROVICH: No, Your Honour.
95HIS HONOUR: I will adjourn the court and let you speak to your client,
Mr Petrovich.96MR PETROVICH: Thank you, Your Honour.
‑ ‑ ‑
0
0
0