Director of Public Prosecutions v Henderson (a pseudonym)

[2023] VCC 2273

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

AT MELBOURNE

CRIMINAL DIVISION

 Revised
Not Restricted
 Suitable for Publication

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

BAILEY HENDERSON (a pseudonym)

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JUDGE:	HER HONOUR JUDGE CANNON
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	9 November and 5 December 2024
DATE OF SENTENCE:	5 December 2023
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Henderson (a pseudonym)
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2023] VCC 2273

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:CRIMINAL LAW

Catchwords:              Sentence – Plea of guilty – Sexual penetration of a person above the age of 16 and under the age of 18 years – Historical sexual offending - Accused was teacher – Victim was a student at the same school but not in any of the accused’s classes – Victim under influence of alcohol at time of offending – Alcohol supplied by the accused – Victim intoxicated and vulnerable – Victim was age of consent as recognised by law nowadays – If conduct engaged in now with no consent issues, conduct would not be subject to criminal offence

Legislation Cited:      Sex Offender Registration Act 2004

Cases Cited:Worboyes and The Queen [2021] VSCA 169; DPP v Ooms [2023] VSCA 207

Sentence:                  No conviction imposed – Sentenced to Community Corrections Order (12 months’ duration) – Conditions – Unpaid community work – Supervision – Mental health assessment and treatment – No order made as to Sex Offender Registration

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr A. Albert	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Offender	Mr G. Lascaris	Hughes Legal

HER HONOUR:

1Bailey Henderson[1], you have pleaded guilty to one rolled up charge of sexual penetration of a person above the age of 16 and under the age of 18 years.

[1] A pseudonym.

2The maximum penalty for this offence is two years’ imprisonment which is a matter which I must take into account in sentencing you as this reflects the seriousness with which parliament regarded the offence at the time.

3The victim in this matter is Chantelle Brookes[2]. She was 16 years old at the time you offended against her and was a student at a high school in regional Victoria.  You were a teacher at that school and were 28 years old at the time of the offending.

[2] A pseudonym.

4You taught at the school from 1985 to 1993. The victim was not in any of your classes. You lived alone at the time.

5In 1993 you left teaching and moved to and worked in an outer Melbourne suburb.

6At the time of the offending, Ms Brookes was in Year 11. She attended the school for one year, then moved from the school but returned in April 1989 when she and her mother came back to the area.

7The victim worked part-time and had been paying her mother board.  She stopped living with her mother in early 1990, living independently in a share house with two university students. She had a bedroom at the back of the house.

8The circumstances giving rise to the offending are that on a Sunday night on a date between 1 May and 30 June 1990, a school friend came to Ms Brookes’ house. They drank a bottle of spumante then went to a local nightclub and had some more drinks. They saw you and another teacher at the nightclub. You were a teacher of Ms Brookes’ friend. You and the other teacher approached the victim and her friend and bought alcoholic drinks for them.  Ms Brookes became alcohol affected.

9You and Ms Brookes danced at the nightclub and were kissing passionately on the dance floor. Ms Brookes had no recollection from this time until the time you offended against her. You asked Ms Brookes’ friend how old Ms Brookes was.  She told you she was 16 years old. You responded that Ms Brookes was 'too sexy for that age'.

10You and Ms Brookes had an arm around each other when you left the dance floor.  At this stage Ms Brookes was intoxicated, her speech was slurred, and she was close to falling asleep. She said she needed to get a taxi home.

11Ms Brookes’ friend recalls you saying, 'We’re going home to fuck' and Ms Brookes was laughing. She began to walk out of the club with you holding her.

12Ms Brookes’ next recollection after the kissing on the dance floor was that she and you were naked in her bed. You inserted your penis into her mouth then you inserted your tongue into her vagina as she performed oral sex on you.  You turned Ms Brookes around so each of you had your heads at the top of the bed. You then inserted your penis into Ms Brookes’ vagina. You were wearing a condom. You ejaculated whilst penetrating Ms Brookes’ vagina.

13Ms Brookes’ told you that this was 'very awkward'. You told the victim that you would like to do it again and would see her at school. You left her place at around 7.00 or 8.00 am.

14Ms Brookes’ friend was in your maths class that day. During the class you spoke to her about having a wild night in the bedroom with Ms Brookes and that you left your underwear in the bedroom. You said that you had come to school directly from Ms Brookes’ house and that what had happened was to be kept a secret.

15After the class, the friend spoke to Ms Brookes in the school grounds, telling her what you had said. Ms Brookes did not want to discuss what had happened with you. She did not give her friend any details of what happened apart from saying she had not had a '69'er before'.

16Ms Brookes found your underpants in her room and put them in a bag. She took them to school and went into the staff room, asking if she could speak with you.  You came to the doorway, and you were given the bag. You told Ms Brookes that she should not be there and should leave.

17Ms Brookes struggled at school after this. An aunt of hers became aware from a friend who was a teacher at the school that Ms Brookes’ school work had deteriorated significantly. The aunt offered to pay Ms Brookes’ tuition fees if she went to a local private school and repeated Year 11 there. Ms Brookes agreed.

18The victim disclosed what had happened to her best friend at that private school.

19Subsequently, Ms Brookes was academically successful in her career in spite of the impact of your offending upon her.

20In May 2020 the victim made a written statement to police saying that by this time she had finally understood that she had been 'an extremely vulnerable girl who had struggled to feel secure or important to anyone', that she had done nothing wrong and that she was taken advantage of.

21You were interviewed by police on 6 October 2021.

22In the interview you said that you did not teach Ms Brookes in any classes and had very little to do with her.  You said you thought she was a student who left and returned, so you thought she was older than 16 years. You said you did not socialise with the other teacher who was allegedly at the nightclub, however, you said that you saw Ms Brookes at the nightclub, but you did not know if she was drinking.  You said you could not recall kissing her on the dance floor but admitted that you went to her house. You recalled that she lived independently but you were unaware as to how you knew about her living arrangements.

23You admitted to having penile/vaginal sex, but you said that you were unable to ejaculate due to your level of intoxication. You said that you left when the sun came up and you did not go to work that morning. You said you were embarrassed by having intercourse with a student. You said you recalled Ms Brookes knocking on the staff door but said that this was the week after. You said you believed that Ms Brookes was asking you out, but you told her that you could not see her again and it was a mistake. You could not remember Ms Brookes returning your underwear. You said that you were shocked that Ms Brookes was 16 and that you were ashamed of your actions.

24In discussions today your counsel, Ms Lascaris, also indicated that in the record of interview you had some difficulty with your memory in some respects. However, the prosecution opening has been accepted as agreed facts in this matter and I sentence you on that basis.

25Mr Henderson your offending is serious and deserving of a punishment which is just in all of the relevant circumstances.  Your conduct must be appropriately denounced. Notwithstanding that the victim was not under your care supervision or authority, which is the basis upon which this matter has been resolved, you knew very well that she was a student at the school where you taught, and on your own account of things, you knew that it was entirely inappropriate for you to have sexual relations with her. 

26Moreover, knowing that she was a student at the school and having been told she was 16 years old, you had bought alcohol for Ms Brookes and her friend, and you went back to the victim’s room when she was in a most vulnerable state.

27Although I do not and cannot sentence you on the basis that the sexual conduct in which you engaged was not consensual, in my view your conduct was morally reprehensible in all the relevant circumstances. Further, it seems that you did nothing to check on her welfare after this episode, but rather, it seems to me, you went into self-preservation mode due to concern about yourself.

28Having said this, the victim was at the age of consent as recognised by the law nowadays and if you had engaged in such conduct now and there were no consent issues it is true that such conduct would not be the subject of a criminal offence.

29In sentencing you I take into account the impact on the victim which has been significant, notwithstanding that she has managed to overcome a good deal of adversity and be a highly achieving and contributing member of our community.  However, I must say this is no thanks to you.

30The impact on her has been profound.

31In her most articulate victim impact statement, which she courageously read aloud, she said that although she had a very difficult time before your offending, things were starting to look up and she could see light at the end of the tunnel.

32She was working two part-time jobs and studying Year 11 and was confident that she would be able to attend university eventually. Her dream from early on in her life was to be a lawyer.

33She regarded school as something of a haven. She had good friends and attended school regularly. She was a most able and conscientious student.

34She had a strong interest in law and politics. She had taken part in some most impressive activities in the community in relation to politics and was enrolled in her local youth parliament where her first speech was on animal cruelty.

35After the offending she became increasingly isolated, and she avoided her friends. She started truanting and began to drink more heavily.

36She felt ashamed and flawed and felt disgusted with herself. She blamed herself for the offending. She feared being discussed by others and labelled a 'slut'.

37She said that when you told her to leave, which I take it is a reference to the exchange at the staffroom door, she felt that her aspirations were ruined and that you had shattered her future.

38She said that she knew that what you had done was illegal but thought that there was no point in complaining as you were so popular at the school, and she had been stigmatised as a 'problem child'. She said that your conversation with her friend Abby[3] robbed her of her agency and resulted in her distancing herself from her friend. She felt beyond vulnerable and inconsequential, in circumstances where prior to the offending she already had low self-esteem. She spoke of suffering an increase in parasomnia events which were triggered by stressful events, saying that she suffered this after the committal hearing.

[3] A pseudonym.

39She said that after your offending she started to scratch her face so that she could look different as she did not want to be her.

40She spoke of her aunt helping her to change schools but that she, the victim, had to pay for all experiences other than the tuition fees and was also required to repeat Year 11, which was a personal cost to her. She had to continue to work two jobs in order to meet all of the expenses associated with her attending the new school and taking a longer time than otherwise to complete her secondary education.

41She achieved a very high ATAR and was able to study her first preference, which was Arts/Law at the university she had chosen in her first preference.

42She said that your offending had negatively impacted her ability to trust any adult and that she grieved in respect of the loss of her friendship with her friend Abby. However, after 26 years they were able to restore this.

43Academically, Ms Brookes has gone from strength to strength and is about to complete a PhD, which is to her great credit. She spoke of her work as a lawyer over the years with particular cases triggering flashbacks and distress due to their similarities as to what happened to her at your hands. However, she also spoke of trying to use her experience to enrich her practice and make her a better lawyer due to her insight and understanding of many adolescent clients.

44She said that overall, your offending had a significant impact upon her and continued to do so.

45Mr Henderson, these are the very real effects that your offending has had upon the victim, and they are matters that I take into account in sentencing you.

46In sentencing you I factor in that you have no prior convictions and only one subsequent matter being the summary offence of behaving in an offensive manner in 1993. I was told by your counsel that this was an instance of you urinating in between two cars, however, police saw you and charged you with the offence.  I do not regard this offence as overly relevant when assessing your prospects of rehabilitation or for the purposes of other relevant sentencing considerations.

47I conducted a sentence indication hearing in respect of this matter where Mr Albert advised me that the prosecution were of the view that a community correction order or a wholly suspended sentence were within the range of sentences open to me.  Your counsel submitted that a community correction order without a conviction was appropriate or that indeed a fine would suffice, whereas the crown submitted that a conviction was warranted albeit that a community correction order was within the range.

48In sentencing you I have taken into account your background which was set out in defence submissions.

49You grew up in housing commission accommodation and you are the middle child of five. Your father died of a heart attack whilst working in Taiwan in 1993 and you found your mother deceased at home in 2000.

50You completed Year 12 in 1979 at a local high school and you were dux of the school.

51You were also a keen footballer and made the under 19 list for an AFL team that same year, playing a handful of games with that club.  You were also involved in school musical productions.

52You commenced work that year as a street cleaner and garbage collector with the local council. The role continued each summer until a major accident occurred in 1983. The job with the council helped you pay for your books, uniform and travel costs.

53After high school you commenced a Bachelor of Science at Melbourne University, and you were the first to attend university from your family as I understand it. That year you were delisted from the football club.

54During your science degree you were drawn to the idea of teaching, specialising in mathematics due to your love of calculus and maths in general.  Also, you felt that pursuing teaching would better allow you to continue pursuing football and cricket career which you had been playing at a reasonably high level.

55During the summer of 1993 you were involved in a collision involving the garbage truck.  You were a passenger in the truck at the time and due to worn out brakes the driver attempted to stop the truck by wedging it between a brick wall and an iron girder.  As a result, you and another passenger suffered significant leg injuries with your left leg being trapped and crushed. You were freed after about seventy minutes.  Your colleague was in a worse condition and remained trapped for longer, ultimately having to have his leg amputated.  You suffered a compound fracture of your tibia and fibula and damaged your ankle. You spent almost seven weeks in hospital after two surgeries. Your lengthy hospital stay was necessary due to the complications with necrotic tissue.

56Despite your best efforts you continued to have issues with your recovery following your surgery. After removal of plaster, you were required to re-attend hospital for another seven to 10 days and have your plaster re-applied.  Further enquiries revealed that a bone graft was necessary which was performed in January 1984. This required a further ten-day stint in hospital. I was told at the sentence indication hearing that you have had ongoing problems with your ankle such that you will need a full ankle replacement in the not-too-distant future.

57You started a Diploma of Education at La Trobe University in 1984 during which time you continued to work on your physical recovery. You tried to remain in sport being part of the committee at a local football club. You experienced a void in not being able to play sport, especially at the level that you had been playing, and this hit you very hard. I understand that when you finally returned to cricket during the 1984/1985 season you were experiencing increasing pain and you were playing in a much lower grade.

58At this point you moved away from your respective football and cricket clubs and started drinking heavily on weekends. You were struggling to come to terms with your situation being a person who used to be extremely active, fit and healthy.

59After you completed your diploma, you accepted a role at the school where the offending took place, teaching maths and science. Despite your physical issues you were still hopeful of being able to play football again. You played cricket again joining a local side and ultimately joined the committee of the club and then became president for three years.  You were also vice president of another sports club for two years at around the same time.

60In relation to your teaching, you were allocated a Year 12 maths class in 1986 and continued to teach Year 12 maths until you resigned from teaching in 1993.

61In about 1989/1990, when the curriculum in maths changed, you volunteered to lead the process to define a specific stream. You found this period very challenging and demanding and began to feel overloaded.  You had also realised that given your physical issues due to the truck accident there was no realistic chance of you playing football and that your cricketing capacity was reduced. Your ankle became consistently worse despite you seeing multiple orthopaedic surgeons with none wanting to intervene.

62I was told that you felt trapped and that this exacerbated weekend drinking.  At around this time your general practitioner in regional Victoria referred you to a local psychologist as he was concerned about your 'body language and demeanour.'  Your counsel said in his written submissions that now you realised that you had limited self-awareness at the time and internalised your issues which resulted in not persevering with the psychologist.

63In about mid-1990 you started a Graduate Diploma of Computing, completing this in 1992. While this did not help with your feelings of being overwhelmed, it provided you with the hope of pursuing an alternative career path.

64In 1993 you required inner ear surgery due to suffering loss of hearing in your left ear. This stemmed from an incident in the years before which had led to severe tinnitus.

65In 1993 after leaving teaching, you obtained work in the IT sector.

66You met your wife in late 1992 at a maths teaching conference at La Trobe University and you moved in together in approximately mid-1993.

67Since then, you have built a career in IT performing many roles.  More recently you have performed roles in account management and business development before being employed as a senior account executive for about 10 years. In this role you were required to travel regularly to the USA and Europe.

68Your last full-time job was with a medium sized boutique consultancy. Whilst in this employment, there was an incident which resulted in you suffering an injury to your knee which warranted a partial knee replacement initially and then a full knee replacement.

69I have read a character reference from the managing director of a company with whom you work and he spoke of your invaluable contribution to his business and he said that he trusted you to take on a number of tasks in the future, however, this would involve a need for you to travel interstate and overseas. He said that he was aware of the proceedings involving you in the court and he said that in his experience you were a person of high character.

70Your wife, who is in court in support of you, also spoke of your good character in her character reference. She also spoke of your contributions to the community, and to sport in particular, in a bid to promote the wellbeing of others. She spoke of your difficult upbringing which had inspired you to make these contributions. She said that you were deeply loving of your child and were highly conscious of issues such as gender equity in the workplace and of appropriate behaviour in the workplace. Obviously, this contrasts with your behaviour toward the victim in 1990, so it is good that you are now aware of these matters. However, she said that you had done a great deal to support female colleagues, family and friends to deal with poor behaviour toward them and had been pro-active in challenging such problematic behaviour.

71You are still married, having married 1997. You have a son who is now about 28 years old. You have two stepdaughters from your wife’s previous relationship. You describe your wife as being your greatest support and you have said that you do not think you could have survived the legal process without her support. You have described having had suicidal thoughts throughout the legal process and are concerned of how you might cope through this.

72In sentencing you I take into account the stage at which you pleaded guilty in all the relevant circumstances.  You conducted a contested committal hearing where the witnesses, including the victim, were subjected to cross-examination. You are not to be punished for running a contested committal hearing as this is your right and I accept that there were legitimate avenues for your defence to explore, including a draconian defence that was available as at the time of the offending in which you had engaged. However, subsequently, it was ascertained that it would be difficult to maintain such a defence which your counsel candidly accepted at a case assessment hearing before Judicial Registrar Phillips of this court.

73In all the relevant circumstances I allow for a fairly substantial discount in the sentence that you would otherwise receive as ultimately you have saved the witnesses, especially the victim, the time and trouble of giving evidence at a trial and you have saved the community the time and expense of such a proceeding.  Having said this, in view of your admissions to the police, it would have been open to you to offer to plead guilty to the offence for which I now sentence you at an earlier stage, but you did not offer to do so. Again, you are not to be punished for this, however, it is relevant in assessing your insight and remorse as at that time.

74In her character reference in support of you, your wife said that you are ashamed of your conduct as well as regretful and sincerely remorseful, which is evident from your lowered mood on a daily basis. Your counsel told me today that you understood the negative impact that the offending had upon the victim, and he referred to your record of interview where you spoke of your feelings of shame as well as your decision not to pursue further contact with the victim after the offending. Also, I factored in that at the time of the offending you have in hindsight said that you were not all that self-aware and in effect you were rather under-developed at that time, being a 28-year-old male.

75In all of the relevant circumstances, I accept that you are ashamed of and remorseful for your actions and you know that they were wrong.  You certainly conveyed to the community corrections assessing officer that you appreciated the impact on the victim in this matter. On the other hand, it took a sentencing indication in this court for you to plead guilty and the victim was subjected to extensive cross examination at committal, albeit on issues that were legitimate to pursue. In my view, your insightful remorse in respect of the seriousness of your offending and the impact on the victim is still a work in progress, although it must be said that you have come a good way overall.

76You entered a plea of guilty to this matter at a time when there is no longer a backlog of matters in this court due to COVID‑19; however, in the interests of a uniform approach where there might yet be a backlog due to COVID in the Magistrates Court, the law provides, and I have given you an appropriate allowance in accordance with Worboyes.

77In all the relevant circumstances, I assess your prospects of rehabilitation as being excellent. You have not re-offended in more than 30 years, and you had no prior criminal history at the time of the offending, with a minor subsequent matter. You have a solid work history, and you intend to pursue future employment. You are strongly supported in the community and have stable accommodation. You are developing appropriate insight and remorse into your offending and your risk of re-offending has been assessed as low. All these matters bode very well for your rehabilitation, and I need not place more than minimal weight on specific deterrence or protection of the community.

78It is also relevant that the offending in which you were engaged would no longer be regarded as criminal offending if it occurred today, albeit that I still find your conduct morally reprehensible, and if you behaved like this today you might well be dealt with by professional organisations in respect of your ethics and duty of care.  However, in all the relevant circumstances I place less than moderate weight on general deterrence and just punishment.

79In terms of sentencing practice, as your conduct would no longer be an offence, I was told that there is no current sentencing practice; however, I have been referred to a recent case of Ooms where the respondent was dealt with for four charges of sexual penetration of a child aged 16 or 17 years and who was under the care supervision or authority of the offender.  That offender was sentenced to a four- year community corrections order by a sentencing judge in this court.  The offence was a more serious offence than that to which you have pleaded guilty as the offending occurred in 2022 and the maximum penalty for the relevant offence was 10 years’ imprisonment. The more modern offence has an element of care supervision or authority with the Crimes Act providing that a child is under the care supervision or authority of a person if that person is the child’s teacher.  In that case of Ooms, the Director of Public Prosecutions appealed to the Court of Appeal arguing that the sentence imposed by the sentencing judge of this court was manifestly inadequate.

80However, it was held by the Court of Appeal that the sentence imposed was within the range open to the judge in the court below and the appeal was dismissed.

81I have also had regard to some sentencing statistics provided to me in respect of cases which were dealt with in 1990, 1991, 1994 and 1995.

82Sentencing practice is but one consideration when sentencing an offender and is not a controlling one. Having said this, it is noteworthy that our Court of Appeal has seen fit to reject a Director's appeal in relation to even more serious offending than yours, indicating that the community corrections order imposed in that case was within the range.

83Defence submitted that I ought to deal with this matter by way of a fine, however, I was of the view at the sentence indication hearing, and I am still of the view, that it is not appropriate to do so. I was told that a community correction order might hamper your ability to see your son who lives interstate and who has wellbeing issues, and I was told of your other travel plans and needs, however, it was acknowledged quite properly by your counsel that Community Corrections can give permission for such things to occur.

84The prosecution agreed that a community correction order is within the range, however, they submitted that you ought to be convicted because of the seriousness of the offending. If you were to be convicted your counsel submitted that this would negatively impact upon your ability to travel overseas which was something that you need to do both for work and family reasons.

85A finding of guilt in respect of the offence is something that you will have on your record and might well still impact these things. However, in all of the relevant circumstances, even though, as I say, I take a very dim view of the way that you behaved toward the victim, as you have not re-offended for an extensive period and in a bid for you to further rehabilitate and contribute to the community in the way that you have over a number of years now, I have decided that there is no utility in imposing a conviction.

86Further, it is not clear that the Sex Offender Registration Act applies to the offence you have committed, and in fact I take the view that it may well not. But in those circumstances where the position is not clear and having regard to the purposes set out in the relevant legislation, I am not prepared to make an order under that legislation.

87You have been assessed as suitable for a community correction order, and so this is what I intend to impose in your case:

88I am persuaded it is not necessary to impose a condition in relation to the Sex Offenders program in all the relevant circumstances.

89I can only place you on a community correction order with your consent so please listen carefully to the order that I propose.

90The community correction order would run for a period of 12 months.

91The conditions of the order would be as follows:

92Firstly, the mandatory terms that apply to all community correction orders are:

93You must not commit another offence for which you could be imprisoned during the time that the order is in force.

94You must comply with any obligation or requirement prescribed by Regulation 17 of the Sentencing Regulations 2011.

95You must report to and receive visits from the Secretary to the Department of Justice, or his or her delegate.

96You must report to the Sunshine Community Corrections Centre before 4 pm within two clear working days of today.

97You must let a community Corrections officer know within two clear working days of you changing your address or job.

98You must not leave Victoria without first obtaining permission to do so from the Secretary to the Department of Justice, or his or her delegate.

99You must obey all lawful instructions from and directions of the Secretary to the Department of Justice, or his or her delegate.

100The conditions that apply in addition to the mandatory terms that I have just referred to are:

Community Work

101You must undergo 75 hours of unpaid community work within the next 12 months.

102Up to 50 hours of this condition may be satisfied by the successful completion of the equivalent period of time of all or any of the treatment and rehabilitation conditions of this order.

Supervision

103You must be under the supervision of a community Corrections officer for a period of 18 months.

Treatment and Rehabilitation

Further, you must undergo mental health assessment and treatment including, but not limited to, mental health, psychological, neuropsychological and psychiatric treatment in a hospital or residential facility, as directed by the regional manager.

104Now having explained those conditions and the order that I propose, do you consent to the terms and conditions of the community correction order?

105OFFENDER:  Yes, Your Honour.

106HER HONOUR:  You can stand up at this stage, thank you.  I should tell you that if you do not comply with all of the requirements of this community correction order then you will face breach proceedings before me. You will be sentenced in relation to the breach, and you will be re-sentenced in relation to the charge, in which case you may well be sentenced to a period of imprisonment. I would regard a breach of the community correction order as a most serious matter, whether it be because of further offending or because of non-compliance with any of the other conditions of the order.

107Do you understand this?

108OFFENDER:  Yes, Your Honour.

109HER HONOUR:  Do you still consent to the order?

110OFFENDER:  Yes, Your Honour.

111HER HONOUR:  I should also tell you that you have the right to apply to the court, as do other interested parties, for variation of the community correction order.

112In relation to the charge, without conviction, you are sentenced to a community correction order in the terms and conditions that I have just set out.

113I will ask your counsel to assist you with the signing of the community correction order, but I will indicate that if not for your plea of guilty I would have imposed a sentence of imprisonment of two years, to be suspended during an operational period of two years. Yes, thank you.

114MR LASCARIS:  Your Honour, if I may, one small matter. When you were indicating the length of the Corrections order, it was indicated that it was a 12-month order - - - 

115HER HONOUR:  It should be 12 months, yes.

116MR LASCARIS:  And then on the condition of supervision it was said there was 18 months - - - 

117HER HONOUR:  Sorry. No, it should be 12 months.

118MR LASCARIS:  Thank you, Your Honour.

119HER HONOUR:  Yes, thank you.

120MR LASCARIS:  Nothing further.

121HER HONOUR:  I will amend my remarks.

122MR LASCARIS:  If I may approach Mr Henderson, Your Honour, to have that signed.

123HER HONOUR:  Yes. Take a seat please, sir. Is there anything further arising?

124MR LASCARIS:  No, Your Honour.

125MR ALBERT:  No, Your Honour.

126HER HONOUR:  Thank you for your assistance, counsel, we will now adjourn.

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