Director of Public Prosecutions v Heta
[2025] VCC 116
•13 February 2025
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION
CR 24-01707
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| COREY HETA |
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JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE KELLY |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne |
DATE OF HEARING: | 13 February 2025 |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 13 February 2025 |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Heta |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2025] VCC 116 |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject: CRMINAL LAW
Catchwords: Attempted Armed Robbery — Scissors — Drug abuse — Hallucinations — Psychotic — Positive prospects of rehabilitation — Early Plea — Genuine Remorse — Verdins principles — Bugmy principles
Legislation Cited: Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic)
Cases Cited:Byast v The Queen [2021] VSCA 344; R v Verdins (2007) 16 VR 269; Bugmy v The Queen (2013) 249 CLR 571; Le v The Queen [2019] VSCA 299; DPP v Nihal [2020] VCC 337
Sentence:9 months imprisonment followed by an 18-month community correction order.
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Director of Public Prosecutions | Ms C. Pezzimenti | Office of Public Prosecutions |
For the Accused | Ms L. Andrews | Daniel Taylor Lawyers |
HIS HONOUR:
1 Corey Heta, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of attempt to commit an indictable offence, namely, armed robbery, the maximum penalty for which is 20 years' imprisonment.
2 Your offending was summarised by the prosecutor at your plea hearing. On the night of 4 January 2024, you were waiting at a bus stop and taxi rank on
Franklin Street, Traralgon. You were observed acting erratically, speaking to yourself and walking aggressively back and forth muttering to yourself.
3 At approximately 10.03, your victim, Mr Gregory Evans, attended the corner of Franklin Street and Post Office Place and waited next to the bus stop for his father to pick him up after work. Mr Evans noticed you about 20 to 30 metres away, sitting at the bus stop speaking to yourself.
4 At about 10.04 pm, having removed your shirt, you approached Mr Evans and told him to 'Walk on', or words to that effect. Mr Evans moved a short distance away and you returned to the bus stop. About a minute later you again approached Mr Evans, brandishing a pair of scissors which you held at head height. You stood about a metre away from him and told him, 'Give me your phone and money or I'm going to stab you in the neck'. This forms part of Charge 1, attempted armed robbery.
5 In response, Mr Evans moved away from you and went further down
Post Office Place. You sat down at a park bench. At about 10.07 pm, you again approach Mr Evans, standing approximately 1 to 2 metres away from him and brandishing a sharp weapon at his head you told him, 'If you don't give me your phone and money I'm going to stab you in the neck'. This conduct forms part of Charge 1, attempted armed robbery.
6 You then told Mr Evans to 'Walk on' and leave you alone. You continued to follow him further down Post Office Place as he fled you. You pursued him saying, 'Move on' and leave me alone. Mr Evans found himself in the middle of the road. His father, Robert Evans, arrived in his car and rescued him from your attentions. A nearby driver, Mr Luca Cartello, witnessed these events and contacted Triple 0. Mr Evans and his father attended the Traralgon police station to report the incident.
7 At about 10.13 pm police attended the Franklin Street bus stop and located you in the foyer of a nearby Commonwealth Bank. You were arrested and police seized two pairs of scissors from you. You were transported to Traralgon police station where a formal interview was commenced but terminated after
10 minutes due to concerns about your capacity to be interviewed.
8 I was provided with a psychological report by Ms Megan Rogers dated
4 January 2024, which summarises your personal circumstances. You are
36 years old, the eldest of two children, Trent and Loretta Heta. You reportedly had a turbulent relationship with your father who drank to excess. You have not seen your sister in many years, reportedly due to her own struggles with addiction.
9 You spent the first 10 years of your life in Melbourne where your family frequently moved around before your family eventually relocated to Sale. You were evicted from the family home when you went to live in youth accommodation in Bairnsdale.
10 As a result of your family's frequent moves you attended several different schools in the northern suburbs of Melbourne before attending the
Guthridge Primary School and Sale College. Due to untreated ADHD you struggled in school, reporting frequent behavioural issues which resulted in bullying by and physical altercations with other students.
11 You left school in Year 9 and started working at a local IGA. You have also worked as a farmhand and in various hospitality roles. In 2019 to 2020 you worked as a lived experience peer support worker at the Latrobe Regional Hospital and you enrolled in a social work degree at Monash University.
12 Your exposure to illicit substances commenced with your consumption of inhalants at the age of 12 and evolved to the consumption of cannabis, which by the age of 15 became a regular habit. You also began to consume amphetamines from the age of 17.
13 Following the breakdown in your marriage in 2020 you commenced using methylamphetamine and alcohol. Your parents followed the Mormon faith and this was a religion that made important to you throughout your life reconnecting with the church at the age of 19 and becoming a church leader.
14 You have had two significant romantic relationships in your life. At the age of 18 you had a brief relationship with a woman named Natesha, who gave birth to a child name Shelby. I am told you were not aware of the pregnancy and you have since had limited contact with your daughter over social media.
15 At the age of 24 you met your future wife, Mary-Lou, through the
Mormon Church. You were married in 2015. However, in 2020 the relationship ended when you discovered Mary-Lou had been unfaithful to you. It was submitted to me that this discovery was the catalyst for a spiral which ultimately led to this offending. You left the church and lost your faith.
16 You have struggled with a number of mental impairments, having been admitted to hospital for a drug-induced psychosis at the age of 14. You are currently diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder for which you were prescribed antipsychotics and depot injections from the age of 18.
17 Ms Andrews, on your behalf, submitted that due to your excellent prospects of rehabilitation and the significant mitigating factors relevant to your circumstances, I ought to impose a combined sentence of imprisonment with time served and a community correction order.
18 Ms Pezzimenti, for the prosecution, conceded that a combined sentence is within range but it is submitted that general deterrence and community protection have a role to play in determining the ultimate disposition.
19 Ms Andrews conceded in written submissions that the offending is serious. However, she submitted that your offending falls at the lower end of seriousness due to the following factors:
(a) it was unsophisticated and lacked any planning;
(b) you did not attempt to conceal your identity;
(c) your interactions with your victim were of short duration;
(d) your offending occurred in public;
(e) you were armed with a pair of household scissors;
(f) you were compliant with police upon your arrest.
20 Ms Andrews further submitted that your offending took place during a time when you were homeless and had been for more than three years. You had been abusing alcohol, cannabis and methylamphetamine and described experiencing auditory and visual hallucinations. You were assessed as being 'quite actively psychotic' the following morning at the Latrobe Regional Hospital mental health and vice and response service.
21 Your offending would have been alarming to your victim. You continued to follow him despite his attempts to move away from you. You approached him four times. I have had regard to the victim impart statement provided to me and acknowledgment the long-lasting effects that your offending has had on his ability to feel safe in public spaces.
22 Your offending was chaotic and in effect took place in public and was witnessed by a bystander who called the police. The objective gravity of your offending is in the low to mid-range.
23 Ms Andrews submitted that you have excellent prospects of rehabilitation.
I accept that until the breakdown of your marriage you had had no exposure to the criminal justice system. That is significant. You have been abstinent from drugs and alcohol for much of your adult life and that too is a positive.
24 You had been homeless for three years when you offended against Mr Evans and you were psychiatrically unwell. Since then you have spent over a year in prison. You have been medicated and your condition is stable and well maintained by the depot injections administered to you each month. This is your first time in custody and you have used your time well.
25 Ms Andrews submitted perhaps surprisingly that this experience has been beneficial for you, acting as a kind of circuit breaker. Indeed, that is what you told the Office of Corrections when they assessed you. It is a sorry reflection of the care we provide to the most vulnerable in our community that a year in custody can be regarded as a form of respite to a man with a schizoaffective disorder living on the streets, but there you go.
26 Several certificates were tendered at your plea confirming your completion of courses whilst on remand. You demonstrated to Ms Rogers an insight into the cause of your offending and considerable victim empathy when speaking to Caitlin Mihali from Morwell Community Correctional Services. You told her that upon your release from custody you intend to avoid Traralgon Plaza because you know that Mr Evans may be there and you want him to go about his life feeling safe. You accept that seeing you again is likely to be traumatic for him and you intend to ensure you do not compound the harm you have done to him.
27 You have also taken steps to build a support network. You have repaired your relationship with your parents. Your father is now a teetotal. You have an NDIS caseworker who has prepared a plan to manage your transition back into the community in conjunction with the Restart Program. The caseworker attached to that program has been assigned to and they will work to secure short-term accommodation, assist you to attend medical appointments and facilitate the recommencement of your DSP payments.
28 Arrangements have been made to transfer your mental health treatment to a GP in Sale, who will administer your depot injections. Your parents are willing to have you live with them until supported accommodation can be sourced.
29 You were assessed by Community Corrections to determine your suitability to be placed on a CCO. You engaged well throughout your assessment and identified the underlying cause of your offending as homelessness. You were insightful and honest about your mental health, drug use and the fact that you had not been taking your antipsychotic medication when you offended against Mr Evans.
30 You told Ms Mihali that you had been using methylamphetamine intravenously in the 12 months before your arrest. You also told her as I have previously indicated that, 'Although prison isn't a good place it has been positive for me to have a circuit breaker and I am sober now'.
31 You were found suitable for a community correction order with the recommended conditions of unpaid community work, supervision, alcohol and drug dependency treatment and mental health treatment. You were previously placed on a community correction order by the Sale Magistrates' Court in
March 2022. You were homeless, drug affected and struggling with poor mental health at the time. You have sturdier scaffolding now, and there is cause for cautious optimism, notwithstanding that previous failure.
32 If you remain treatment compliant and your carers source long term accommodation for you and you remain drug free you should be able to complete a community correction order. There may be some back-sliding, but your prospects of rehabilitation are positive in light of the insight and shame you have expressed.
33 Ms Andrews submitted that you have pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity, sparing your victim the burden of giving evidence. Your plea is evidence of remorse, and has utilitarian benefit. You have expressed unambiguous, unvarnished remorse.
34 Ms Rogers writes that you, 'Expressed shame for your offending for which you offered no justification'. You have taken responsibility for your offending and your remorse is genuine.
35 Ms Andrews relied on the report of Ms Rogers and the mental health report of Mr David Thomas, to submit that a number of limbs of Verdins are engaged. You suffered a drug induced psychosis at the age of 14 which necessitated treatment and antipsychotic medication. Your health deteriorated to the point where you were diagnosed as having a schizoaffective disorder. This manifests in visual and auditory hallucinations. You have been hospitalised 17 times between 2005 and 2023.
36 In addition, Ms Rogers diagnosed you with substance abuse disorder and noted that you reported to her a diagnosis of ADHD from your childhood which appears to have remained untreated. There is some in support of the first limb. On the morning after you offended you were 'actively psychotic', given your hallucinations and delusional thoughts. However, the clinical picture is murky and it is not possible to distinguish between the effects of your schizoaffective disorder and your voluntary drug intoxication.
37 Ms Andrews ultimately conceded that the first limb could not be enlivened. It was nevertheless submitted that this court can take into account your schizoaffective disorder to reduce your moral culpability in the manner described in Byast.[1]
[1]Byast v The Queen [2021] VSCA 344.
38 In your case, as in Byast you were mentally impaired as a result of poor compliance with your antipsychotic medication and illicit substance abuse. Limb 1 is therefore not available to you but I am prepared to mitigate your moral culpability to some extent given your prolonged mental impairment.
39 As to the third limb, Ms Rogers in her report writes, 'Mr Heta's psychotic symptoms, including auditory and visual hallucinations, undoubtedly impair his capacity to exercise appropriate judgment to make calm and rational choices, to think clearly and to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct, obscuring his intention to commit the offence'.
40 This observation enlivens limb 3 to reduce the work of general deterrence in your case. The role of your schizoaffective disorder on your offending enlivens limb 4 to sensibly moderate the need for specific deterrence.
41 Ms Andrews submitted that your childhood is one marked by significant disadvantage and your moral culpability ought to be reduced in the general sense identified in Bugmy. You were exposed to alcohol from a young age. You were diagnosed with ADHD as a child. You turned to inhalants and cannabis by age 12 and left school by Year 9. You were evicted from your family home before you turned 15.
42 Ms Pezzimenti conceded that the principles enunciated in Bugmy are relevant to your circumstances.
43 I accept that your moral culpability is reduced as a consequence of your earlier exposure to alcohol abuse and violence.
44 Pursuant to s 5 of the Sentencing Act, the purposes for which you are to be sentenced are:
(a) to punish you in a manner and to an extent which is just in all the circumstances;
(b) to deter you or others from committing similar offences in future;
(c) to facilitate rehabilitation;
(d) to manifest the denunciation of your conduct;
(e) to protect the community; or
(f) the combination of two or more of these purposes.
45 I have also had regard to the comparative cases of Le v The Queen,9 and DPP v Nihal relied upon by Ms Andrews.10
46 Mr Heta, what I am proposing as part of your sentence is to record a conviction and place you on a community correction order for a period of 18 months from today's date. Before I ask you to consent to such an order being made I have to tell you a bit about the order, so you know what it means, all right.
47 ACCUSED: No worries, Your Honour.
48 HIS HONOUR: The following core conditions apply to all community correction orders. You must not commit, whether in order outside of Victoria during the period of the order, an offence punishable by imprisonment. You must report to and receive visits from the secretary to the Department of Justice during the period of the order. You must report to the Community Corrections Centre at Sale within two clear days following your release from custody. You must notify the Secretary or his or her nominee, that is a Correction worker of any change of address or employment within two clear working days after that change.
49 You must not leave Victoria, except with the permission of the Secretary to the Department of Justice or his or her nominee, that is a Correction case worker. You must comply with any direction given by the Secretary that is necessary for the Secretary to give to ensure that you comply with the order. In other words, you have got to follow the orders or the requests made by your case worker at the Office of Corrections.
50 There are a number of other conditions attached to this order and may apply to you. You have to perform 100 hours of unpaid community work over a period of 18 months as directed by the regional manager. One hundred hours of treatment and rehabilitation satisfactorily undertaken are to be counted as hours of unpaid community work for the purposes of the unpaid community work condition.
51 You must be under the supervision of a community correction officer for a period of 18 months. You are required to be supervised, monitored and managed as directed by the Secretary or his or her nominee. You must undergo assessment and treatment including testing for drug abuse or dependency as directed by the regional manager. You must undergo assessment and treatment, including testing for alcohol abuse or dependency as directed by the regional manager.
52 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.
53 So, if they make appointments for you to go and see a psychologist or a neuropsychologist or a psychiatrist you have to go to those appointments. Do you understand?
54 ACCUSED: Yep. Yes, Your Honour.
55 HIS HONOUR: You must undergo programs or courses aimed at addressing factors relating to the offending as directed by the regional manager. They will work out whether there are any offender specific programs that you could benefit from and if they do and they ask you to go to them you have got to go. Do you understand that?
56 ACCUSED: Yep. Yes, Your Honour.
57 HIS HONOUR: You must attend for review of your progress and compliance or otherwise with conditions of the order and you have got to come back before me on 13 May 2025 at 9.30. So, what happens then, that is called judicial monitoring and you will appear probably by screen and by that stage I will have had a report from Corrections, letting me know how you are travelling on the order. They will let me know whether you are doing any of the work. They will let me know whether you are turning up to appointments. They will let me know whether you are being compliant or not.
58 If you are not and they have said, look, we've tried with this bloke, he's just not answering his phone or he's not coming in or he's not going to appointments, they will institute what are called breach proceedings against you. And those breach proceedings may result in you being re-sentenced.
59 So, I will know how you are travelling on this order because you will from time to time be required to appear before me at 9.30 in the morning. All right.
60 ACCUSED: No worries, yep.
61 HIS HONOUR: I direct that I be advised by your Corrections Officer of any
non-compliance of these conditions and I will then determine if the matter should be brought back before me. I can only impose a community correction order if you agree to such an order being imposed, so I need to tell you a bit more about it.
62 If you contravene and breach the order by committing further offences you can be charged, and a sentence of imprisonment is one of the options that can be imposed for that breach. So, if you re-offend during the 18 months of the order that breaches the order and it means that I can then re-sentence you for the original offence. You can also be re-sentenced, one of the options available includes a term of imprisonment.
63 So, for those reasons you need to be very careful in the next 18 months. You cannot commit any further offences that might attract a term of imprisonment, otherwise you come back before me and you will fall to be re-sentenced on this charge. If you fail to comply with any direction of the Secretary of the Department of Justice, that is community corrections worker, a substantial fine can also be imposed. Now, are you aware of that?
64 ACCUSED: Yes, Your Honour. Yep.
65 HIS HONOUR: You understand all of that?
66 ACCUSED: Yes.
67 HIS HONOUR: And you consent to being put on a community correction order?
68 ACCUSED: Yes.
69 HIS HONOUR: Very well. I will ask you to stand now. On Charge 1, attempt to commit an indictable offence you are convicted and sentenced to a period of 9 months imprisonment followed by a community correction order for a period of 18 months.
70 You have currently served 405 days in pre-sentence detention. I declare
9 months of that is time served against the sentence I have imposed.
71 A disposal order has been sought by the prosecution for two pairs of scissors. That order is not opposed and I make the order in the terms sought.
72 Pursuant to s6AAA of the Sentencing Act, I declare that but for your plea of guilty I would have imposed a sentence of 15 months imprisonment followed by a community correction order of 18 months.
73 Now, anything arising?
74 MS PEZZIMENTI: No, Your Honour.
75 HIS HONOUR: Very well. Good luck, Mr Heta.
76 ACCUSED: Thank you.
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