Director of Public Prosecutions v Hill, Jade

[2013] VCC 694

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

AT MELBOURNE

CRIMINAL DIVISION

Revised
Not Restricted
Suitable for Publication

Case No. CR-13-00160

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

JADE HILL

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE RYAN
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	2 May 2013
DATE OF SENTENCE:	16 May 2013
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Hill, Jade
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2013] VCC 694

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:  
Catchwords:            
Legislation Cited:    
Cases Cited:            
Sentence:                

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the DPP	Ms C Sedgwick (Plea) Ms L Plummer (Sentence)	OPP
For the Accused	Mr S Payne (Plea) Ms J Black (Sentence)	Victoria Legal Aid

HIS HONOUR:

1       Jade Hill, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of armed robbery and one charge of attempted armed robbery.  The maximum penalty for armed robbery is 25 years imprisonment, whilst the maximum penalty for attempted armed robbery is 20 years imprisonment.

2       The facts that support the charges and the general circumstances surrounding the offences are set out in the prosecution opening that was read aloud in court and tendered as Exhibit A on the plea.

3       In summary, at 11.30am on 7 November 2012, you, together with another man, went to the Safeway Caltex service station on Johnston Street in Abbotsford.  You went inside the store to the automatic teller machine, said that it was not working, and left.  About an hour later you returned to the store armed with a screwdriver.  You approached the console operators and said “Give me all the money, otherwise I will jump over the counter and stab you ten times.”  You tried to climb over the counter through the security wire.  The console operators gave you the cash drawers, and you took the cash from the drawers.  You told the console operators “If you call the police I will come back and stab you both.”  (Charge 1.)

4       Thereafter you directed your attention to a customer in the store, and said “Give me your wallet or I’ll stab you.”  The customer told you “You’re not getting my wallet mate,” and backed away from you.  Shortly thereafter you left the store, but not before you did you told the console operators, for the second time, not to contact the police.(Charge 2)

5       The customer followed you out of the store, and you confronted him.  The customer had no intention of backing down.  You left after throwing some money at him.  The customer followed you to see where you were going.

6       Police attended the service station, and shortly thereafter you were arrested at the high-rise Housing Commission flats in Hoddle Street.  You were interviewed under caution, and made a full confession.  You told police that “I’ve been hangin’ out for a decent feed. I’ve been hangin’ out for decent drugs…and just a bit of time with me son- some quality time, you know what I mean”. You were remanded in custody, but bailed on 3 December 2012, which bail you breached, and it was revoked on 13 December 2012.  Accordingly, you have served 181 days by way of pre-sentence detention, not including today.

7       Played in court was Exhibit C on the plea: CCTV footage from the service station. The footage showed the events the subject of the charges on the indictment.  You are six feet eight inches tall, and strongly built.  To say that you menaced the console operators is an understatement.  The effects of your conduct on them are set out in the victim impact statements Exhibits D and E on the plea.  Both men go to work everyday fearful that they will be robbed again.

8       Armed robbery is a serious offence and the kind committed by you on a service station, a soft target staffed by hard working people going about their lawful business is an all too frequent occurrence in our community. You even turned your attention to a target of opportunity, a customer and attempted to rob him at screwdriver point.

9       You have eleven findings of guilt or prior convictions arising out of five appearances, which include convictions for violence and trafficking in cannabis.

10      Since being remanded in custody, your physical and mental health has improved; you say that you have never felt better.  You are under a regime of medications that treats your depression, predisposition to psychosis and stabilises your mood.  It seems that your psychiatric problems stem from your drug abuse which commenced at the age of fifteen with cannabis and thereafter progressed through a range of drugs including heroin, amphetamine and methylamphetamine.

11      You have been admitted to psychiatric units of various hospitals since the age of eighteen years.  You have been subject to Community Treatment Orders under the Mental Health Act.  The most recent of these resulted in an admission to a psychiatric unit in October 2012, only weeks before the commission of these offences.  Whilst in hospital your medication was changed and upon release you craved your previous medication and went on a drug binge which led to this offending.

12      Your childhood was marked by dislocation and abuse.  Your parents separated when you were about eighteen months old and you did not see your father again until you were twelve years of age. Thereafter, over time you developed a strong emotional bound with him. Your mother re‑partnered and your stepfather was violent towards you.  After leaving school in Year 9, you had some limited employment taking on an apprenticeship as a baker and pastry cook. This did not last long as you quickly developed a drug habit and spent the next five years on the street.

13      Your luck changed when you met and developed a strong and longstanding relationship with Chantelle Fitzgerald which has resulted in a child, Jonah, aged six years.  You are close to your son.  During the period of your relationship with Ms Fitzgerald, your drug abuse declined but not to a point where you were abstinent.

14      You gave evidence on your plea and gave naively frank and honest answers.  You demonstrated that you are a man of limited intelligence who has been adversely affected by his upbringing and the consequences of the abuse of illicit drugs.

15      Your time with Ms Fitzgerald, some ten years or so, was comparatively speaking, stable and relatively drug-free, although not free of crime.  You involved yourself in community activities, including coaching junior football.  You achieved some normality in your life.  You worked when you could as a bricklayer, in a bottle shop and painting.  You had a period of five years employment as a driver.  However, all that came to an end with the death of your father in 2010.  You reacted to this event by separating from Ms Fitzgerald and cutting her and your son completely out of your life. Your life then entered into a downward spiral. It seems, however, that shortly before the commission of the instant offences you had been in contact with your son who told you that he would not be seeing you for some time and this upset you greatly.

16      Your counsel relied upon the first, third and fourth principles set out in R v Verdins (2007) 16 VR 269 and, by doing so, submitted that your moral culpability was reduced which ought impact upon punishment and reduce the relevance of denunciation in your case. Additionally, he submitted that general and specific deterrence should be moderated.

17      You were at a low ebb at the time of your offending.  You had recently been released from a psychiatric unit and you were adversely affected by drugs voluntarily ingested by you.  You suffer from psychiatric disorders, but ones which are likely to stem from your drug abuse.  You had some limited insight into the causal connection between your drug abuse and your offending, but you had never before committed crimes of the seriousness of the crimes for which you fall to be sentenced today. Your ingestion of drugs cannot mitigate your offending and your limited insight into the causal relationship between your drug abuse and your offending as an aggravating circumstance is marginal.

18      I must sentence you as you stand before me today as a man aged 35 years who is of limited intellect and who suffers from psychiatric problems and a long history of drug abuse.  Specific and general deterrence should be moderated in your case. Your prospects for rehabilitation can only be described as guarded. Upon release you are hopeful of reuniting with your son and will have the support of your mother.

19      You confessed to police and pleaded guilty at the earliest stage and I am satisfied that your plea demonstrates remorse.  I must also recognise the utilitarian value of your plea. In my opinion you would benefit from a substantial period of time under the supervision of the Adult Parole Board

20      Taking into account the circumstances of the offences and their effects with your personal circumstances and antecedents, endeavouring to produce a sentence which reflects and promotes the aims of sentencing in a manner appropriate to you and your offending in respect of Charge 1, armed robbery, I sentence you to three years’ imprisonment.  In respect of Charge 2, attempted armed robbery, I sentence you to two years’ imprisonment.  I order that six months of the sentence imposed on Charge 2 be served cumulatively upon Charge 1, which results in a total effective sentence of three and a half years.  I fix a non-parole period of two years.

21      I declare that you have served 181 days by way of pre-sentence detention, not including today.

22 Pursuant to s6AAA of the Sentencing Act 1991, I declare that but for your plea of guilty, I would have sentenced you to four and a half years’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of three years. I make the disposal order in the terms as set out. Are there any other matters?

23      COUNSEL:  No, Your Honour.

24      HIS HONOUR:  Remove the prisoner, please. 

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