Director of Public Prosecutions v Hindes

[2022] VCC 2362

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

AT Melbourne

CRIMINAL DIVISION

Revised
Not Restricted
Suitable for Publication

Case No. CR-20-00477

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

LAUREN HINDES

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE MULLALY
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	7 April 2022
DATE OF SENTENCE:	13 April 2022
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Hindes
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2022] VCC 2362

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:CRIMINAL LAW – Sentence

Catchwords:              Plea of guilty – Assist offender   

Cases Cited:Worboyes v The Queen [2021] VSCA 169; Boulton v The Queen [2014] VSCA 342

Sentence:                  2 year and 6 month community correction order 

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the DPP	Mr M. Fisher	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Mr S. Hooper	Mr M. Amad Richard Revill Lawyers

HIS HONOUR:

1Lauren Hindes, from around the middle of August 2019 you commenced a relationship with a man named Shane Cochrane.  You had met him through mutual friends.  Mr Cochrane had a significant criminal history and most particularly an appallingly bad record of serious driving offences. 

2You in contrast had never in the past been in any trouble with the law. 

Background

3Mr Cochrane had been in prison from time to time, but upon his release took up using drugs.  You also used drugs from time to time, but you escalated your drug use once you were in a relationship with Mr Cochrane.  In short, your life became chaotic.  It seems to contrast to how you had been living up to meeting Cochrane.  Fortunately, you have returned to and resumed your more settled, lawful lifestyle.  I will say more of this later.

4

As I said, you had been involved with Cochrane for a few weeks at most before this totally avoidable and tragic set of circumstances unfolded on

29 August 2019.  On that day, Cochrane was driving an associate's car, and he dropped another associate to his home in Bayswater.  You were a passenger in that car.  Ultimately, around 9.40 pm Cochrane was driving west along

Wellington Road towards the vicinity of Monash University.  There was no doubt he was driving over the speed limit.

5

But that night the victim, Nisali Perera was studying at Monash University.  As her parents in their heartbreaking victim impact statement made clear,

Ms Perera was a thoroughly decent, hard-working young woman with a bright future ahead of her.  She was just 20 years old.  She was taking the opportunity to secure and perhaps enhance her career by studying and securing a degree in commerce in Australia. 

6Her emotional wellbeing was, it seems, well and truly secured by her deep family connections.  She was much loved by her family, who now miss her terribly.  As was said in the victim impact statement made by her mother, and I will return back to this:

Nisali was our only child.  From the day she was born to our family, she brought us joy and happiness.  We took care of her as if our lives depended on her.  As the only child, she had our full attention of my husband and myself.

7She then says with great profoundness: 'We really adored her'.

8Having finished a long, it seems, solid day and night of studying, Ms Perera was on her way home, a short walk from Monash University.  She had in fact crossed part of Wellington Road, having pushed the pedestrian button, and walked to the midway point; that is across the eastbound lanes, and she waited there, again pressing the button for the pedestrian lights in order for her to cross safely with the green signal across the westbound lanes of Wellington Road.  She of course thought, or assumed, that this was the safe way to cross the road. But it was not.  Far from it, because Cochrane was driving at high speed in the near vicinity. 

9

When the green man signal came on, indicating to Ms Perera she could cross the westbound lanes, other traffic facing the red light slowed to stop. 

Cochrane did not.  He moved quickly across three lanes of traffic and drove through the clearly red light facing him at high speed.  The lights had been red for 12 seconds, an astonishing period for Cochrane to have simply sped through these lights.  This was blatant irresponsible and dangerous behaviour.

10Ms Perera who had, as I said, almost walked across safely the three or so lanes of the westbound traffic, was but 2 or so metres from the safety of the footpath when she was hit by Cochrane's car.  Such was the speed, and thus the force at which she was struck, that she was hurtled 60 metres along Wellington Road.  She stood no chance, and died instantly. 

11If all that appalling behaviour by Cochrane was not bad enough, he added a further callous element, by driving off in order to avoid the obvious consequences.  It was not the first time he had behaved like this, having a number of prior convictions for failing to stop after being involved in a motor vehicle accident.  His homicidal driving behaviour and failing to stop ultimately saw him sentenced by another County Court judge to a total effective sentence of 10 years with a non-parole period of eight.

12You have pleaded guilty to assisting Cochrane to avoid detection, the formal charge is that you knowing or believing in Shane Cochrane to be guilty of a serious indictable offence, namely culpable driving, without lawful authority or reasonable excuse, did acts with the purpose of impeding the apprehension, prosecution, conviction or punishment of the said principle offender, Shane Cochrane.  

13What occurred was that after this horrific scenario of hitting Ms Perera, and then Cochrane driving off, turned out the impact meant that the car was damaged, and after a few kilometres or so could not be driven any further. 

14Cochrane and you attempted to empty the car of things identifying the two of you as being the ones involved in the fatal collision.  But in fact you left your work identification lanyard, making detection of you that much more straightforward.  A mobile phone was left in the car by the associate who had been dropped off earlier, and it was left in the car by you and Cochrane when you endeavoured to empty the car and head away.

15Once out of the car, what occurred was that a ride share car was summonsed, using the DiDi ride share app.  You called or entered all the details into that phone application, you did this around 9.55 pm.  This was your principal act of assisting the offender by impeding his apprehension.  There were other acts, such as buying items at a supermarket later, and also by removing items from the car.  You were taken to an area near an associate's house, and after being dropped off you and Cochrane went to that house where Cochrane had another car, and you and Cochrane then evaded detection for about five days, staying at places associated with Cochrane.

16You were arrested, it seems, on 3 September and interviewed on 4 September.  In your interview you admitted you were the passenger in the car driven by Cochrane that struck the deceased.  You told police in a number of answers that you had tried to get Cochrane to stop and hand himself in, but he would not.  You made no comment to questions regarding calling the DiDi ride share company.  You were then charged with assisting or impeding the apprehension of Cochrane.  You were remanded in custody, the first time that you had ever been in custody. 

17You were granted bail on 5 September, having spent three days or thereabouts in custody.  One of the conditions of bail was not to contact Cochrane.  Cochrane was charged with culpable driving and other offences including failing to stop and render assistance.  He was remanded in custody. 

18On 11 September Cochrane wanted to speak with you, and arrangements were made with other associates which meant that you did speak to him, first by two phones being held together, and later on the same day three further telephone calls.  This breached your bail condition, though it is clear it was Cochrane who used others to enable the calls to you.  But you participated in them, and the prosecution says the content of those calls indicates your connection to Cochrane and the relationship that you had with him.  You have pleaded guilty to breaching your bail conditions by that contact.

Sentence

19As was raised as a sentence indication before me some days ago, the crime of assisting an offender can be committed via a significant range of acts, and the circumstance of the offence contemplate a wide variety of particulars.  Although not a common crime, often when the offence is charged, the circumstances are grave, with the offender assisting, for example, someone who has killed or murdered someone to dispose of the body, or the weapon, or critical evidence, or by cleaning the murder scene, or hiding the principal offender in some unlikely or remote place. It was accepted by the prosecution that the acts of assistance here on the night of the offending, being ringing the ride share, clearing out the car and then later buying some supplies at the supermarket were at the lower end, and ultimate apprehension of Cochrane and yourself was almost inevitable. 

20It was not put that your failure to report the matter to Cochrane was an element of the offence, but it provides a context that for five days you did not bring to the authorities attention by going to the police and indicating that it was you and Cochrane who were involved.  Your counsel has put it that it is in the interview that you made to the police that you wished to do this a number of times, you contacted the police but did not go through with it, you contacted your family with the consideration of going to the police.  You wanted to do so for some reason with Cochrane together with you, he was not going to do that, and ultimately your intention to do it on your own was not borne out, because within the hour the police came and arrested you.  I take all that into account.

21The gravity of your crime cannot be overwhelmed by the obvious and dreadful seriousness of Cochrane's crimes.  What you did must be seen in the context of Cochrane's role in leaving the scene, and attempting to avoid his apprehension.  He was a seasoned criminal, who had fled from collisions before.  Appallingly in this case he did so again, where it was obvious to him and to you, given what you had seen of the deceased being struck and thrown down the road.  It was obvious that there were consequences for him.  You assisted him and you now have to face the consequences. 

22I do accept that you tried to get him to hand himself in, and it was a very difficult situation that you found yourself in.  But the right thing to do was to immediately call the police, not a ride share, to get a car to enable Cochrane to continue to flee.  I accept that you know that now, and have so for some time.  Your shame and remorse is considerable and genuine, and so it should be. 

23Detection of those like Cochrane who have committed such serious crimes, of taking the life of a young woman, and plunging her family into life changing grief is so important that those who assist must expect punishment, deterrence and denunciation are paramount. 

24

However, sentencing is not only about the gravity of the offending behaviour.  Individualised sentencing requires a synthesis of those factors, and various matters personal to the offender and other policy considerations.  But before turning to those matters, I wish to expand upon the impact of these crimes upon

Ms Perera's family.  I do this without losing sight of the fact that their deep pain is due to the loss of their daughter as a consequence of Cochrane's crime of

culpable driving. 

25I repeat that from the victim impact statement, the first things that are said by her parents is that she was their only child.  That she brought them joy and happiness.  That they really adored her.  It stressed that she was a promising child, performed well in her studies and gained entrance to Monash University in Australia.  The mother feels, and should not be made to feel but does, some sense of guilt or responsibility that she did not say stay in Sri Lanka.  Rather, she allowed her daughter to fulfill her dreams and accomplish her life independently by coming to Australia. 

26She points out the irony of the situation is that Nisali had a strong belief that Australia was a very safe country, and she could walk on the road at any time of the day.  But very regrettably, she had to end her life in the same country of which she had immense faith.  She goes on to say that her only child is now gone for good.  Words are not enough to describe the emotional distress and anguish that has befallen her and her husband.  She speaks about the importance in Sri Lanka, where they live, of an extended family.  That is daughters, and if they marry, their husbands and children, remaining very connected to their parents and supportive of them as they age. 

27This is an ongoing and now uncertain future for her parents, a dilemma that causes very significant problems, that is it drives her mother towards absolute despair.  They do not have the same life that they had, far from it, they do not enjoy the things they used to. They have started to seek solace in religious events, it is hoped that they might find it. 

28But to return to your personal circumstances.  You are now 35 years old, you were 33 at the time.  Your upbringing was in a close and decent family.  You reached Year 11 at high school before leaving to commence a hairdressing apprenticeship.  You have worked mainly in customer service roles thereafter.  You were working at the time of your offending, but resigned because of the shame at the circumstances.  You have a teenage son, who you have worked hard to raise and support on your own.  You have formed a new solid relationship with a partner well different to Cochrane.  You are 21 weeks pregnant, and both you and your partner have plans to purchase land, build a house, and raise your children in the same loving way you were raised.  Your prospects to resume your lawful lifestyle are very solid.

29That is evidenced by your commitment to put the sort of lifestyle you had with Cochrane well behind you, by seeking out in-patient residential rehabilitation followed by out-patient drug and alcohol treatment with or under the auspices of Eastern Health at the Turning Point Addiction Unit.  This was taken up by you in June 2020.  I am told that you have put drugs completely behind you.  Making yourself now free of drugs is something to your credit.

30Much earlier than June 2020, that is in September 2019, just really a short time after this event, you sought out psychological treatment.  The report from your treating psychologist, Ms Wallis, was very helpful, indicating that you have had ongoing therapy despite the difficulties during the COVID lockdowns.  Ms Wallis wrote that she believed from her ongoing engagement with you, and involving in the cognitive behaviour therapies and so on, that she had engaged in, she concluded that you were devastated and remorseful for what had occurred.  She considered that at the time that you did what you did on 29 August you were in shock and panic, and went into fight or flight mode.  You are remorseful and have stated it so to Ms Wallis for what occurred. 

31You have been provided with, and you have taken up, and will continue to take up specific solution focussed therapy to deal with the symptoms that are associated with the circumstances that you presented with.  You have a supportive counselling framework, and you have responded well to the intervention that has been provided, and it has made a positive impact on your mood and well-being.  You have commenced your new relationship, you commenced the residential rehabilitation.  Ms Wallis says she has met with you, your parents and your partner, and says those people care for you and Ms Wallis believes your parents to be respectable and well-balanced, and they are supportive of you, which gives hope for the future.  She says that she intends, that is Ms Wallis, to continue working with you, and monitor, and provide you with ongoing solution strategies. 

32There is other evidence of remorse, such as that expressed in the letter by the family member, your uncle, who wrote

I am aware of the charges Lauren has before the court, and I have had the opportunity to discuss these charges with her on several occasions over the past 18 months, and she's expressed to me her remorse and shame, and that has made her reflect and reset her life and priorities.

33He says you have learned one of the hardest lessons in life and he believes you have now turned your life around, devoting more time to your family and being a better person that can contribute back to the community. 

34

In my view, when someone without a criminal history asks to be given a

second chance, the community is keen to see that there is genuine remorse and solid efforts already undertaken to resume the lawful lifestyle.  That is the case here.  These aspects that tend towards giving someone a second chance are further enhanced if the crime can be seen as an aberrant unplanned behaviour that is speedily regretted.  In your circumstances of shock and under the influence of the crime-hardened Cochrane, you made bad, dreadful mistakes which you are profoundly ashamed about now.  The risk of reoffending is very small, the hard lessons of being in the criminal justice system for a number of years has and will continue to operate as a deterrent to you.

35Other factors are important in this case.  The delay, mainly caused by the pandemic in having this matter resolved has meant that it has been hanging over your head for years.  Importantly, as I have already indicated, you have used this time well while under strict bail conditions to recover lawful ways and rehabilitate, or as your uncle said, reset your life. 

36Beyond that, your plea of guilty in the circumstances where the criminal justice systems remains in crisis must be met with greater mitigatory benefits than in the past.  The Court of Appeal in Worboyes v The Queen [2021] VSCA 169 made this crystal clear; the benefit to someone like you who pleads guilty, relieving witnesses and the court system of the heavy burden of a difficult trial by jury must be, that is the benefit must be at a level that is palpable to you. It must operate to encourage others who are guilty to plead guilty. The trial lists and the backlog are still in a state described by the Court of Appeal as beleaguered. The utilitarian benefit can, and in this case does, mean not just the lower length of any gaol sentence, but a sentence of a different type.

37The Court of Appeal on Boulton v The Queen [2014] VSCA 342 made clear that community corrections orders are no soft options. They enhance prospects of rehabilitation by keeping families together and thus offenders in stable circumstances and under the influence of right-minded people, not criminals that would be encountered in prison. That is very much the case here. A community corrections order can now be in imposed where in the past significant or terms of imprisonment were imposed, even at what is described as mid-level, which I take to mean years of imprisonment for serious crimes.

38This is a case where a community corrections order imposing punishment is, in my view, just and appropriate.  Importantly, given your pregnancy, gaol would be very onerous indeed at the moment.  The prosecution with great fairness recognised this and submitted that an onerous community corrections order was within the appropriate exercise of sentencing discretion.  That is all said and accepted, and I say it, notwithstanding that this is serious offending.  Your own counsel urged a community corrections order, and I indicated earlier that I would impose a community corrections order, but I did so only after anxious consideration. 

39Given your own rehabilitation with respect to drug use and your ongoing efforts to stabilise your mental health, there was no indication that there should be further corrections mandated or supervised programs relating to drug use and mental health.  It seemed to me that a work only community corrections order was all that was required as a proportionate sentence for your offending. 

40In respect of Charge 1 which is the assisting the offender, obviously this is the most serious matter, and I with conviction order that you be placed on a community corrections order that will run for two years and six months.  The program condition that is required of you is that you do 220 hours of unpaid community work during the period of time of that community corrections order.

41

In respect of the bail offence, I indicate that the breach of bail offence is to be punished by the same community corrections order, I will not make a

second one.  Obviously the breach of bail is not as serious as the charge itself, it will be one single community corrections order.  I note that you have served, I think it was said three days, or two days, pre-sentence detention before you were released on bail.  That is not included in the sentence that I have just announced, it is not ignored, because if you breach the community corrections order it can be taken into consideration there.  But it is not appropriate, in my view, to so tailor the sentence to the minute detail of imposing a sentence of imprisonment, but only two days that you have served on remand, that in my view is not an appropriate sentencing order. 

42

The sentencing order is that you must do the community corrections order for

two years and six months, and in addition to the usual standing conditions you must do 220 hours of unpaid community work.  But had you pleaded not guilty to these offences and been found guilty of them, I would have imposed a sentence of 20 months with a non-parole period of 12 months imprisonment.  I do not intend to make any order with respect to your licence, given the circumstances of the bail, conditions that were imposed upon you and the fact that your offending is subsequent to the driving of Cochrane.  Is there any further order required?

43MR FISHER:  No, there's not Your Honour.  Thank you.

44HIS HONOUR:  Mr Hooper?

45MR HOOPER:  No, Your Honour.  Thank you. 

46

HIS HONOUR:  Ms Hindes, I speak directly to you, because if you were in court you would be given a document that sets out the community corrections order, and you would sign it.  So I will just go through those conditions so that you understand, and if you consent that will be noted as your oral consent at this virtual hearing.  I just pause for a moment, because you have got to report to a

community corrections office, you currently live in Glen Waverley, I assume that the community corrections office is Dandenong, but I will be corrected if there is another one. 

47

But what you are required to do is the following, and I am going to outline the first and most important condition that applies to everyone on a community corrections order.  And that is you must not commit an offence punishable by imprisonment during the length of the community corrections order, which is

two years and six months from now.  So every offence you can imagine is punishable by imprisonment really so, you know, if you shop, just take a can of whatever at the service station, or drive off without paying for petrol, but also if you drive when you do not have a licence, that could be a situation if you are disqualified, that you could be punished by imprisonment.  So what you have to do is just not commit any offence, certainly not within the next two years and six months.  If you do, you will come back to my court for the breach of that, and the mercy that has been shown will not be repeated.

48The next thing is that you – there are a range of things, you have got to cooperate with the office of corrections.  You have got to report to them within two clear working days, so take this up tomorrow, and contact them, and get started on this order. 

49

The next thing is that you have got to tell them of any change of address or change of employment, you have got to get permission from them to leave the

State of Victoria, that is any crossing of any of our borders, even if it is just for a short time, you have just got to get permission.  You have got to obey their lawful directions, and they will all be lawful; just cooperate with them. 

50And importantly, other than those standard conditions, the conditions that are critical to you is that program condition of doing 220 hours of unpaid work.  That is no easy feat.  You should just simply get onto doing it as soon as possible, and work with them to get an appropriate level of community work done in whichever way they are doing.  Be mindful, Ms Hindes, that maybe not everyone on corrections orders that do community work, if you have got to do it with them, will have the same dedication towards their reform that I detect in you. 

51Please, you must not get tempted back into a lifestyle that you have left behind.  Should you do that, then you will commit offences, you will not turn up for the community corrections order, you will come back before me and all that I have said about a merciful sentence will be out the door, and likely you will be in court and go out another door.  Do you follow that?

52OFFENDER:  Yes, Your Honour.

53HIS HONOUR:  All right, having heard all that, and tell me if you need time, do you consent to doing this corrections order, and if so, I will sign orders and indicate that you consented.

54OFFENDER:  Yes, I consent.

55HIS HONOUR:  Thank you.  All right.  Is Dandenong the right place Mr Hooper do you know?  Mr Fisher?

56MR HOOPER:  Not sure Your Honour, sorry.

57MR FISHER:  Neither am I Your Honour, I think - it sounds right Your Honour.

58HIS HONOUR:  It is, I am told by my staff, it is not a thing that I tell you weeks before that we are going to get a corrections order, no one knows where she has got to ring up, but anyway.  Including me.  But my staff do, so they will be called and she will have to call them, we have already notified them apparently.  All right, the orders will be forwarded, I thank counsel for their considerable assistance in this case, which was not easy.

59MR HOOPER:  Thank you.

60MR FISHER:  As the court pleases.

61HIS HONOUR:  Thank you.  Head away, I'm just going to talk to my staff.

62MR HOOPER:  May it please the court.

63HIS HONOUR:  Thank you.

64MR FISHER:  As Your Honour pleases.

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