Director of Public Prosecutions v Huiling Guo (a pseudonym)

[2024] VCC 2086

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

AT MELBOURNE

CRIMINAL DIVISION

Revised
Not Restricted
Suitable for Publication

THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS	Prosecution
v
HUILING GUO (a pseudonym)	Defence

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE CAHILL
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	27 November 2024
DATE OF SENTENCE:	17 December 2024
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Huiling Guo (a pseudonym)
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2024] VCC 2086

SENTENCE
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Subject:Recklessly cause injury – Category 1 offence

Catchwords:              Early Guilty plea – limited criminal record – mid range offending – schizophrenic illness – likely psychotic – special reason

Legislation Cited:     Sentencing Act1991 (Vic)

Sentence:                  18 month CCO.

APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Ms Caust	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Defence	Mr J Bourke	Victoria Legal Aid

HIS HONOUR:

1Huiling Guo[1], you have pleaded guilty to one charge of recklessly cause injury contrary to section 18 of the Crimes Act1958 (Vic).

[1] A pseudonym.

2The maximum penalty is five years imprisonment.

Circumstances of offending [2]

[2] The circumstances of your offending are set out in the Prosecution Opening (Exhibit A). They are agreed facts.

3You have a history of mental illness. In the months leading up to your offending you were subject to a community treatment order to manage your mental health.

4On 6 June 2023, because you were refusing your medication, the Mental Health Tribunal made an inpatient treatment order.

5The next day, on 7 June 2023, a number of police went to your Noble Park address to assist ambulance officers to take you to hospital for treatment.

6You were home with your mother.

7When police arrived, your mother answered the door. When they asked for you, she went back inside.

8There was yelling, between your mother and you. Suddenly, you ran out the open door with a hammer and attacked the nearest police officer who was standing outside the door. You struck him several times. The first blow hit his right temple. When he raised his right arm to protect himself further blows struck his right shoulder and upper arm.

9Other police intervened to restrain you. They sprayed you with pepper spray and one of them struck you several times to the head with an OC cannister.

10Another police officer brought you to the ground and handcuffed you. [3]

[3] The episode was captured on police body board camera footage which I viewed, exhibits C (Elswyck) and D (Chapman).

11The injured police officer suffered a cut to his right temple and a minor concussion. He also suffered scratches and lacerations to his right arm and shoulder. [4]

[4] I was told he declined the invitation to make a victim impact statement.

12Your first blow caused a nasty laceration to his forehead. [5]

[5] Photos of injuries (Exhibit B).

13You suffered a laceration to your scalp.

14Police stopped the bleeding with paper towels and tissues and poured water on your face to wash away the pepper spray.

15You were not fit to be interviewed.

16Ambulance officers took you to Dandenong Hospital where you have remained an involuntary patient in its secure psychiatric unit.

17You were charged on summons and, following a committal case conference, you entered your plea to the charge on the indictment.

18A hospital social worker and occupational therapist brought you to court for your pre-sentence hearing.

Criminal record

19You have admitted a limited criminal record.

20In 2017 a Magistrate, at Dandenong, unconditionally dismissed a charge of threatening a police officer,[6]  arising from an incident which occurred in April 2014, when police came to your home to take you to a hospital after a community treatment order had been revoked. Initially, you confronted police with a meat cleaver, and then, you put it down and cooperated in your arrest. On that occasion no one was injured. [7]

[6] Under section 76 of the Sentencing Act.

[7] Victoria police LEAP summary of incident (Exhibit F).

Personal circumstances [8]

[8] Your personal circumstances as set out in the psychiatric report of Dr Nicholas Owens (Exhibit 2).

21You were born in December 1983 in mainland China. You are an only child.

22When you were eight years old your parents brought you to Australia.

23Your parents ran a stall at a local market. They worked hard. You went to local schools until year 12 and then completed a computer science degree at RMIT.

24You never found an IT job which suited you. You have had casual jobs delivering pizza and working for a phone company.

25In 2004, you met Linda, who was also a Chinese student studying at RMIT. You fell in love with her. After a year she broke up with you and returned to China. You couldn’t get over it.

26In 2008, your father took you to China to look for her. You found her but she did not want to be with you.

27In the same year, you were admitted to a psychiatric unit at the Alfred Hospital where you were diagnosed with delusional disorder and treated with antipsychotic medication.

28By November 2011, you were off treatment and acutely psychotic. You believed, delusionally, Linda was living in another apartment in your building and sending you signals to rescue her. On 18 November 2011, armed with a hammer and a knife, you broke into several adjoining apartments, terrifying the occupants, looking for her.

29Police arrested you. You later reported they had bashed you and, consequently, you have been scared of police ever since. [9]

[9] Ibid [131].

30On 1 December 2012, a jury found you not guilty of aggravated burglary by reason of mental impairment. A judge of this court placed you on a supervision order.

31You have been subject to voluntary and involuntary treatment for your mental illness ever since.

32You were an inpatient at Dandenong Hospital secure extended care unit (SECU) from 4 June 2014 to 18 September 2017.

33When you were released, you were largely treated in the community by the Dandenong mobile support and treatment team until your arrest on 7 June 2023.

34You had further hospital admissions in March 2022, July 2022, October 2022, and December 2022, in the context of threatening behaviour to your parents, clinicians and case managers.

35After your release from hospital on 9 January 2023, you were angry, irritable and non-compliant with clinicians who were trying to get you to attend a clinic for your depot injection. Your refusals lead to the variation of your community treatment order to an inpatient treatment order on 6 June 2023.

36Dr Nicholas Owens, forensic psychiatrist, assessed you in February 2024. [10]

[10] Report dated 10 June 2024 (Exhibit 2).

37His impression was you are not depressed or anxious and your thoughts appeared to be ordered.

38You said, when police came to your home on 7 June 2023, you were “in shock” because you feared they would assault you, due to what happened in 2011, and you believed they already knew you from seeing you on TV. You said you didn’t want to go to hospital again and you didn’t want to be locked up. [11]

[11] Ibid, [131].

39You said you do not believe you have a mental illness and you are taking treatment only because you have no other choice.

40Dr Owens reviewed your hospital records which show you have “a well-established diagnosis of schizophrenia [which] is characterised by a system of grandiose, referential, persecutory and erotomanic delusions as well as auditory hallucinations”. [12]

[12] Ibid, [143].

41In his opinion, when you committed this crime, you were likely experiencing psychosis, as part of your schizophrenia, which increased “your underlying paranoid delusions and your hostility towards others, including mental health staff and police”. [13]

[13] Ibid, [148].

42He believes your mental health has improved since you recommenced Clozapine[14] under medical compulsion.

[14] Ibid, [151].

43In his opinion, because prison officials cannot force you to take any antipsychotic medication, prison likely would be harder for you, without medication, and your mental health would likely deteriorate. [15]

[15] Ibid, [153] – [155].

44According to Dr Owens, treatment with Clozapine has resulted in the best outcomes for you to date; the challenge lies in ensuring your ongoing compliance with treatment after you leave the SECU. I was told the Mental Health Tribunal will review your case on 20 December and it is likely that your inpatient treatment order will be extended for 26 weeks.

Consideration

45Emergency workers, as police are, do important work in the community. They deserve to be safe in their workplace.

46The law recognises their right to community protection by mandating a prison sentence for persons who attack them. [16]

[16] Recklessly causing injury to an emergency worker is a category 1 offence.

47The court can impose a sentence other than imprisonment, of not less than six months, only if a special reason exists.

Objective gravity

48Yours was an unprovoked and frenzied attack on a police officer who was simply standing by. He was no threat to you.

49You attacked him with a potentially dangerous article.

50The attack was brief only because other police intervened.

51His injuries were not minor. Fortunately, there is no evidence he has any ongoing health issues.

52Overall, I assess the objective seriousness of your crime to fall around, or slightly below, mid-range for an offence of the type.

53You suffer from a significant long-standing schizophrenia. When you offended, it is likely you were psychotic, and because of it, you believed, delusionally, police would harm you.

54I am satisfied your mental illness contributed to your offending and, accordingly, your moral culpability is substantially and materially reduced. [17]

[17] Paragraph 1 of section 10 A(2)(C).

55I am all so satisfied your mental illness would result in you being subject to substantially and materially greater than the ordinary burden or risks of imprisonment. [18]

[18] Paragraph 2 of section 10 A(2)(C).

56Therefore, I am satisfied there is a special reason to impose a sentence, other than a term of imprisonment, upon you.

57Taking into account all the circumstances of the case, including your early guilty plea and your limited criminal history, I am satisfied a community correction order can achieve all sentencing purposes. [19]

[19] In commendably fair submissions the prosecution submitted a finding of a special reason is open and, overall, a community correction order is the appropriate sentence for you: see prosecution submissions dated 26 November 2024 (Exhibit E).

58I have had you assessed for a community correction order and you have been found suitable. Unsurprisingly, considering your medical history, the MHARS recommendations include ongoing specialist mental health care.

59By the sentence I impose I must denounce your conduct, punish you and deter you and others from committing crimes of the same or similar kind. I must also look to your rehabilitation.

60Considering the circumstances of your offending, your personal circumstances and antecedents, and endeavouring to produce a sentence which reflects and promotes the purposes of sentencing in a manner appropriate to you, on the charge of recklessly cause injury to an emergency worker you are convicted and I make a community correction order.

61The duration of the order will be 18 months.

62In addition to the core conditions, which importantly includes a condition that you not reoffended within the period of the community correction order, I impose the following special conditions:

(a)   supervision;

(b)   mental health rehabilitation and treatment – a mandatory condition;[20]

(c)   programs to reduce reoffending; and

(d)   judicial monitoring – a mandatory condition. [21]

[20] Section 44A of the Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic).

[21] Ibid.

63I direct you attend this court for your first judicial monitoring session on 31 March 2025 at 9:30 AM.

64While there is some artificiality in the process, I declare, under section 6AAA of the Sentencing Act, but for your plea of guilty I would have imposed a sentence of 12 months imprisonment and fixed a non-parole period of six months.

65I make an order for disposal of the hammer which you used to strike the unfortunate police officer.

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