Director of Public Prosecutions v Hutchinson
[2025] VCC 1448
•3 September 2025
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA AT BENDIGO CRIMINAL DIVISION | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
Case No. CR-25-00710
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| JORDAN HUTCHINSON |
---
JUDGE: | Her Honour Judge Riddell | |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 27 August 2025 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 3 September 2025 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Hutchinson | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2025] VCC 1448 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
---
Subject: CRIMINAL LAW --- Sentence
Catchwords: Blackmail --- Plea of Guilty --- Admissions --- Remorse --- Isolated and Spontaneous --- No Premeditation or Planning --- No Steps Taken to Carry Out Threat --- No Contact between offending and Charge Date --- Victim known to Offender --- Victim Impact Statement --- Relevant and Concerning Criminal History --- Positive Prospects of Rehabilitation --- Stable Accommodation --- Family Support --- Stable Employment
Legislation Cited: ---
Cases Cited: Boulton v The Queen (2014) 46 VR 308
Sentence: 12 Month Community Correction Order
---
APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the DPP | Mr D. Cordy | Solicitor for the Director of Public Prosecutions |
| For the Accused | Mr J. Barrera | Stary Norton Halphen |
HER HONOUR:
1 Jordan Hutchinson, you can stay seated there Mr Hutchinson until I tell you, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of blackmail committed by way of making a threat via a Facebook Messenger message sent to victim Craig Ramsay on 28 March 2024.
2 You and Mr Ramsay had known each other for about 20 years, since you were around 16. You are now 41 years old. He is 12 years older than you. You were not friends and had little to do with each other, although for a period of time you were in a relationship with Mr Ramsay’s sister-in-law Nicky. According to him you had not seen each other for about 15 years. Your estimate was at least 5 years.
3 On 28 March 2024 at about 11.30 am you sent Mr Ramsay a friend request on Facebook, followed by a single messenger message. The contents of the message are threatening.[1] Mr Ramsay took the threat seriously and reported the matter to police on the same day within about an hour.
[1] ‘Hey Craig where U hiding mate hey come face me cunt I told U I will fucking get U cunt one day I no what U did to Stacey crilly when she was 14 or so U don't want that to get out peddo cunt I'll come drag U out of the shit house cunt of U don't get around here in week l'll be at your door U bashed me dad tryed to stand over a kid you’re a child sex offender Stacey 14 Nicky what 12 so hey do t make me come for U Ur my age when U shit pusy cunt weak dog so I'm Ur age now time to play tell Cody I'll fill the dog with holes to drink piece of fat shit I take all use on me own if U not here in one week I kicking ya fucking door on U carnt go to cops I got to much U don't no on you so maybe 5000 to for what U do to youngbkids I told U I'll grow up one day I'm to grown up Ur scared U should. Be U have no idea U got nothing or ciujd never fight cunt I can like dam U in trouble mother fucker this Nicky pay back to so U cart do shit to me now one week my door 5000 cash or Kelly see what U are child toucher dog you think I waited years to get U for what U did to me ya fucking dead’
4 You attended Kyabram police station by appointment on 12 June 2024 and participated in an interview where you described the background I have set out, and where you made full admissions to being responsible for sending the text message.
5 You said, “Yeah. I’m not - I’m not going to deny it, guys. Yeah, I did. It was drunk, stupid…” You variously described the message as “stupid stuff”, “stupid words”, and “stupid talk at the end of the day” and said, “I don’t know why I sent it. I don’t even - still don’t even know why I sent it”. You acknowledged that it was wrong, saying “I knew I’d done the wrong thing, but I - yeah. Look, I should never have sent the text message. I know that. Yeah. Just dumb.”
6 You agreed that the 5000 was a demand for $5000.
7 When told Mr Ramsay was concerned by the message you said “No, I don’t - don’t know why you’d believe that”.
8 Ultimately when asked whether you wished to say anything further you stated, “I honestly can’t…like, it’s just a stupid thing to do.” You then added, “He just - like, I don’t know. I sometimes maybe blame him for the way me life’s turned out, you know. You don’t hand feed a kid amphetamines when they’re a kid, mate, you know. 14 years old and shit. So - yeah. You know, that’s pretty much all it really is, to be honest.”
9 You were charged and bailed on 12 June 2024 and have been on bail since that time.
Sentencing Principles
10 Blackmail is a serious offence reflected in the maximum penalty of 15 years imprisonment. The blackmail here involves making a demand with menaces with a view to gain for yourself. The menaces had clear references to violence.
11 To prove the offence, it does not matter whether the person making the threat and demand has any capacity to carry out the threat, or any intention to do so. The offence is made out on the making of the threat and demand.
12 To that end, although not itself a crime of physical violence, the impact of fear and anxiety it engenders can be significant for any victim. Victims are usually left in a state of uncertainty and worry. The impact often extends to concern about family, and to the need to change work or life routines. In a world where the dissemination of information is so easy, and there is a threat to release untested allegations, that creates worry about reputation and the knock-on effect on career and relationships. In that way, threats and menacing demands are psychologically serious and can impact day to day life for any victim.
13 For those reasons, and in the modern world where people are easy to find online and arms-length contact containing threats and menaces are easy to make, sentences must denounce the behaviour and must deter others from making similar communications.
14 In this case, Mr Ramsay described the effect on him in his victim impact statement. It reflects those common themes and I thank him for taking the time to prepare it. He has asked that it not be read out, however I take its contents into account.
Prior criminal history
15 You are a person with a prior criminal history which is relevant and concerning. I can well understand if Mr Ramsay has awareness of your past offending, he would take your threat very seriously.
16 Your history contains matters of dishonesty including burglary and theft, trafficking and other drugs charges, possession of weapons, and offences of violence. You have served short terms of imprisonment for charges of recklessly causing injury in 2004, drug trafficking in 2009, recklessly causing serious injury, making a threat to kill and recklessly causing injury in 2010. In 2013 you received a term of 15 months imprisonment with a non-parole period of 6 months for family violence offences and recklessly causing injury. You successfully completed parole.
17 Five years later, in 2018 you were sentenced to a term of 114 days, which equated to time served, plus a Community Correction Order of 15 months for possessing a firearm and ammunition, persistently contravening family violence intervention order and an aggravated assault of a female. You successfully completed the CCO and you have not been convicted of any offence since that time.
18 You are not to be resentenced for your past history, but it does paint a concerning picture. It is relevant to my assessment of the need for specific deterrence, community protection and your prospects of rehabilitation.
Personal Circumstances
19 Your offending history no doubt has its roots in your difficult upbringing. Your father fought in the Vietnam War and returned with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. He became a severe alcoholic and gambler who perpetrated serious physical violence against your mother. You would often try to intervene to protect her.
20 When you were 13 your parents separated.
21 You remained with your mother and two older brothers with whom you still have a strong bond. One brother is an architect and the other a pig farmer. They are pro social people. Your mother has been your main support and has been present throughout these proceedings, including again today.
22 At 13 you were diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
23 You left secondary school after completing Year 10 and you have worked as a dairy farmer since then and have a positive employment history, punctuated by imprisonment.
24 At 14 you were exposed to amphetamine use which was the start of your addiction to drugs.
25 You report ongoing struggles with methylamphetamine, amphetamine and cannabis addiction through your teen years and into adulthood. It is clear from your prior criminal history that drugs have dogged you for much of your adult life.
26 At the time of this offending you had been socialising with a friend and ingested a cocktail of drugs and alcohol. You instructed your Counsel that you were thinking back on your past and in that context sent the message to the victim.
27 You told your counsel that introduction to drug use is the source of your issues with the victim here, along with a suggestion that he physically assaulted you and at one point allegedly beat your father. I have no evidence of those matters beyond what you said in your record of interview, and drawing on the contents of the actual messenger text. I cannot draw a conclusion about them. Mr Ramsay denies the allegations that you have made.
28 Regardless, if you had any issue with Mr Ramsay, or any long-held grudge, that does not excuse the sending of a message to him, and certainly not one which threatens violence to him, his family and his family pet. Be clear that there is no justification for your behaviour. Any explanation that involves drug or alcohol use only provides context for that unsolicited contact, and no more.
Admissions and Plea of Guilty
29 You do receive the benefit of your fulsome admissions in the record of interview. In my view they are some evidence of remorse, including for example your comments that you knew it was the wrong thing to do and you should never have sent the message.
30 Having made full admissions during your record of interview, you pleaded guilty early in the Magistrates’ Court at a mention and the matter was sent by straight hand-up brief to this Court. Last week’s plea was the first hearing date in this Court.
31 You receive the benefit of your plea of guilty. You have saved the court and the community the cost and time of a jury trial. Importantly, your plea has saved Mr Ramsay from being cross-examined and from the additional stress of a court proceeding.
32 In my view your plea reflects your acceptance of responsibility for your action and does reflect a degree of remorse in line with your record of interview. I reject the prosecution submission that there is no remorse here.
33 Acknowledgement of offending through admissions and an early plea of guilty demonstrable of some remorse are usually positive markers towards rehabilitation.
Prospects of Rehabilitation
34 In that regard I am informed that since this offence you have been abstinent from the use of alcohol and illicit drugs, other than cannabis which you use to help you sleep on account of your ADHD. Drug use is obviously a high risk factor for you. Abstinence, if you can maintain it, is a real positive.
35 To that end I note that there are significant breaks in your prior criminal history, in particular in more recent years. That appears consistent with either a decrease or abstinence from drugs use as well as being consistent with an aging maturity.
36 I also take into account the fact that you have successfully navigated parole and two CCOs in the past. You have not been found guilty of any offence since 2018, some 7 years ago.
37 You have been working and I have a letter from your employer attesting to the fact that you have ongoing employment available to you. I was told you are currently working as a casual, working 16-24 hours per week. The company is currently in the process of changing farms, and when the cows are moved, your understanding is, that your employer will engage you full time. It is to your credit that you have always been able to hold employment despite the level of disadvantage in your formative years and your battle with addiction.
38 I also take into account the fact that you have stable accommodation with your mother. My impression is that she is clearly disapproving of your offending behaviour. You have strong relationships with her, with your brothers and with your 18 year old son.
39 You see your son virtually daily and have a positive relationship despite the fact he does not live with you. You have built a home gym and you and he work out together almost daily. You and his mother have a positive relationship despite being separated for some time.
40 In looking at your prospects of rehabilitation and the related concept of the need to specifically deter you from any further offending and to achieve community protection, in particular any threat to the safety of Mr Ramsay or his family, I also take into account the fact that there had been no lead up to this offence. More importantly, you were unaware that the victim had reported the matter to police. Police then took three months to take any action. In that period you made no further contact of any description with Mr Ramsay. You did not in any way attempt to reiterate the threats or demands, nor to take any step whatsoever to carry them out.
41 On 11 June police rang you about the message and made an appointment to be interviewed. You attended the next day and made full admissions.
42 Those matters provide some support for my conclusion that this was an isolated, spontaneous act, indeed what you described as ‘stupid’. They provide some support for what you said at the very end of your interview when you were asked –
Q 95 – You've got some resentment between youse.
A - Yeah. It's nothing like - you know, it's like, I don't even care
any more, you know what I mean. Like, I’m 40 years old. I'm just kind
of over all this shit. Yeah. It's just - yeah. You can't move on with life if you've got something hanging around your head, you know.
43 Taking all of those matters into account, Mr Barreiro submitted on your behalf that you have good or at least reasonable prospects of rehabilitation. I accept your prospects are positive.
Submissions as to Disposition
44 Mr Barreiro submitted that all sentencing principles could be met by the imposition of a CCO. To that end he relied on the Court of Appeal’s comments in Boulton v The Queen[2] to the effect that a CCO is inherently punitive while also providing supervision and aimed at rehabilitation.
[2]Boulton v The Queen (2014) 46 VR 308
45 Mr Cordy on behalf of the Prosecution accepted that your background, and particularly the difficult relationship with your father is unfortunate and that this had a flow-on affect to your life, including your drug use and violence. However, he submitted that this is a serious example of the offence of blackmail and that it must be met by a term of imprisonment with a non-parole period.
Current Sentencing Practices
46 I have had regard to current sentencing practices for this type of offending. There are a wide variety of circumstances in which the offence of blackmail may be committed. In many cases threats and demands are made over multiple, repetitive contacts either in person or via some online means, and at times over a protracted period. At times threats are made by groups of people, or by persons involved in organisations known for violence. At times they relate to drug debts which makes victims reluctant to go to police. At times they are accompanied by actual violence and with demands for very large amounts of money. Not uncommonly threats to leak information or photographs and videos are made by persons who have been in intimate relationships, and not uncommonly they are made in breach of intervention orders. None of those considerations apply here.
47 Sentencing statistics bear out that although some 55 per cent of people sentenced in the period 2018-2023 received terms of imprisonment, at times in combination with a CCO, straight CCOs, fines and other dispositions were ordered in the remaining 45 per cent.
48 As always, in looking at any other sentence, there are similarities and differences between the offender and the offending. Ultimately, I am required to impose a just sentence in all the circumstances and that is what I have endeavoured to do.
Objective Gravity
49 In looking at the objective gravity of your offending I take into account the following matters.
50 There is nothing to contradict what you told police in your record of interview to the effect that you were drunk and drug affected when you wrote the message and cannot really explain why you did so, other than by reference to an earlier conversation and your own ruminations about your history. Those instructions are somewhat supported by your comments in the record of interview referencing your past.
51 Although the offence is complete regardless of any intention to carry out the threat, whether an offender can in fact carry out the threat, has taken any steps towards that, or has any plan to do so is relevant to assessing the objective gravity of the offence. Here, I accept that none of those considerations apply.
52 Even if you had harboured ill will towards Mr Ramsay for some time, there is no evidence of premeditation or planning. There is no evidence for example, of stalking him or any earlier attempt to contact him. The message itself was not accompanied by other acts which themselves constitute criminal offences. Importantly there was no contact whatsoever in the months after the message was sent and before being arrested. There has been nothing since being charged, despite the absence of any intervention order being taken out by police.
53 Those matters lead me to conclude that this was an offence which can be characterised as isolated and spontaneous.
54 In all of those circumstances, and having considered a raft of other blackmail cases, I reject the prosecution submission that this constitutes a serious example of this offence. In my view and without wanting to detract from Mr Ramsay’s experience of the threats and demands, on the wide scale of factual scenarios covered by this offence, this must be seen as a lower end example.
55 Imprisonment must be a sentence of last resort. I do not see that there is anything to be gained by returning you to the prison environment after so many years and given my assessment of this offending.
56 Be clear that should you re-engage in any way with Mr Ramsay, or make any contact with him in future, the outcome may be different. To that end, a CCO will ensure an ongoing level of supervision and will serve as a reminder that you are not to have any contact with him at all.
57 In all of the circumstances I had you assessed for a CCO.
58 I have received assessment report for a CCO. Your account of your offending was consistent with your interview and instructions. The assessor opines that you demonstrated some remorse in that interview, stating that you regretted sending the message.
59 You were assessed as suitable for a CCO with a number of conditions recommended.
60 If you could stand please, Mr Hutchinson. On the charge of blackmail, you are convicted and I intend to impose a CCO. I cannot impose that order without your consent, so I am going to read through the conditions of that order before I ask you if you agree to undertake it.
MR HUTCHINSON: Okay.
HER HONOUR: The CCO will be of 12 months duration. You will be required to undergo supervision.
MR HUTCHINSON: Yes.
HER HONOUR: You will be required to undertake 120 hours of community work. You will be required to undergo assessment and treatment for drug and alcohol use. And you will be required to undergo assessment and treatment for mental health I permit that those hours of unpaid community work be offset by any hours that you complete in rehabilitation for drug and alcohol or mental health. Given my findings regarding the nature and gravity of the offence I do not propose to impose a condition requiring participation in offending behaviour programs. I do however, propose to impose a special condition pursuant to s48F of the Sentencing Act 1991 that you have no contact with Mr Craig Ramsay.
HER HONOUR: Do you agree to undertake the Community Corrections Order Mr Hutchinson?
MR HUTCHINSON: Yes. Yes, Your Honour I agree.
HER HONOUR: Do you understand the consequences of any breach - - -
MR HUTCHINSON: Yes, Your Honour.
HER HONOUR: - - -would be that you would be brought back before me and likely to be re-sentenced on the blackmail offence.
MR HUTCHINSON: I understand that Your Honour, yes.
HER HONOUR: All right. And you understand that a breach can be either, by any re-offending or by not complying with the conditions.
MR HUTCHINSON: Yes. I understand that too, yes.
HER HONOUR: All right. Thanks. I will have that printed and I will ask you to sign it.
MR HUTCHINSON: No worries.
HER HONOUR: But for your plea of guilty, so if you had not pleaded guilty, the sentence I would have imposed would have been one of two years and eight months imprisonment, with a non-parole period of 15 months imprisonment. Have a seat there and we will have the order printed out.
MR HUTCHINSON: Thank you.
HER HONOUR: Are there any issues to raise counsel?
MR BARREIRO: No.
HER HONOUR: I will just get the sound back on for Mr Cordy. Any issues Mr Cordy?
MR CORDY: No issues Your Honour.
HER HONOUR: Thanks very much.
MR BARRERA: Thank you. Thank you for that time Your Honour, the order has been signed.
HER HONOUR: Thank you. Mr Hutchinson your signature on that order is your promise that you will undertake that order. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you Mr Barrera and Mr Cordy .
---
4
1
0