Director of Public Prosecutions v Hutchinson

[2019] VCC 872

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA Revised
Not Restricted
Suitable for Publication

AT HORSHAM

CRIMINAL DIVISION

Case No. CR-18-01352

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

MATHEW HUTCHINSON

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE CAHILL
WHERE HELD:	Horsham
DATE OF HEARING:	07 June 2019
DATE OF SENTENCE:	14 June 2019
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Hutchinson
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2019] VCC 872

REASONS FOR SENTENCE

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Catchwords: Sentence – Intentionally cause injury – guilty plea – vicious assault in victim’s home - relevant criminal history – good work record – family support - three years imprisonment – non-parole release period of two years

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director	Ms J. Piggott	Ms K. Westlake
For the Accused	Mr G. Davis	Ms K. Moloney

HIS HONOUR:

1.Mathew Hutchinson you have pleaded guilty to one count of intentionally cause injury.  The maximum penalty for this offence is 10 years imprisonment.  The circumstances of your offending are set out in the summary of prosecution opening which was Exhibit A.

2.On 15 July 2017 you attacked the victim, after he had offended you, when he answered his front door naked to you and to your then partner's 10 year old daughter.  Earlier that evening with your partner, Stacey Drennan, you visited her children who were living with their grandmother Margaret Doidge.  The victim was a neighbour and you knew him.  After you had initially gone to his flat, you returned and assaulted him.  After the assault, you went back to Mrs Doidge's flat where you said you had hit the victim and knocked him out.  With Mrs Doidge and your partner, you returned to the victim’s flat where he was lying on the floor.  You put a blanket over him.  Your partner put a cushion under his head and someone called 000.

3.Police and ambulance attended.  The victim was taken to Wimmera Hospital and then transferred to the Royal Melbourne Hospital where he was treated for head injuries including bruising to his brain and a skull fracture over his left ear, and a broken nose.  He had two periods of hospitalisation in July and August.  When police spoke to him, he told them, as a result of the assault, he had suffered from headaches and dizziness which had subsided over time.  He said in the weeks preceding the assault, you had often visited him at his unit and talked with him while Stacey was next door seeing her children.  He said he had no recollection of the events of 15 July and said he had smoked cannabis during the afternoon.  The next he knew was wakening in hospital when his parents told him he had been assaulted.  He said that he was fearful of you now.

4.Police arrested you on 23 August 2017.  You told them the victim had answered the door naked in the presence of the 10 year old girl and you left with her.  You said when you went back to retrieve a hammer, the victim was pilled off his head and when he tried to cuddle you, you struck him to the mouth with the back of your hand.  You said that he fell to the ground and you said that the blow knocked him out cold.

5.Yours was a vicious attack which was completely disproportionate to the offence the victim had caused you.  I do note you helped to get assistance for him after you hurt him.  He suffered serious injuries but appears to have made a good recovery.  You are to be sentenced on the basis that you hit him intending to cause him an injury, not a serious injury, and caused him a head injury.

6.The prosecution did not allege you used any weapon to assault the victim. 

7.I turn now to your personal circumstances which are set out in the report dated 27 March 2019 of Warren Simmons psychologist, which was defence Exhibit 2 on the plea. 

8.You are aged 39 years, you were born and raised in Horsham.  Your father died when you were two years old.  Your mother re-partnered.  Your childhood was tough.  You saw your mother often viciously beaten by her violent, alcoholic partner.  After that relationship ended, your mother partnered another man, who you regard as a good man.  You struggled at school and have limited reading and writing skills.  You left school and home at 15. 

9.You have a good work record.  When you left school you worked as a slaughterman for three years and then on the railways for 14 and a half years.  You have also worked as a concreter.

10.At 21 you bought a house.

11.Since you were 17 years old, you have been treated on and off with medication for anxiety and depression.  Apart from the beatings, your mother had suffered during your childhood, you have witnessed other traumatic events.  You witnessed two deaths.  One, when you tried to revive a neighbour's infant, who had died of SIDS, and the other, when you went to the home of a friend who was threatening suicide and found him dead from a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head.  You have also been affected as well by your sister's disclosure of sexual abuse by a family member.  For that you blame yourself for not protecting her.  Mr Simmons is of the view that you have a post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of these events. 

12.Since your teenage years, you have abused alcohol and cannabis and, since the age of 21, methamphetamine.

13.In Mr Simmons’ opinion you qualify for a diagnosis of substance use disorder.  He is of the opinion you require treatment for both disorders. 

14.You have a 13 year old son from a relationship and you were with her mother for 13 years.  For four of those years, you stopped using drugs but you relapsed and your relationship ended after your partner could no longer tolerate your drug use. 

15.Your offending on 15 July 2017, occurred in the context of methamphetamine use.  You told Mr Simmons you had been using methamphetamine and not slept for several days prior to assaulting the victim.

16.You have a relevant criminal history of violent offending. 

17.In April 2003, you were sentenced to one month imprisonment wholly suspended for unlawful assault.  In August 2003 you had breached your suspended sentence and were ordered to serve that one month term.  In 2005, you were sentenced to four months imprisonment for assaulting police and dishonesty offences.  In 2011, for offences of recklessly cause injury, unlawful assault and other offences, you were sentenced to 22 months imprisonment with a non-parole release period of 14 months.  I was told you successfully completed your parole.

18.In 2015 you were sentenced to six months imprisonment for recklessly cause injury and dishonesty of answers.  And, in 2017, you were sentenced to 15 days in prison for an unlawful assault. 

19.Sadly, prison is a familiar environment for you.  During your time in remand custody, nearly 22 months, you have coped satisfactorily.  You've put on weight and trained during the day.  You have undertaken the treatment programs offered to you and you enjoy the responsibility of being a peer listener who supports other prisoners, particularly new arrivals. 

20.In written and oral submissions, your counsel Mr Davis, relied on the following factors in mitigation of penalty:  Your plea of guilty, made after a contested committal where the issue was whether or not you had attacked the victim with a hammer, an allegation this prosecution did not press on the plea; your plea of guilty is relied on as evidence of your acceptance of responsibility for your actions and remorse in addition to its utilitarian value.

21.He also relied on your expressed remorse and demonstrated insight to Mr Simmons and your positive response to your time in custody. 

22.Additionally Mr Davis relied on the protective factor of family support, particularly your mother and stepfather, who will give you somewhere to live and assist you to obtain employment, on your release.  Your mother, your sister and a nephew have supported in your court.  Mr Davis also relied on, as a protective factor your wish to be a good father to your son. 

23.I take into account all these factors, in considering and moderating the sentence I will impose. 

24.Mr Davis accepted that because of the seriousness of your offending, I must impose a term of imprisonment on you.  He submitted your prospects of rehabilitation will be best advanced by a period of parole release supervision.  I accept this submission.

25.Ms Piggott for the prosecution did not take issue with any of Mr Davis' submissions, but contended yours was a serious example of the offence because it involved gratuitous violence to a man who was entitled to feel safe in his own home.  She submitted general deterrence, because of the seriousness of your offending, and specific deterrence, because of your relevant criminal history, are important sentencing considerations in this case.  I accept the force of her submissions.

26.Please stand Mr Hutchinson.  By the sentence I impose I must denounce your conduct, I must punish you and deter you and others from committing crimes of the same or similar kind.  I must also look to the protection of the community and, as well, to your rehabilitation. 

27.Taking into account the circumstances of your offending and its effects and your personal circumstances and endeavouring to produce a sentence which reflects and promotes the purposes of sentencing in a manner appropriate to you.

28.On the charge of intentionally cause injury, you are sentenced to three years imprisonment.  I fix a minimum non-parole release period of two years.

29.Pursuant to s.18 of the Sentencing Act, I declare that you have spent 660 days by way of pre-sentence detention. And pursuant to s.6AAA of the Sentencing Act, I declare, but for your guilty plea, I would have sentenced you to four years imprisonment, with a non-parole period of three years.