Director of Public Prosecutions v Karoll
[2025] VCC 112
•14 February 2025
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION
CR-24-01309
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| BRADLEY KAROLL |
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JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE MOGLIA |
WHERE HELD: | Ballarat |
DATE OF HEARING: | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 14 February 2025 |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Karoll |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2025] VCC 112 |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject: Sentence – Criminal – Guilty Plea – Theft – Intentionally Cause Injury
Catchwords: Community Correction Order – Rehabilitation in Custody – Imprisonment – Imminent Release – Reconnecting to Koori Culture – Extensive Drug Abuse History – Therapeutic
Legislation Cited: Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic)
Cases Cited: Bugmy v The Queen [2013] 249 CLR 571; R v Verdins [2007] VSCA 102
Sentence: Seven months Imprisonment and 12-month CCO.
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Director of Public Prosecutions | Dr J. Harkess | Office of Public Prosecutions |
For the Accused | M. Murphy | Valos Black & Associates |
HIS HONOUR:
1Bradley Karoll, you have pleaded guilty to intentionally cause injury and theft occurring on 7 December 2023. The agreed basis for your guilty plea is set out in the prosecution opening dated 6 February 2025.
2In summary, about a week prior to the incident, Milan Popovic offered you and your then partner, Sasha Sommerling, a temporary place to stay with him in his one-bedroom flat at Inkerman Street, St Kilda. You and
Ms Sommerling accepted his offer and slept on Mr Popovic's couch.3At about 6am on 7 December 2023, you and she had been up all-night drinking. Popovic and Sommerling were sitting on the couch where you could see them, while you were in the kitchen cooking.
4You were, however, behaving rather erratically. You accused Popovic of looking at Sommerling, and out of nowhere stabbed him in his arm with a kitchen knife (Charge 1).
5You continued to rant and rave and then pointed to his wallet, demanding it from him. He handed it over and you stole it, along with the $400-$500 it contained, and his cards (Charge 2).
6A neighbour, hearing the commotion, asked if everything was okay. You told Popovic to get changed and instructed everyone that they had to leave. Later, the neighbour called 000 and told them what they had observed.
7That evening Mr Popovic took himself to the Alfred Hospital where he received five stitches to his left forearm. From hospital, he went to St Kilda police station and reported the incident and police took photos of his injury.
8He has not made a victim impact statement, but I accept he has suffered the obvious physical harm, as well as the psychological harm from being attacked in his own home by a friend, whom he had offered a place to stay.
9On 8 December, the next day, police came to where you were staying. You did not answer the door but, suspecting you were inside, they forced entry to find you and Ms Sommerling hiding. They arrested you both.
10Police interviewed you and you denied stabbing anyone. You said you did not know what they were talking about but told them you 'just want to make it clear, she was not involved'.
11You agreed you had been staying at Mr Popovic's place and that the knife was in the sink. You claimed you had cut yourself while cleaning up and also that you were juggling the knife when you cut yourself, denying, however, that you had cut anyone else.
12You were then charged and have remained in custody since then.
13While on remand you faced the Magistrates’ Court on 27 February 2024 for unrelated charges and were sentenced to seven months' imprisonment, declaring 74 days pre-sentence detention from 15 December 2023. That sentence ended on 14 July 2024.
14On 3 May 2024 you resolved this matter on the day of a contested committal hearing before any witnesses were called. You applied for summary jurisdiction, which was refused on 7 August 2024, after which you then pleaded not guilty and were committed for trial.
15On 23 September 2024 you sought, were given, but declined a sentence indication in this Court before me. Then again, on less serious allegations, you sought a further indication early this year, but then pleaded guilty on
8 February 2025 before one could be given.16You have, to date, served 222 days, or seven months and seven days pre-sentence detention on this matter. That is from 8 to 15 December 2023, and from 14 July 2024 until 14 February 2025, today, and that is over and above the seven months you served on the Magistrates’ Court sentence.
17Your guilty plea was not made early in the proceeding, but I do accept that you have settled the case appropriately after changes to the prosecution case. It demonstrates, in my view, your acceptance of responsibility and a willingness to facilitate the course of justice. It also has the utilitarian value in avoiding the need for a trial. I accept that your plea demonstrates at least partial remorse given the position you have taken and the changes in it over time.
18During your plea you relied on the following material: a psychological report of Jeffrey Cummins dated 21 February 2012 (Exhibit 1); psychological report of Carla Lechner dated 19 July 2024 (Exhibit 2); a reference from George Halkias dated 25 July 2024 (Exhibit 3); NDIS support letters dated
20 September 2024 and 6 February 2025 (Exhibit 4); a bundle of certificates for courses completed in prison (Exhibit 5); and a certificate for a substance awareness program (Exhibit 6).19You are now 38 years old. Your counsel submitted that you lived through a range of adverse experiences including physical, mental, and sexual abuse in your formative years. Nevertheless, you completed Year 11 at school in spite of what you describe as 'chaos' at home.
20You report abuse at the hands of your stepfather and that your mother was very mentally unwell and that you suffered greatly from it. This led you to spending a lot of time during those years with your grandparents, and later you enjoyed working with your grandfather.
21Mr Cummins, in 2012, concluded that you most probably have a personality disorder, that you clearly have difficulties in trusting people, and that much of this is inevitably linked to your adverse upbringing.
22Mr Lechner reported in 2024 that these experiences undermined your social, vocational, and emotional development. She suggests that you have symptoms of complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I accept her opinion that your engaging in self-defeating behaviours has become more entrenched over the years, in that context.
23I also accept that those circumstances are consistent with you developing a history of drug use and prior offending. That history includes a short term of imprisonment in 2011 for possessing a weapon and drug offences; in 2012, you received two years and nine months with a 20 month non-parole period for recklessly causing serious injury.
24In 2017, you were gaoled for eight months for causing injury and weapons offences. In 2018 you were imprisoned for four years and seven months for aggravated burglary and assaults. In 2021, you received 11 months for intentionally causing injury.
25I will not punish you again for that history, but I have taken it into account when assessing your prospects and the need to deter you specifically from further offending.
26In support of those prospects, your NDIS support coordinator, Chris Grant, confirms that you have a plan of services that will continue for the foreseeable future. It includes a range of supports aimed to increase your levels of executive functioning, finding a fulfilling job, creating and maintaining meaningful relationships, finding a home that is right for you, and becoming independent in managing daily tasks.
27In custody, you have completed courses relating to getting work when you are released, but also two substantial courses on drugs and developing strategies to prevent relapse. These involved a lengthy commitment by you and give me some guide to your attitude to what is your primary risk factor in the community.
28You have also produced two pieces of art for The Torch Project, indicating a growing acceptance of your connection to your Koori heritage. All of these things are very much to your credit.
29George Halkias of The Big Issue Street Soccer Program provided a reference to support you. He stated that you are a regular, active participant in the program. You have shown commitment and motivation to overcome barriers, and you have a positive attitude towards others. He said you are using all of this to drive change in other areas of your life. I accept all of that.
30The maximum penalty for Charges 1 and 2 is 10 years' imprisonment each. Causing injury to Mr Popovic was a low blow. He had provided you and your partner a home when you needed it and yet you acted out in some misguided notion of jealousy, it seems.
31You used a dangerous weapon, and the injury was serious enough to require five stitches. While your attack was not sustained or repeated (on the charges that I am sentencing you for), and I expect Mr Popovic has recovered, I find the gravity of this offence to be moderate to high. You acted alone and you were entirely responsible for what you did. The jealousy you expressed provides no justification for acting in that way.
32In part, I must deter others from such attacks by sentencing you in a way that sends a message, but I must also deter you from going down this path again, given your history with assaults and weapons. In order to achieve those objectives as well as for providing public denunciation and just punishment, I will imprison you.
33Your counsel, Mr Chernok and then Mr Murphy, submitted that on your account of your early life, it discloses a level of trauma and dysfunction that attracts the principles in the case of Bugmy v The Queen[1]. While I am not satisfied that you lived a life during those years of profound disadvantage and dysfunction, I do accept the diagnosis of Ms Lechner of complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and the role that it has played throughout your adult life, so I do not ignore the effects of your early experiences.
[1]Bugmy v The Queen [2013] 249 CLR 571
34I also accept that your compromised mental health, as described by the psychologists, likely makes your time in custody more onerous than it would be for a person without chronic Post Traumatic Stress, and to a lesser extent the other conditions for which there is a less clear diagnosis. I give this moderate weight in sentencing in accordance with the principles in Verdins[2].
[2] [2007] VSCA 102
35I do not accept the submission that being in custody has caused a real risk of substantial deterioration in your conditions, rather in my view you have received appropriate treatment that has supported your stabilisation.
36In determining how long you must serve, I have also had regard to the fact you have already served seven months since you were remanded on these charges on the Magistrates’ Court sentence. That sentence has now ended and so you have lost the change of any concurrency with it, which I would likely have ordered if it was dealt with at the same time.
37Given both offences in this case were effectively part of the same incident, I will order very significant concurrency between the sentences I impose.
38Your progress in courses on remand, your engagement in the Koori art program, your proposed move away from the area where you got into trouble, means that I regard your prospects are reasonable although guarded. In those circumstances, I had you assessed for a CCO (Exhibit A). In spite of your history and your breaches on previous orders, Corrections have found you suitable for such an order, which is significant. I accept their opinion and recommendations.
39Your counsel submitted that you could be released on a combination sentence in the near future. The prosecutor submitted, after considering the new material, that such a sentence was within range, including one with release in the coming weeks.
40 The previous indication I have given was that a sentence for this charge, in particular the intentionally cause injury and the theft, would be 19 months with a non-parole period of 10 months. The reduction in the allegation from a rolled-up charge to a singular incident charge, combined with the progress you have made in the good work you have done, has resulted in two changes: first, I have changed my mind about the need for a parole sentence; and secondly, I have reduced the time you need to serve before release.
41Having considered all of the factors, I have determined that you are an appropriate candidate for a CCO and that the time that justice requires you to serve in custody before release under supervision in the community, will very soon be up. So I will impose a combination sentence and I sentence you as follows.
42On Charge 1, intentionally causing injury, 7 months combined with a community correction order.
43On Charge 2, theft, 5 months combined with a community correction order.
44One month of the sentence on Charge 2 will be served cumulatively upon the sentence on Charge 1, making a total effective sentence of 8 months combined with a single community correction order.
45The CCO is with conviction and is for 12 months. It includes conditions that you be supervised; engage in assessment and treatment for drug abuse including testing; assessment and treatment for your mental health; and participation in programs.
46You are to complete 80 hours of community work and every hour you spend in treatment and programs, is to be credited against those work hours.
47I declare that you have served 7 months and 8 days' pre-sentence detention and I direct that that be reckoned as a period already served under the sentence.
48In accordance with s6AAA of the Sentencing Act 1991, but for your guilty plea I would have imposed two years and fixed a non-parole period of 16 months.
49Mr Karoll, you have been doing very well. I think you understand that and you have heard it in hearings a couple of times now, and I want to congratulate you for that. Over the next two to three weeks you will be able to prepare for your move, farewell the vegetables and gather your paints and the contacts in The Torch Program together, and in a nice stable way move up to the hilly area, so I wish you well in that.
50I just want to say this. Nobody who has had your experiences should be expected to change everything overnight and I say that by way of acknowledging that things are probably going to get tough. And you will be tempted and you'll be having bad days as well as good days. I expect that.
51So the secret is, have a plan of who to contact when you're having the bad days. I expect you know that. But also, if the community correction order is not working, it's not possible for you to meet all of your obligations, then talk to your lawyers and come back to court. Tell me about the problems with it, rather than sticking your head in the sand and getting breached. I wish you well, you have made a great start. I hope you can keep it up.
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