Director of Public Prosecutions v Labrooy
[2017] VCC 1253
•31 August 2017
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA AT MELBOURNE CRIMINAL DIVISION | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
Case No. CR-17-00998
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| SHANE CHRISTOPHER LABROOY |
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JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE SACCARDO | |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 5 July 2017 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 31 August 2017 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Labrooy | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2017] VCC 1253 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject: CRIMINAL LAW
Catchwords: Sentence – Armed Robbery; Obtain Financial Advantage by Deception; Unlawful Assault; Commit Indictable Offence Whilst on Bail; Trespass
Sentence: Total Effective Sentence of 2 years’ and 6 months’ imprisonment with a minimum term to be served before being eligible for parole of 18 months’ imprisonment; 211 days of pre-sentence detention be reckoned as served
Section 6AAA declaration 4 years’ imprisonment with a minimum term to be served before being eligible for parole of 3 years’.
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the DPP | Mr M Roper | Office of Public Prosecutions |
| For the Accused | Ms H Cooper | Leanne Warren & Associates |
HIS HONOUR:
1 Shane Christopher Labrooy you have pleaded guilty to
· one count of armed robbery which carries a maximum sentence of imprisonment of 25 years;
· one count of obtaining a financial advantage by deception which carries a maximum period of imprisonment of 10 years;
· one count of obtaining property by deception which carries a maximum period of imprisonment of 10 years;
· one count of unlawful assault with a weapon which carries a maximum period of imprisonment of 2 years;
· one count of tresspass which carries with it a maximum period of imprisonment of 6 months;
· one count of committing an indictable offence namely attempted robbery will whilst on bail which carries a maximum period of imprisonment of 3 months.
2 The circumstances of your offending are set out in the prosecution opening upon your plea, are not in issue, and there is no need for me to summarise them in the course of my sentencing comments to which I will append the prosecution opening.
3 The victims of the factually most serious of your offences namely:
· the trespass;
· the assault with a weapon; and
· the armed robbery;
were exposed to a frightening episode in which two of them were confronted by a person carrying what appeared to them to be a real handgun. Each of those two victims were in turn acting to support the first victim of your offending who had real concerns about her safety upon you attempting to enter her house.
4 At the time of the offending you were 39 and are described in the prosecution opening is having no fixed place of abode.
5 On 13 January 2017 you had admitted yourself to the Monash Medical Centre following a period of drug induced paranoia.
6 In the course of an episode of paranoia you discharged yourself from the hospital on 24 January 2017 by smashing a window and exiting from the window believing at that time you were at risk of physical injury if you stayed.
7 You then took up residence at 94 Madeleine Road Clayton which was a vacant property.
8 On 26 January 2017 you committed the offending the subject of each of these offences within a very short period of time.
9 On 28 January you were admitted to the Dandenong hospital by reason of your deteriorating mental state, having been assessed the day earlier as presenting with paranoid thoughts, being suspicious fearful and displaying poor judgment.
10 Your personal history is as follows:
· you are currently 40 years of age;
· When you were approximately 10 years old your parents separated;
· Although your mother re-partnered you have described your relationship your stepfather as being strained;
· Your mother however has always provided you with loving and compassionate support;
· Having completed your year 12 you commenced an degree in Agricultural Economics but discontinued that course and thereafter you have a history of working in various unskilled work;
· You have found it difficult to maintain employment, you are currently unemployed and have not been employed for several years;
· You commenced illicit drug use from the age of approximately 16 thereafter you abused a cocktail of drugs including heroin and methamphetamine which clearly provided a destructive influence on your life.
11 In the course of your plea I was provided with a number of medical reports and medical records.
12 In a report dated 2 April 2013 Mr Danny Sullivan a consulting psychiatrist described you as presenting at that time with an established diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia which manifested itself in persecutory ideation and a history of polysubstance dependence and abuse.
13 In a medical report dated 30 June 2017 Dr Aaron Cunningham a forensic psychologist describes you as presenting with a schizoidal personality disorder and a significant mental illness which makes you prone to paranoid delusions when experiencing stress.
14 At the same time Dr Cunningham opined that your presentation in combination with the support provided for you by your mother and the implementation of appropriate medical programme operated to advance your prospects for being rehabilitated.
15 In a further report dated 12 July 2017 Dr Cunningham expressed the opinion that that at the time of the offending in this instance you were suffering from paranoid delusions that not only contributed to your absconding from the Monash Health unit but also each of the offences the subject of these charges.
16 I accept this opinion expressed by Dr Cunningham, everyone will recall that in the course of the plea I suggested the Monash Medical Records be provided.
17 The combined effect of those records and the consulting reports is to satisfy me that at the time of your offending you were operating in a state of psychosis in which both your general judgement and insight was impaired and for this reason:
· your moral culpability for the offending is reduced; and
· issues such as general deterrence should be accorded less weight when considering the appropriate sentence which I am to impose.
18 You have an extremely significant criminal record extending over a period of in excess of 20 years.
19 In 1997 you were convicted of armed robbery you have a similar conviction in 1999.
20 Since that time you have accumulated in excess of 20 convictions for burglary and numerous convictions for theft and other crimes involving dishonesty.
21 You have penned a letter to me which I accept contains a statement of true remorse on your part for your offending.
22 Your early plea of guilty is also an indication of your remorse and entitles you to a significant discount in the sentence I would have otherwise imposed by a reason not only that factor but also by reason of the social utility associated with that plea.
23 Both your mother your auntie and your stepfather have provided letters of support for you each of whom describe you as a person who they variously love and seek to support.
24 I find it difficult in fixing your sentence in this instance given the relative seriousness of your offending, your significant criminal history, and the influence which you are meant tall illness had upon your offending.
25 You have been the subject of an extensive presentence assessment for the purpose of the imposition of a Community Corrections Order.
26 In the course of that assessment it was noted that whilst you have completed three parole orders successfully, your overall compliance with orders of been less than satisfactory and your continued illicit substance use and psychiatric history created a difficulty for a community corrections order as being a suitable sentencing option at this point.
27 I accept that in that report no mention was made to your successful completion of an ARC program. Equally it is not to be ignored that your offending occurred in this instance subsequent to that program .
28 Although the assessors did not rule out the fact that a Community Corrections Order might be imposed, given your criminal history and the statements made by the assessing officers in the course of the presentence assessment to which I referred above, I am not satisfied that I sthe imposition of a Community Corrections Order is an appropriate sentencing option in this instance .
29 Given the combination of your history of illicit substance abuse and your past criminal history I have real concerns as to whether your prospect for being rehabilitated could be described as being positive notwithstanding the presence of what I accept as currently being a positive intention on your part to advance your rehabilitation.
30 Whilst I accept that your offending in this instance was influenced by your mental illness there is no evidence to suggest that at the time of that offending you did not understand the nature or gravity of the offending.
31 I accept however that the offending was unsophisticated and involved no real aspect of preplanning notwithstanding the fact that you had armed yourself with an imitation pistol even though there is no real evidence about this I am satisfied that process involved you thinking about your own safety in the context of your paranoia at the time. That having been said however your decision to so arm yourself exposed innocent members of the community to the violence which occurred in this instance.
32 I am satisfied that the sentence which I impose in this instance should be influenced primarily by the combined need to protect the community from the risk of offending by you; and to deter you from further offending.
33 I am further satisfied that all your offending should be categorised as occurring during a single course of conduct and that in sentencing you in this instance it is appropriate that I impose an aggregate sentence.
34 In all the circumstances I am satisfied that I should impose one sentence with respect to the totality of your offending in this case namely a sentence involving an immediate period of imprisonment of two years and six months in respect of which I will fix18 months as the minimum period which you are required to serve before being eligible for parole.
35 I will declare the total period of 211 days as time served with respect to this sentence.
36 But for your plea of guilty I would have imposed a head sentence of four years with a minimum period to serve 3 years.
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