Director of Public Prosecutions v Langton (a pseudonym)
[2017] VCC 221
•3 March 2017
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA AT MELBOURNE CRIMINAL DIVISION | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| LEVI LANGTON (A PSEUDONYM) |
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JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE RYAN | |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 23 February 2017 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 3 March 2017 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Langton (a pseudonym) | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2017] VCC 221 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject: CRIMINAL LAW – SENTENCE
Catchwords: Serious Sexual Offender
Legislation Cited: Crimes Act 1958; Sex Offender Registration Act 2004; Sentencing Act 1991
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the DPP | Mr C. Thomson | Solicitor for Office of Public Prosecutions |
| For the Accused | Mr C. Pearson | James Dowsley & Associates |
HIS HONOUR:
1 Levi Langton, on 8 February 2017, you were arraigned and pleaded not guilty to all charges contained on Indictment F11309514A, being two charges of incest (Charges 2 and 4), one charge of indecent act with or in the presence of a child under 16 (Charge 1), two charges of common assault (Charges 3 and 7), one charge of causing serious injury intentionally (Charge 5) and, as an alternative, one charge of causing serious injury recklessly (Charge 6). The victim in respect of each charge was your stepdaughter. The between dates of the charges covered the period from 1 January 1996 to 31 December 2004, when the complainant was aged between eight and 17 years.
2 On 17 February 2017, a jury returned guilty verdicts on Charges 1, 2, 3, 4 and the alternative to Charge 6, recklessly cause injury, and Charge 7.
3 You were remanded in custody to await your trial in respect of Indictment F11309514B that contained eight charges of indecent assault, five charges of sexual penetration of a child under ten years and four charges of sexual penetration of a child between ten and 16 years, pleaded in the alternative. The trial was to commence on 21 February 2017. On that day the matter was stood down, and it resolved into a plea and on the following day, Indictment F11309514B.1 was filed over. It contained two charges of indecent assault (Charges 1 and 2), one charge of sexual penetration of a child under ten years (Charge 3) and one charge of sexual penetration of a child between ten and 16 years (Charge 4). You pleaded guilty to this indictment upon arraignment.
4 The facts that support the convictions recorded on 17 February 2017, can be set out in short compass. When the complainant was in Grade 3, or thereabouts, you compelled her to watch a pornographic video, which contained images of two women fighting over a naked man who was sitting on a couch. The women ripped each other's clothes off and then took turns in having sex with the man. You threatened the complainant that you would hit her if she did not look at the screen (Charge 1). When the complainant was in Grade 3 or 4, she was in the lounge room one evening watching a television program called Home Improvement, when you removed her clothing and held her legs apart. You licked her vagina and penetrated her with your tongue. (Charge 2)
5 Charges 3 and 4 occurred on the complainant’s 14th birthday, when after celebrating her birthday with a family dinner and birthday cake, her grandparents and her mother went out to play poker machines. After the complainant’s younger sister went to bed, you entered the complainant’s bedroom where she was lying in her bed. You pulled the bed covers off the complainant and despite her struggling with you and saying to you, “Please don’t ruin my birthday”, you struck her (Charge 3). You pulled her out of her bed, threw her across the room, then threw her back onto her bed and while she was lying on her back on the bed and you were standing, you penetrated her vagina with your penis. (Charge 4)
6 Charges 5 and 6 on the indictment concerned an occasion when there was a party at your home, and the complainant had a friend sleeping over for the night. You entered the bedroom where the two girls were in their beds, and attempted to coax them into kissing you. When they refused, you pulled the complainant by the hair from her bed and threw her across the room and kicked her. The complainant suffered bruising and swelling to the area of her left eyebrow and swelling to her left cheek, and complained that she was unable to eat properly for a number of days. The jury returned a verdict of guilty to the alternative to Charge 6, being recklessly causing injury.
7 Against a background of repeated sexual abuse where you would arrange for the complainant to attend on you in your lounge room to have sex with you, one night you went into her bedroom in anticipation of sex and pulled her from her bed by her hair. A dispute arose which woke the complainant’s grandmother and mother, and their intervention brought this incident to a conclusion. (Charge 7)
8 On 23 February 2017 your plea was conducted, and tendered as Exhibit A on the plea in support of Indictment F11309514B.1 was the summary of prosecution opening on plea. In summary, between 13 July 1986 and 31 December 1989, you offended against your niece. She was aged between seven and 11 years during this period. In the week or so before the complainant’s eighth birthday, a time when you were staying at your brother’s home, you entered the complainant’s bedroom wearing only your underwear. You pointed to your crotch and asked the complainant if she wanted to have a look. She answered that she did not. You told the complainant that she was "your special girl" and you climbed into bed with her. She had been reading a story book, which you threw to the floor. You kissed her and licked her, lay on top of her, forced her legs open with your hands and pinned her down and rubbed your erect penis against her thigh, and then against her vagina over the top of her underpants. (Charge 1) This charge is a representative charge in respect to the same act performed on a later occasion.
9 After performing the conduct that founds Charge 1, you took the complainant’s hand and placed it on the outside of your underwear and against your penis. You then put her hand inside your underwear and rubbed it against your penis. The complainant was distressed and crying and you used your other hand to caress the top of her head to placate her. You forced the complainant to rub her hand against your penis until you ejaculated. (Charge 2)
10 On another occasion, you entered the complainant’s bedroom wearing a lava lava, or Samoan sarong, and kissed the complainant. You told her that you "wanted to share something special with her". You removed your lava lava and stroked your penis, which was just below the complainant’s chin. You rubbed your penis against her mouth, you put the tip of your penis in her mouth and pushed your penis deeper into her mouth, causing her to dry retch. (Charge 3)
11 After your repeated acts of sexual impropriety in respect to the complainant, your niece adopted the practice of wearing old fashioned nighties that buttoned at the neck and covered her to the ankles. One night when the complainant was wearing one of these nighties, you entered her bedroom wearing a lava lava. You wore no underwear. You instructed the complainant to suck your penis and she complied. (Charge 4) This charge is a representative charge of three other occasions when the complainant was compelled to suck your penis to the point where you ejaculated in her mouth.
12 The maximum penalty for the offences for which you fall to be sentenced are:
Incest – 25 years’ imprisonment;
Indecent act with or in the presence of a child under 16 years – ten years’ imprisonment;
Common law assault – five years’ imprisonment;
Recklessly causing injury – five years’ imprisonment;
Indecent assault – five years’ imprisonment;
Sexual penetration with a child under ten years – 20 years’ imprisonment; and
Sexual penetration with a child between ten and 16 years – ten years’ imprisonment.
13 Tendered as Exhibits B and C were Victim Impact Statements from each of your two victims. Each of your child victims are now mature young women. Their lives have been profoundly and adversely affected by your criminal conduct. Each of them have suffered from anxiety and depression. Each have required therapy over the years. Each have suffered from insomnia and recurrent memories of your appalling conduct towards them as children. Their relationships with their mother and father respectively have been volatile. Each is withdrawn and distrustful of others, and each has experienced profound difficulty in maintaining intimacy in their relationships. From their perspectives, you have ruined their lives.
14 Levi Langton, you are presently 51 years of age. You were born in Samoa and are the fifth eldest of 12 children born to your parents. You were raised strictly in the Mormon faith. Your father was a mechanic employed by the Australian-sponsored enterprise Samoan Provincial Development Corporation, designing and constructing infrastructure in Samoa, such as roads and public buildings. Your mother stayed at home looking after the 12 children.
15 When you were about 13 years of age, for a period of time you became isolated when your eldest sister and elder brother moved to New Zealand, and shortly thereafter the balance of your family moved to Salt Lake City in the U.S.A. It is unclear why you were left to your own resources in Samoa. However, when you turned 14 years of age you travelled to New Zealand and were briefly reunited with your brother and sister there. I was told that the majority of your siblings still reside in Salt Lake City.
16 Shortly after your arrival in New Zealand, your brother and sister moved to Australia. You remained in Auckland, living with an uncle until you were about 18 years of age. You had little or no education in Samoa, and attended approximately one year’s schooling whilst in Auckland, leaving school at 15 years of age. You immediately commenced work as a labourer in a local woollen mill. Over time, you were promoted and worked as a weaver on a loom at the woollen mill. At 18 years of age in 1983, you travelled to Australia and initially lived with your brother and his wife in Melbourne. Whilst in Melbourne, you worked at a woollen mill in Dandenong for a period of approximately two years. Thereafter, you went to live in Sydney and resided with your eldest sister and her family. Whilst living in Sydney, you would visit your brother in Melbourne from time to time and it is during some of these visits that you offended against his daughter, your niece.
17 You moved back to Melbourne in about 1987 or 1988, and worked as a foundry worker in Dandenong. According to the depositions, you resided for a period of time with your brother. It is during this period of time that you offended against your niece in respect of Charge 4 on the plea indictment.
18 In 1990, you met the mother of the victim on the trial indictment. You married in 1994. A child of that marriage was born in 1997.
19 I was informed that your father died many years ago in Salt Lake City and that you attended his funeral. Further, you recall that your mother came to Australia in about 2010, and remained in Australia for approximately two years and died in about 2012 from causes unknown to you. Shortly thereafter, your eldest sister died as well.
20 You have one other brother who lives in Australia, he having relocated from Salt Lake City to Melbourne some years ago; he lives in Sunshine.
21 I was informed that after the allegations of sexual abuse were first made to police in or about 2009, you were effectively ostracised by members of your family, and immediately before your incarceration, you led a fairly solitary life living in a one-bedroom flat in Cranbourne.
22 You have always been a hard worker and have always been in employment. Prior to the commencement of the trial, you worked two jobs; in the morning you worked as a maintenance man at a medical clinic and in the afternoon you worked as a fork lift driver. I was told by Mr Pearson of Counsel, who appeared on your behalf, that he had been in contact with each of your employers to inform them that you would not be attending work in the future and they communicated to him that they each regarded you as a good worker.
23 Outside work, your passion has been rugby. You played rugby league when you lived in New South Wales, and when living in Victoria you played rugby union. During the course of the trial, evidence was led that once you ceased playing rugby you were a regular attender at gymnasium. I was informed that you are a keen Melbourne Storm supporter and that you try to attend All Blacks games when they play in Australia.
24 You are a naturalised Australian citizen and have never abused drugs of addiction, and you are described as a social drinker. You have no psychiatric history of any kind.
25 After the initial complaint to police in 2009, it appears that the investigation stalled. You were interviewed in 2009 and again in February 2012, and you denied any wrong doing. You were not charged with any offences until 2015. Accordingly, there has been a delay in your prosecution of seven years or so. During this period of delay you have continued to work and you have not further offended.
26 Delay in some circumstances can be a strong mitigating factor. This is not the case in your situation. Your offending was situational. Your stepdaughter left your home when she was 18, and her reporting of your offending against her in 2009 caused the breakup of your marriage to her mother. Like many men who offend sexually against children, you are otherwise of good character. You have no prior convictions and there are no prosecutions pending against you.
27 On the plea I was informed that you accept the verdict of the jury in respect of the first trial. However, you have expressed no remorse in respect to your offending against your stepdaughter. On the contrary, you entered the witness box and swore that the acts alleged against you and found proven beyond reasonable doubt by the jury, did not occur.
28 In respect of the indictment that concerns your niece, your plea is late and she was cross-examined at committal. However, your plea does have utilitarian benefit and is some evidence of your remorse in respect of your conduct towards her.
29 You were remanded in custody after the jury’s verdict, and this is the first time that you have ever been in prison. I was informed that you are currently experiencing difficulty in adjusting to prison life. However, because of your large physical presence, it is anticipated that you will cope within the prison system. In accordance with normal practice within the prison system, you are currently on a form of protective custody within the prison system.
30 Mr Pearson on your behalf submitted that because of your lack of prior convictions and your exemplary work history, as well as your religious beliefs, that your prospects for rehabilitation were good. As your offending was situational, I am of the opinion that should you find yourself in a relationship where there are young female children, that there is a real likelihood that you will reoffend. As to the risk of your offending generally, I regard that as unlikely. Accordingly, I regard your prospects for rehabilitation generally as good. However, in respect to matters of sexual impropriety, you are, and I believe will continue to be, a risk.
31 Your offending was grave. You offended against children who were members of your family. One victim was your brother’s daughter and the other your stepdaughter. Your conduct strikes at the heart of family life and involved a gross breach of trust. Your sentence must reflect society’s denunciation of the sexual abuse of children and the profound harm that it causes. Your conduct calls for condign punishment. You are an appropriate vehicle for the application of the sentencing principle of general deterrence, and the application of that principle together with the principle of specific deterrence have particular relevance in the exercise of my sentencing discretion, as too do the principles of denunciation and just punishment. As you will be sentenced to a term of imprisonment in respect to each of the charges on each of the indictments, you fall to be sentenced as a serious sexual offender in respect to Charge 4 on Indictment F11309514A and all of the charges on Indictment F11309514B.1. Accordingly, protection of the community must be the principal purpose for which sentence is imposed on those charges.
32 By this sentence, I must punish you, publicly denounce your conduct, and deter you and others from committing these kinds of crimes. Taking into account the circumstances of the offences and their effects, 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 and your offending, I sentence you as follows:
On Indictment F11309514A;
On Charge 1 – 12 months’ imprisonment;
On Charge 2 – six months imprisonment;
On Charge 3 – six months’ imprisonment;
On Charge 4 – six years’ imprisonment;
On the charge of recklessly causing injury – six months’ imprisonment; and
On Charge 7 – six months’ imprisonment.
33 I order that one month of the sentences imposed on Charge 7 and the charge of recklessly causing injury, together with six months of the sentence imposed on Charge 1, together with two years of the sentence imposed on Charge 4, be served cumulatively upon each other and upon Charge 2. This results in a total effective sentence of eight years and eight months’ imprisonment.
34 On indictment F11309514B.1;
On Charge 1 – 12 months’ imprisonment;
On Charge 2 – 12 months’ imprisonment;
On Charge 3 – five years’ imprisonment; and
On Charge 4 – three years’ imprisonment.
35 I order that three months of the sentences imposed on each of Charges 1 and 2, together with one year of the sentence imposed on Charge 4, be served cumulatively upon each other and upon the sentence imposed on Charge 3. This results in a total effective sentence of six years and six months’ imprisonment.
36 I order that three years of the sentence imposed on Indictment F11309514B.1 be served cumulatively upon the sentence imposed upon Indictment F11309514A.
37 This results in a total effective sentence of 11 years and eight months’ imprisonment, and I fix the period of eight years’ imprisonment as the period of imprisonment that you must serve before you will become eligible for parole.
38 I declare that you have spent 14 days by way of pre‑sentence detention.
39 I declare that you have been sentenced as a serious sexual offender in respect to Charge 4 on Indictment F11309514A and on all of the charges contained in Indictment F11309514B.1. I direct that this fact be entered in the records of the court.
40 In respect of Indictment F11309514B.1, pursuant to s.6AAA of the Sentencing Act 1991, I declare that but for your pleas of guilty, I would have sentenced you to eight years’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of five years’ imprisonment.
41 I direct that you be subject to the provisions of the Sex Offender Registration Act for life. You may be seated.
42 Mr Langton, what is going to happen is my associate is going to come down to you and hand you some documents that relate to your obligations under the Sex Offender Registration Act. By signing these documents, you are merely acknowledging receipt of them. Mr Flicker, if you wish to go down and assist Mr Langton with this matter, I think you should.
43 COUNSEL: Thank you, Your Honour.
44 HIS HONOUR: Now, Mr Langton, if you would please stand? The Crown made application under s.464ZF(2) of the Crimes Act for a forensic procedure to be conducted on you by way of a mouth scraping. I have granted that application because of the seriousness of the circumstances of your offending warrant the order, the order was not opposed, and the granting of the order is in the public interest.
45 I must inform you that if at the time of request you do not consent to the taking of a mouth scraping under the supervision of an authorised member of the police, then the sample to be taken will be a blood sample, and police may use reasonable force to enable that forensic procedure to be conducted.
46 I hand down three copies of that order. Have counsel checked the orders for cumulation, both in terms of counts on indictments and between indictments? Mr Flicker? Please be seated, Mr Langton.
47 So in respect of the trial indictment, the total effective sentence is eight years and eight months. In respect of the plea indictment the total effective sentence on that indictment is six years and six months, and I have ordered three years of the plea indictment to be served cumulatively upon the sentence imposed on the trial indictment. That means a total effective sentence overall of 11 years and eight months, and I fix a non-parole period of eight years.
48 COUNSEL: Correct Your Honour.
49 HIS HONOUR: Could you remove the prisoner please.
50 OFFENDER: Thank you.
51 HIS HONOUR: Yes Mr Langton. 10.30 Monday morning please.
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