Director of Public Prosecutions v Lette

[2024] VCC 774

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

  Revised

  Not Restricted

          Suitable for Publication

AT MELBOURNE

CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR-24-00207

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

PIERRE LETTE

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE JOHNS
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	6 May 2024
DATE OF SENTENCE:	29 May 2024
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Lette
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2024] VCC 774

REASONS FOR SENTENCE

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Subject: :  Criminal Law – Sentence   

Catchwords:  Armed Robbery – Committing offence whilst on Youth Parole –  Young offender

Legislation Cited:           Sentencing Act 1991

Cases Cited:Bugmy v The Queen (“Bugmy”) 249 CLR 571; DPP v Pierre Lette [2023] VCC (Unreported)

Sentence:Total effective sentence of 2 years’ and 6 months’ at the Youth Justice Centre

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr C. Rattray	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Offender	Ms J. Ball	Slades & Parsons

HIS HONOUR: 

1Pierre Lette, you have pleaded guilty before me to a charge of armed robbery.  Armed robbery carries a maximum penalty of 25 years’ imprisonment.  You committed armed robbery in company which makes it a Category 2 offence and I must sentence you to a sentence of imprisonment other than in combination with a CCO or a period of detention in a Youth Justice centre, unless one of the exceptions in s5(2H) are met.  Your counsel has conceded, appropriately, that no exception applies in your case. 

2You also have a relevant prior conviction.  You were on youth parole and serving a 12 month sentence imposed by Judge Holding of this Court when you committed the offence before me.  That sentence was imposed on 8 March and you were released on youth parole to serve the remaining couple of months of that sentence in the community on 28 June last year or thereabouts.

3Whilst the offence before me was committed during the period of your youth parole, I am told this morning, about ten days prior to the end of your parole.  By the time you were apprehended and remanded on this matter you had completed parole.  It is not yet known if you will be breached in respect of that parole order.

4I have had the benefit of reading Judge Holding’s sentencing remarks and I will provide the medium neutral citation for those remarks in my published reasons.[1]

[1]DPP v Pierre Lette [2023] VCC

5The offence of armed robbery before Judge Holding bore some similarities to the offence you have pleaded guilty to in this court. 

6A report by Carla Lechner was relied upon before me which was prepared for the purposes of the matter before Judge Holding.  I do make the same findings as Judge Holding did based upon that report and based upon your personal particulars.  Without repeating the content therein, I adopt what was stated at paragraphs [15] to [22] of Judge Holding’s sentence.

Circumstances of offending

7The circumstances of your offending before me are set out in the Summary of Prosecution Opening which is Exhibit A and forms part of these reasons for sentence.

8In brief, on 16 August last year you were at a venue known as the Leighoak Club.  Your 43 year old victim was also there and apparently won some money in the gaming lounge.  You became aware of this due to an interaction you had with him.  You then introduced him to the co-accused, Mr Wilson, who I will also deal with and sentence in late June.

9You and Mr Wilson lured the victim to an alleyway adjacent to the club where Mr Wilson’s vehicle was parked.  Co-accused Wilson got in the driver’s seat of the vehicle, your victim sat in the front seat and you sat in the seat behind your victim.  You got your victim in a choker-type hold, you were also punching him.  Demands were made for his wallet. Wilson produced a knife. 

10You are being sentenced on the basis that you were not aware that there was a knife but once it was produced you were aware of it, of course.  Your victim was threatened with the knife by Wilson.  You at that time were continuing to assault your victim.  His pockets were searched and around $5,000 in cash was stolen and a phone.

Objective Gravity of Offending

11It is very serious offending, there is no doubt about it.  It is predatory and it does involve a degree of planning.  In my view, it is more serious than the offence dealt with by Judge Holding, and further, you were on parole at the time that you committed this offence.  You are also a little bit older than you were at the time you committed the offence for which Judge Holding dealt with you for.

12The effects on the victim were no doubt far-reaching and devastating, a terrifying experience to be involved in, and any person would be impacted significantly by that.

13I do accept that you have insight and this comes through the pre-sentence report, but also in other documents, that you do have some appropriate victim empathy and that is very important for a young person such as yourself.  If it were not for that your prospects of rehabilitation would be far more bleak.

Personal Circumstances

14Your counsel, Ms Ball, in her excellent outline summarised your personal circumstances, and that was in Exhibit 1.  They are also summarised in the Carla Lechner report to which I have referred and Judge Holding’s sentencing reasons.  I do not propose to go over those in detail.  I accept what has been said about your formative years, your childhood, your teenage years, particularly from the years 11 onwards, periods of instability, lack of guidance and support and gravitation towards negative peers, a period of your life when you were couch surfing and commenced illicit substance abuse.[2]

[2]Bugmy v The Queen (“Bugmy”) 249 CLR 571.

15I have also had the benefit of reading the letter written by your grandmother and I have found this a very useful document.  It sets out in a very personal way, and in a way that is easy to follow, your trajectory through life and the forces that have shaped you.  It speaks eloquently by relating facts as to the early neglect and abandonment you experienced, the sense of rejection and the impact that had on you, exposure to bullying, abuse and racial vilification during school years, the instability in the home environment which commenced what is described as the couch surfing from the age of 11, and the associated substance use and emotional dysregulation. In summary, your immersion from a very young age in a lifestyle where you were surrounded by negative peers, without strong familial support or adult support or pro-social guidance.

16Your grandmother makes a number of points which are very useful for the sentencing exercise and I accept everything that your grandmother says.  In summary, she says at one point: 

‘Having his teenage identity formed almost entirely in the company of other homeless teens has not equipped him with the usual skills required for independent living.’

17And that passage, in particular, is relevant to the disposition that I am considering, that is, a period of detention in Youth Justice as the appropriate disposition.

18Ms Lechner in her report also makes useful observations, notwithstanding that it is prepared in relation to the matter that was dealt with prior to this matter.  Ms Lechner states:

’Pierre’s history indicates longstanding emotional and behavioural dysregulation emanating from experiences of rejection and abandonment.  He has been looking out for himself since the age of 14 to 15 years with no adult, social or familial support network.’

19She goes on to describe one of the consequences of those experiences, as you being psycho-socially very immature.

20Your counsel urged during the plea for me to get you assessed for a pre-sentence report for your suitability for a Youth Justice Centre Order, and I was hesitant to do so, I baulked at the process due to your age. You will turn 21 in about a month.

21The length of the time you have spent in adult custody was also a factor that I considered to be a factor that might make an adult sentence with a long period of parole more appropriate, and of course your antecedents, the fact that you had been on youth parole at the time of commission of this offence. 

22So all of those matters gave me some hesitation, but nonetheless, I received a report.  I ordered a report and I have received it and my view has changed.  My view has changed in part because of the recommendations in the report but also I have a better understanding of the brief time you were on youth parole. 

23As Ms Del Monte has reiterated again this morning, you did not have time to complete the behavioural change program, the Caraniche program that you were undertaking, and you relapsed.  Experience tells us that does happen. You are still a young man, you are not yet 21, and your track record through Youth Justice pursuant to the sentence that Judge Holding imposed, and also your engagement then on youth parole, offers some positive signs for your engagement. 

24I received on the Plea a letter from Zoe Guessis, intensive support worker, YJCSS, which indicated your level of engagement, and in the detailed pre-sentence report Ms Del Monte set out your history both in custody and on parole.  Also, the certificates of completion and the programs you have engaged in whilst in adult custody on remand for this matter are relevant to my assessment.

25Your previous engagement showed that you can benefit from youth programs and youth parole, that you are a good candidate for rehabilitation if you can harness the assistance and the opportunities available to you pursuant to a Youth Justice Centre order, and then youth parole.

26As I have noted, it was also important in the pre-sentence report that you were able to articulate victim empathy including the thoughts, feelings and ramifications of your actions on the victim.  The assessment made in that report was that further engagement with Youth Justice would benefit you and offence-specific interventions that target your level of risk would assist you and possibly prevent further entrenchment in the criminal justice system.  These are very important aims in respect of sentencing any individual but particularly a young person before the court such as yourself.

27The report also concluded that there are reasonable prospects for your rehabilitation and that you also are particularly impressionable, immature or likely to be subject to undesirable influences in an adult prison.  Of course the report expands on that, but relevantly in relation to age, being the concern that I raised, the report writer writes:

’Mr Lette is 20 years of age which places him at the higher end of age range for the dual track system for the purposes of this assessment.  However, the psychological report written by Ms Lechner indicates that he performs in the low average range of verbal intelligence.  Mr Lette has a history of victimisation evidenced through the trauma, neglect and abuse he suffered during his childhood and being a victim of racist bullying throughout his schooling years.  While Mr Lette does associate with older antisocial peers, this is likely due to his lack of prosocial role models and a fractured relationship with his family.  Mr Lette’s dependence on older peers makes him subject to undesirable influences in an adult prison and render him as impressionable.’

28I accept that conclusion, as I accept the recommendation that reads:

’In light of the above information and based on s32(1) of the Sentencing Act which takes into account age, prospects for rehabilitation and/or if a young person is particularly impressionable, immature or likely to be subject to undesirable influences in prison, Mr Lette is assessed as suitable for detention within a Youth Justice Centre.  It is the assessment of Youth Justice that Mr Lette meets both facets of the criteria.’

29I have also concluded that you meet both facets of the criteria.

30Coming back to sentencing principles, general deterrence nonetheless remains a very significant factor, notwithstanding your youth.  General deterrence and denunciation of this sort of conduct. I am required to impose a sentence which appropriately denounces such violent planned criminal conduct and that acts as a deterrent to others but also a deterrent to you. 

31Also, I have to impose a sentence, of course, that takes into account your prospects of rehabilitation, and as best I can, synthesising all of those factors, the most appropriate sentence that addresses each of those issues appropriately is a Youth Justice Centre Order but it is one of some length.  So I sentence you as follows, Mr Lette:

Sentence

32In relation to the charge of armed robbery that is before me, you are sentenced to be detained in a Youth Justice Centre for a period of two and a half years.

33I declare that you have served 237 days as pre-sentence detention in relation to that sentence, so that is roughly about eight months.

34If it were not for your pleas of guilty, I would have sentenced you to a sentence of three and a half years in prison with a non-parole period of two and a half years.

35What that sentence means is that you have done eight months of it.  When you enter youth justice they will calculate when you are eligible for parole, what your earliest parole eligibility date is, and I imagine that will be in the coming months.  What you will need to do though is to engage fully, behave and do everything that is asked of you so that when you are eligible for parole, or soon after you are eligible for parole, the best plan is in place for you. 

36If you do all those things and your behaviour is good and there is a plan in place for you, you will likely be on youth parole for a significant period of time, which some people find not easy but it is a good thing for you.  Because everything that has been said about you by your counsel, Ms Ball, by Ms Lechner in the report, by Judge Holding on the previous occasion, by your grandmother and by Ms Del Monte in the pre-sentence report, is that you need that support, and you would not be re-offending and hurting people in the community but also finding yourself in adult custody if you can address some of these traumas in the past, if you can address the drug issue and if you can get some stability in housing and start to achieve some of your goals – getting work, things like that.

37Now are there any other orders I need to make, Mr Rattray?

38MR RATTRAY:  None, Your Honour.

39HIS HONOUR:  Ms Ball, there’s nothing else that I need to cover or needs clarification there?

40MS BALL:  No, Your Honour. 

41HIS HONOUR:  Mr Lette, all the best for the next 22 months, one way or another you are under the supervision of Youth Justice so make sure you take this opportunity to take advantage of the assistance and the opportunities that are available.  I thank everyone for your attendance, we will now adjourn the court.

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