Director of Public Prosecutions v Manguson
[2013] VCC 1143
•20 August 2013
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
AT BENDIGO
CRIMINAL DIVISION CR-13-01009
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| MAURICE MANGUSON |
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JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE MAIDMENT | |
WHERE HELD: | Bendigo | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 20 August 2013 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 20 August 2013 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Manguson | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2013] VCC 1143 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the DPP | Mr P. Jones | |
| For the Accused | Ms M. Aumair |
HIS HONOUR:
1 Maurice Martin Manguson, you have pleaded guilty to an indictment containing a charge of aggravated burglary and a charge of intentionally causing serious injury.
2 The offences both occurred in the early hours of 10 March 2013.
3 The offence of aggravated burglary carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 25 years. The offence of intentionally causing serious injury carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years. You have admitted a number of prior convictions although it may fairly be said that most of those convictions are now fairly old and the most recent conviction of note appears to be as a result of a court appearance at the Bendigo Magistrates' Court on 18 February 2010 for making a threat to kill, assault on police, possessing a prohibited weapon without an exception or approval and for that you were convicted and fined $500.
4 It is not clear from the criminal history whether there was a further $500 fine and conviction but that may well have been the case. I note though that there was no term of imprisonment imposed for that offending and one may reasonably assume that it was not at the top end of the range of offending of that kind.
5 The prosecution has tendered and read to the court a summary of prosecution opening dated 19 June of this year which is Exhibit A on the plea. I am not going to go through that again. It has been read quite recently and I incorporate the content of that document in its entirely into these reasons for sentence.
6 Suffice to say that without a great of provocation you went round to the house occupied by the victim and participated in an aggravated burglary of the premises and a very serious assault upon him in which you inflicted serious injuries.
7 The prosecution has also relied upon two victim statements from the victim. It is undoubtedly the case that the injuries you inflicted caused him a good deal of discomfort for some time but have also caused him to lose his job and will no doubt involve considerable emotional and psychological pain to him for a significant period.
8 I am bound to take into account the physical and emotional effects upon the victim in determining an appropriate sentence in your case.
9 Turning to matters personal to you. Your counsel has helpfully provided me with a bundle of documents which include a written document headed “Submissions for the accused on sentence". It includes the orders made by His Honour Judge McInerney in relation to the sentence that you received on 30 May of this year for a number of sexual offences, the total effective sentence being six years imprisonment with a non-parole period of four years and three months.
10 The bundle of documents also includes a letter from the Sandhurst Medical Practice dated 28 May of this year which refers to your past medical history and to your current medications and includes a conclusion to this effect:
"His prognosis is uncertain due to his multiple health problems. He continues to be a smoker, one pack a day.
11 I have also been provided with a report of Doctor Simon Kennedy, a clinical and forensic psychologist, dated 9 April 2013 and a further report from Doctor Kennedy dated 28 May 2013. Those reports are both useful in providing detail about your background history. It is clear that you have not had a particularly easy life and that you continue to suffer from a number of physical and psychological difficulties arising partly from an intellectual disability and considerable alcohol abuse over a very substantial period of time.
12 He suggests at the end of his report that a more extensive neurological and neuropsychological testing may provide further clarity regarding the issues to which he refers in his report. The report is not relied upon to support a submission that the Verdins principles apply to reduce your moral culpability for the offending, but it is clearly relevant that I take into account your health issues, your intellectual disability, and your age as part of the relevant evidence bearing upon an appropriate sentence in your case.
13 Your wife has attended court. She still supports you. You are facing already a substantial term of imprisonment which will take you into your late 70s. Your counsel essentially submits that bearing in mind your age and your health problems and the sentence that you are already serving and your plea of guilty to these matters, that I should impose a sentence which, although properly reflective of the seriousness of the offending conduct, pays proper regard to the totality principle and does not add to your present sentence to a point which involves imposing a crushing sentence upon you, and gives you some hope for release into the community whilst you are young enough still to get some benefit from that.
14 The sentencing considerations that I have to bear in mind involve not only the impact upon the victim, to which I have already referred, but denunciation of your offending conduct, punishing you adequately for these serious offences, protecting the community from you and further offending, although I do not regard that as being a significant factor in your particular case, having regard to your age, and deterring you from further offences of this kind. Again, having regard to your age and the sentence that you will undoubtedly have to serve. I do not regard that as being particularly significant. What is significant, though, is the need to impose a sentence that pays proper regard to general deterrence, that is deterring others from committing offences of this kind.
15 I am required to consider your prospects of rehabilitation. It is late in life to be serving a sentence as long as the one that has already been imposed upon you and I would think that it is unlikely that when you are released from the sentence you will be inclined to embark on a fresh criminal career. One would imagine that the sentence you will have to serve will have a significant impact upon you. It will not be easy for you to come out and settle into a normal life at the end of that period, but I see no reason with the assistance of your wife why I should regard your prospects of rehabilitation as other than good. It seems to me that although your record is a bad one there is a very significant period during which you were not offending and I would regard your prospects of rehabilitation as at least reasonable to good.
16 The prosecution has indicated a range of sentences which they submit is a range within which I should impose sentence upon you. That range involves imposing a head sentence, that is a total effective sentence of between five years and seven years imprisonment with a non parole period of between four and five years. It seems to me that the proper approach is to consider individually what an appropriate sentence would be in relation to each of these two charges and then to consider what orders I should make as to cumulation as between those two charges, work out a total effective sentence for those two charges, and then determine the extent to which I should make orders for cumulation or concurrency with the sentence that you are already serving. Once I have done that then I need to consider an appropriate non parole period. That is a fresh non parole period which covers both the sentence that was imposed by His Honour Judge McInerney on 30 May of this year and for these offences also.
17 I am required, in conducting that exercise, to consider current sentencing practice. Of course the prosecution will have considered current sentencing practice in putting forward the range of sentences that is appropriate. Doing the best I can to balance all of those sentencing considerations and to comply with the legal requirements of constructing an appropriate sentence I am now ready to impose sentence upon you. I do not require you to stand, Mr Manguson. You can remain seated there.
18 For the charge of aggravated burglary on 10 March of this year I sentence you to five years imprisonment and convict you.
19 On Charge 2 of intentionally cause serious injury to Matthew Arthur Heffernan, on the same date, I convict you and sentence you to five years imprisonment.
20 I do not propose to make any order for cumulation as between those two sentences. However, I order that two years of that sentence be served cumulatively upon the sentence of six years imposed by His Honour Judge McInerney on 30 May 2013, which makes a total effective sentence of eight years imprisonment. I make a fresh non parole order, that is the period that you must serve before being eligible for parole, which covers both the sentence imposed by His Honour Judge McInerney and the one that I have imposed upon you of six years imprisonment.
21 I further order that you must undergo a forensic procedure for the taking of a scraping from the mouth or a blood sample in accordance with Subdivision 30A of Part 3 of the Crimes Act 1958 and I must inform you that if at the time of a request made by an authorised police officer for the taking of a scraping from your mouth you fail or refuse to provide such a scraping, that officer will be authorised then to take a blood sample and may use reasonable force to enable that forensic procedure to be conducted. I am sure you will not put the police officers to the trouble of doing that and that you will ultimately provide a scraping from the inside of your mouth when requested to do so. I shall make those orders. Are there any other orders that I need make?
22 MR JONES: 6AAA Your Honour.
23 HIS HONOUR: Yes, but for your pleas of guilty to this matter I would have imposed a total effective sentence of seven years imprisonment and I would have imposed an overall non parole period of seven years and six months. There is one other thing I think I should clarify and that is it seems to me that the offences that are the subject of this indictment were committed whilst he was on bail for the other matters, is that right?
24 MR JONES: Yes Your Honour.
25 HIS HONOUR: Ordinarily that would require me to impose sentences that were cumulative, wholly cumulative upon the sentence that His Honour Judge McInerney imposed. For the reasons that I have already given, particularly having regard to the age of the offender, I regard it as appropriate to make the order for cumulation that I have made, rather than for total cumulation of sentences. Ms Aumair would you like just a few minutes with your client once I have left the bench?
26 MS AUMAIR: Your Honour I am going to make arrangements to telephone him tomorrow so we can have a more detailed conversation. So thank you for that opportunity and honestly thank you for the opportunity to hear the matter by video link, it was a significant relief to Mr Manguson not to have to be transported.
27 HIS HONOUR: Yes, I can well imagine that. I will leave the bench, I think, whilst that order is being drawn up.
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