Director of Public Prosecutions v Matthews

[2019] VCC 1001

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA Revised
Not Restricted
 Suitable for Publication

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 18-00807

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

STEPHANIE MATTHEWS

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE GUCCIARDO
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	25 June 2019
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Matthews
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2019] VCC 1001

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:
Catchwords:
Legislation Cited:
Cases Cited:
Sentence:

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr J. Barrington	OPP
For the Accused	Mr K. Leong	VALS

HIS HONOUR:

1Stephanie Matthews, you were before me and charged with failing to comply with conditions of a community correction order, which I imposed on
7 September 2018 after your plea of guilty and conviction on one charge of armed robbery committed by you in January of 2018, together with a summary charge of committing an indictable offence while on bail, namely the armed robbery.

2Armed robbery carries a maximum penalty of 25 years and the bail offence,
30 penalty units or three months' imprisonment.

3The circumstances of the offending were contained in a summary of prosecution opening on your plea and my sentence dated 7 September in 2018.  In that sentence, I outlined the salient aspect of the offending which you committed whilst you had a knife.

4You were, in 2018, 28 years old.  You have many priors for dishonesty, others involving drugs, contraventions of bail, burglaries of violence offences, weapons offences, robbery priors and failure to comply with earlier imposed community-based orders.

5I took into account your plea, the remorse, regret and background and the long drug use of the priors background.  I took into account, at that time, 229 days of pre-sentence detention and imposed a cumulative sentence of eight months to be followed thereafter by a two year community correction order, which included 150 hours of community work, supervision, drug treatment, mental health treatment, offending programs and judicial monitoring.

6I sought to apply what I thought was a circuit breaker for you, a last chance at reclamation.  I imposed a very lenient and merciful sentence on the armed robbery. I also ordered that if you were to undertake mental health and drug treatment, 50 hours would be credited to the work component.  

7I issued you with a very specific warning during the sentence at paragraph 14.  I said this:

'I will allow you to credit 50 hours spent on drug and mental health rehabilitation to go to those work hour components.  Apart from needing to be of good behaviour during that period of time and not to reoffend, I must warn you in no uncertain terms that if you breach this order, you will be brought back before me, you will be punished for the breach and I will resentence you for the armed robbery.  What will follow directly in that sentence is a substantial period of imprisonment.'

8At paragraph 17 I said at that time,

'If you disengage from them [that is a reference to Correctional authorities], within a very short period of time, you will be breached and you will be brought back to court.  So on that first judicial monitoring date, I will want to hear that you have been cooperating, turning up to supervision and turning up to all other assessments and work that needs to be done.  That will demonstrate to me that you are serious about your rehabilitation.  If it does not happen, then it becomes very difficult to know what else to do with you except to send you back to gaol.'

9At paragraphs 37 to 39, I said this:

'You are an intelligent young woman.  You can make your way in the world without the stuff you still think you might be carrying around on your shoulders.  It is really a matter of making a choice now.  I am told that you have been in a relationship for quite some time.  You have a daughter and a mother who I think may well provide you with some support if you hold up your end of the bargain.  But the bargain that you have made with me today is even more important than that and it is not just a bargain with me.

You have really made a contract with yourself.  So it is really a matter of choices that you make.  If you want to break that contract, you know where that is going to lead.  I would have thought that at your age, you would have wanted to have a better life than the one that you have had and you are capable of doing that.'

10It has been alleged before me that you have contravened the order.  I find that contravention proven.  It was accepted as such on your plea. 

11A chronology was tendered and is a useful document to understand the essence of the contravention which proceeds on the basis of non-compliance and further offending.

12You were arrested the day after the armed robbery.  You were released from custody 12 days after my sentence and you attended for induction on
20 September.  Your first unacceptable failure was on 5 October and two days later on the 7 October, you committed further offences for thefts and burglary.  The chronology thereafter sets out the failures to attend supervision and community work.

13In January 2019, a Magistrates' Court sentenced you to three months' imprisonment on a community correction order for 12 months for the 7 October offences and 84 days were reckoned as PSD.  You were released on
15 January 2019.  You failed to attend that day and subsequent days.

14In early February, you went to Odyssey House for an initial appointment.  By mid-February, your drug treatment and rehabilitation as well as urine screens were erratic.  You returned positive tests for morphine, ice, Benzodiazepines and cannabis.  Thereafter, you failed to attend until mid-March 2019 when you committed further offences of dishonesty of the theft of cars and from cars, burglary, theft and handling stolen goods.

15In late April, you were to appear in the Magistrates' Court for these offences of March.  Your charges for contravention is dated 3 April.  The order was to expire in September of next year.  You also failed to attend a judicial monitoring on
21 February 2019.

16Two reports were received by the court as to your progress during the order for the purposes, (1) of the judicial monitoring and (2) for the contravention.  The judicial monitoring report of February 2019 highlighted the sporadic nature of your engagement even though you had maintained contact with your case manager.  You were yet to go to a GP to complete a mental health plan.  You had attended one appointment of drug and alcohol counselling.  It indicated that you would be contravened.

17The April report makes clear that the further offences occurred due to your relapse into drug use.  Further non-attendance was due to instability in accommodation despite contact efforts, facilitation of appointment and other assistance.  Your drug use made effective engagement impossible.

18By mid-March 2019, you had disengaged totally.  You told Corrections you could not comply with community-based dispositions.  It also appears that your mother's diagnosis of late stage cancer may have rendered you even less able to comply.  Your community work remains almost entirely uncompleted.  Assessment for drug treatment could not be facilitated for a period of time because of your disengagement.

19While in custody in January 2019, you were able to be assessed for counselling and psychological management.  You were referred to Odyssey House and ultimately you were exited from this treatment because you were remanded in custody.

20Upon release, you went back to heroin and ice.  You failed to attend to screenings, but on one occasion that you did, you as I have said before were found positive for a number of substances.  You failed to complete a mental health assessment.  You failed to attend to judicial monitoring.  The report recommended the order be cancelled and that you be resentenced.

21I received three reports, all old in time in relation to your offending.  A Court Integrated Service Program report of December 2017, an assessment by
Gina Cidoni of July 2016 and am unbiased report of September 2016.  Cidoni's report outlines your extensive criminal history, that your co-accused with whom you are in a relationship, Kayla Thorp, was also using heroin and ice.  She recited your background and family history, relationship history, which was also very poor.  She summarised your history of assaults and violence upon you both in the home and in the streets.  She gave you a poor educational and employment history.

22Testing revealed psychological distress and disturbance of severe levels with symptoms of anxiety, depression, paranoid thoughts, lack of sleep and hypomania.  You appear to meet criteria for a bipolar disorder.

23The unbiased report again summarised a relevant history and background.  A neuropsychological evaluation found that you performed within normal limits at the average range.  There was no evidence of an acquired brain injury or intellectual impairment.  I noted the opinion regarding possibilities for the future, all of which seem to depend on your abstinence from drugs.  Ongoing engagement with meaningful occupation and educational pursuits and avoiding the growing danger of recidivism.

24The threshold for my observation may well have already been crossed.  I was told you will be sentenced on July 1st at the Magistrates' Court for the outstanding matters, but that since your remand, you are doing relatively well in prison.  That is not necessarily a good thing.

25You are employed full time, obtained horticultural certificates and you have had some contact with your daughter and mother.  Doing well in reclusion is not something to be proud of.  That only counts in the outside world.

26I have taken into consideration those efforts during the life of the order when you did show up and engage with Corrections.  They have been few and far between.  As far as the rest of the order conditions, your performance has been appalling.

27On the contravention, you are convicted and sentenced to one month's imprisonment.

28I take into account that you have served some total 241 days in total as part of the original sentence and a further 48 days by way of pre-sentence detention since remanded on 17 March for the further offences.  The sentencing court will need to declare these days as pre-sentence detention related to those offences, but I must consider the 48 days of now 55 days for reason of totality, you having spent 289 days all up, well over nine months.

29On the resentencing for the original sentences, I have given all the above relevant matters consideration, including your plea and background.  I have no alternative but to impose a term of imprisonment.

30On the armed robbery, you are convicted and sentenced to two years' imprisonment.

31Because this is a sentence of two years pursuant to s.11 of the Sentencing Act, I must, by law, fix a non-parole period.  I fix a non-parole period of 18 months.

32I note that you have served 241 days by way of pre-sentence detention.

33Are there any other ancillary orders, Mr Barrington?

34MR BARRINGTON:  No, Your Honour.

35HIS HONOUR:  Yes, thank you.  Yes, you can remove Ms Matthews.  Thank you.  Just pardon me for a moment.  The number 241 in relation to pre-sentence detention, I take to be the 229 days at the time of my sentence back in September 2018 plus the days which were then further served, which I think are 12 days before Ms Matthews' release?

36MR BARRINGTON:  That's correct, Your Honour.

37HIS HONOUR:  Yes, thank you.  Sine die.

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