Director of Public Prosecutions v Matthews (a pseudonym)

[2025] VCC 173

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

Revised

Not Restricted

Suitable for Publication

AT MELBOURNE & LATROBE VALLEY

CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

TROY MATTHEWS (A PSEUDONYM)

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE CHETTLE
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	19 November 2024, 13 February 2025
DATE OF SENTENCE:	21 February 2025
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Matthews (a pseudonym)
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2025] VCC 173

REASONS FOR SENTENCE

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Subject:  CRIMINAL LAW -SENTENCE

Catchwords:  Use carriage service to harass, make threat to kill, threaten to commit sexual offence, knowingly possess child abuse material, serious sexual offender, SORA, Disposal Order, Sentence Indication Hearing, plea of guilty, childhood disadvantage    

Legislation Cited:  Sex Offenders Registration Act2004, Sentencing Act 1991

Cases Cited:  

Sentence:Imprisonment, Total Effective Sentence – 2 years, Non-parole period – 13 months, Serious Sexual offender, Sex Offender Registration for life, Disposal Order 

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr Z. Menon	Office of Public Prosecutions, Ms N Nalawattage
For the Accused	Ms K. Mildenhall	Ms A. Wallace, Dribbin & Brown

HIS HONOUR:

1Troy Alexander Matthews[1] you have pleaded guilty to one charge of using a carriage service to harass, a rolled-up charge encompassing two events.  One charge of make threat to kill, a rolled-up charge covering threats to four people.  One charge of threaten to commit a sexual offence and one charge of knowingly possess child abuse material.

[1] A pseudonym.

2You entered your pleas of guilty last year subsequent to a sentence indication hearing before me when you accepted the indication that was given.

3The facts of your offending are set out in Exhibit A, the prosecution opening.  Your counsel informed me that I could treat that document as an agreed statement of fact.  I incorporate it into these reasons for sentence and sentence you on the basis of the facts set out therein.  There is therefore no need to extensively set out those facts.

4Your offending occurred over two periods in 2015 and 2021.  You were aged 22 and 28 respectively. 

5Your primary victim was Eliza Jacobs,[2] the mother of a young child Kendra.[3]  You had known Ms Jacobs since you were both 18 years of age in residential care in 2011.

[2] A pseudonym.

[3] A pseudonym.

6Between September and December 2015 you sent Ms Jacobs offensive and violent Facebook messages calling her a whore, dumb as fuck and a dumb cunt.  You told Ms Jacobs you would kill her, both her parents and her daughter.  You told her that you were going to rape her sweet daughter.  You said you would make her entire family disappear.  The language you used in these messages was vile and violent and the threats bizarre and disturbing.

7In June 2021 you again sent messages menacing Ms Jacobs. You offered $100,000 to have sex with the then six-year-old Kendra and again said you were going to rape Kendra.  Again your language was extremely disturbing.

8You sent Ms Jacobs a child abuse material audio vision recording that depicted a pre-pubescent female on her hands and knees being vaginally penetrated by an adult male from behind.  On 26 June 2021 you sent two child abuse material still images to Ms Jacobs also depicting young female children which fortunately she did not see.

9Police executed a search warrant at your Chadstone residence on 15 July 2021 and various electronic devices were seized and analysed.  Child abuse material was located on your home phone, laptop computer and a USB device.  One hundred and twenty-three images and 17 videos, 145 files in total, were located depicting sexualised young female children.  This child abuse material was disgusting and degenerate.  They are fully described in Exhibit A, the prosecution opening and I do not intend to describe them in these reasons for sentence.

10When you were interviewed on 15 July 2021 by police you lied and denied offending and possession of the child abuse material.  You admitted a prior criminal history.  You have dishonesty priors in Victoria and New South Wales in 2015.  In 2014 you had been convicted and fined at Heidelberg Magistrates' Court for using a carriage service to menace.

11In 2017 you were released on a community corrections order for obtaining property by deception.  In 2018 you were convicted of obtaining property by deception and released on a community corrections order again.  In 2019 you were again convicted of attempting to obtain property by deception and perjury and yet again were released on a community corrections order.  On
7 August 2019 you were again released on a community corrections order for grooming a child for a sexual offence and possession of child abuse material.

12You have breached the CCOs that were imposed and have been extremely leniently dealt with in the past by the courts.  Your offences are serious criminal offences.  The maximum penalties prescribed demonstrate how seriously parliament considers your crimes.  You fall to be sentenced as a serious sexual offender on Charge 3 given that you were sentenced to imprisonment in 2022 for two sexual offences.

13I must regard protection of the public from you as the predominant sentencing consideration.  I can but do not intend to impose a disproportionate sentence on you to achieve that sentencing purpose.

14Your crimes terrified your victim.  She experiences nightmares and panic attacks and I take the effect of your conduct upon your victim into account in sentencing you.

15Turning to your personal circumstances, you are now 31 years of age being born in April 1993.  You grew up in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne with your mother, step-father and two half-brothers and a step-brother.  You were diagnosed with ADHD and autism as a child and required special schooling.  You left school to attend TAFE in Year 9. 

16Your relationship with your step-father has been problematic.  You stole from him when you were 16 and had to leave home as a result.  You were in foster care for two years.  You have sporadically worked and existed on the disability support pension for 13 years.

17A report from Carla Lechner, psychologist, confirms your ADHD and autism diagnosis and describes you as extremely socially and emotionally immature.  I accept that these issues will make your time in custody more onerous for you and could see you exposed to assault or intimidation.  I take that into account in sentencing you.  I also accept your mental health could be adversely impacted by your prison sentence.

18I also take into account obviously your pleas of guilty.  You have spared your victim the need to give evidence and the community the time and expense of a criminal trial.  Your pleas evidence your acceptance of responsibility for your crimes and have significant utilitarian benefit.  You are entitled to and will receive a reduction in the sentence to reflect your pleas of guilty and I will return to the effect of that reduction subsequently.

19Your counsel recently provided a new psychological assessment conducted by Marlese Bovenkerk which is now Exhibit 5.  That report confirms Ms Lechner's diagnoses and attempts to link your ADHD and personality traits with your offending.  You may have felt rejected or abandoned by your victim and had difficulty regulating your emotions.  This finding, your counsel argued, enlivened Verdins considerations and reduced your moral culpability.

20I have had regard to Ms Bovenkerk's report in assessing your moral culpability for your crimes.  In my view much of her conclusions are speculative.  She found you to have a moderate high risk of sexual recidivism and could not discount you being a paedophile.  You clearly need treatment.

21To your credit you have engaged in counselling with Daria Sizenko since November 2023.  You have made some attempt to deal with your attraction to child abuse material and your prospects of rehabilitation are enhanced as a result.

22You are sexually troubled.  Your counsel said you identified as a drag queen and with the LGBTQ community.  She said you have quite fluid sexuality.

23The prison authorities will need to carefully consider how you are incarcerated and I take into account the fact that your time in custody would be more onerous for you as a result of issues arising around those factors.

24Your prospects for rehabilitation are difficult to assess.  Your prior convictions and your subsequent offences paint a gloomy picture and you clearly require to complete the sex offenders' course in custody.  Completion of that course may enhance your prospects of rehabilitation. 

25It is a real concern that you told Ms Lechner and Dr Sakdalan that you had no sexual interest in children.  Clearly that is untrue.  No one has really addressed your obvious deviant interest in young girls.  The sex offenders' course may address this issue.

26The seriousness of your offending, the need for general and specific deterrence and the need to protect the community dictate that only terms of imprisonment are appropriate for your offending.  I have been conscious to have regard to the principles of totality and cumulation in arriving at an appropriate sentence for you.

27On all charges you are convicted.  Would you stand up please?

28On Charge 1 of using a carriage service to menace, the rolled-up count, you are sentenced to six months' imprisonment.  That sentence is to commence today.

29On Charge 2, making a threat to kill, the rolled-up count, you are sentenced to imprisonment for eight months.

30On Charge 3, threat to rape, you are sentenced to be imprisoned for 15 months.

31On Charge 4, possession of child abuse material, you are sentenced to be imprisoned for nine months.

32I order that three months of the sentence imposed on Charge 2 and six months of the sentence imposed on Charge 4 be served cumulatively on the sentence imposed on Charge 3 which I declare to be the base sentence.  That is a total effective term of imprisonment of two years and I order that you serve 13 months of that sentence before you are eligible for parole.

33I order that it be recorded in the records of the court that you have been sentenced as a serious sexual offender in respect of Charge 3.

34Pursuant to the Sex Offenders Registration Act [4] you are required to report pursuant to that Act for life.

[4]Sex Offenders Registration Act2004.

35Pursuant to s6AAA of the Sentencing Act [5] I indicate that but for your pleas of guilty I would have imposed an effective term of imprisonment of three years and six months with a non-parole period of two years.

[5]Sentencing Act 1991.

36There is no PSD at all, is there, Mr Prosecutor?  No.

37HIS HONOUR:  Thank you.  Any other orders required?

38MR MENON:  Your Honour, I believe that there was a disposal order sought.

39HIS HONOUR:  Yes.  I will make the disposal sought by the prosecution. 

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