Director of Public Prosecutions v Metzger (a pseudonym)
[2025] VCC 788
•13 June 2025
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA AT MELBOURNE CRIMINAL DIVISION | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| MICHAEL METZGER (A PSEUDONYM) |
---
JUDGE: | His Honour Judge Rozen | |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 11 March 2025 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 13 June 2025 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Metzger (a pseudonym) | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2025] VCC 788 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
---
Subject:CRIMINAL LAW
Catchwords: Sentence – Guilty plea – Trafficking in a drug of dependence to a child – Sexual assault of a child – Two victims; Rolled up charges - Objective gravity-mid-range – Moral culpability-considerable - Victim impact – extensive criminal history - Rehabilitation-uncertain – Bugmy-not enlivened - General deterrence – Specific deterrence – Community protection
Legislation Cited: Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981 (Vic); Crimes Act 1958 (Vic); Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic); Sex Offenders Registration Act 2004 (Vic); Confiscation Act 1997 (Vic).
Cases Cited:R v Verdins [2007] VSCA 102; Bugmy v The Queen [2013] HCA 37; DPP vDissanayake [2024] VSCA 320; Brown v R [2019] VSCA 286; (2019) 59 VR 462; Clarke (a pseudonym) v The Queen [2022] VSCA 89; McPherson v The Queen [2021] VSCA 53; Youssef v R [2019] VSCA 240.
Sentence: Four years and five months' imprisonment; S 6AAA - six years’ imprisonment.
---
APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the DPP | Mr D. Hancock | Office of Public Prosecutions |
| For the Accused | Mr T. Sullivan | May Lawyers |
HIS HONOUR:
1Michael Metzger,[1] you have pleaded guilty to the following offences:
(a) Two charges of trafficking in a drug of dependence to a child contrary to section 71AB of the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981 (Vic) (‘Drugs Act’), each of which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years’ imprisonment; and
(b) Two rolled up charges of sexual assault of a child under the age of 16, contrary to section 49D(1) of the Crimes Act 1958 (Vic), each of which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment.
[1] A pseudonym.
2You are to be sentenced on the basis of the Summary of Prosecution Opening for Plea dated 11 March 2025, which I note is an agreed document.[2]
[2] Exhibit P2.
Circumstances of offending
3At that time of the offending you were 37. You were primarily residing in Melbourne with Pamela Jacobson,[3] but were spending the week staying at the address of Pamela's daughter, Eva Thompson,[4] in Long Gully.
[3] A pseudonym.
[4] A pseudonym.
4The offending occurred between the dates of 13 October 2023 and 15 October 2023 and involved two victims. Alice Carter [5] was 14 years old and Rosie Paredes[6] was 13 years old. Rosie and Alice had been friends for approximately one year.
[5] A pseudonym.
[6] A pseudonym.
5You met Rosie through Eva Thompson in 2023, as Rosie would often visit her. On 12 October 2023, Eva went to stay in Melbourne with her mother for a week. It was arranged that while she was there, you would stay at her house in Long Gully.
6During the afternoon of 13 October 2023, one of your relatives, saw you leaving the Long Gully house with Rosie, Alice and Rosie’s mother, Kathie Cox.[7] Kathie drove Alice, Rosie, and yourself to the British & American Hotel.
[7] A pseudonym.
7At the bottle shop of the hotel, you purchased a 10 pack of Woodstock bourbon cans. It was approximately 4:00 pm when Kathie drove everyone back to Eva’s house. Kathie returned to her own house, whilst Alice and Rosie went to Eva’s house to ‘hang out’ with you.
8While sitting in Eva's bedroom, you gave Alice and Rosie a number of Woodstock bourbon cans to drink. You also programmed your mobile number into Alice's mobile phone. At approximately 10:00 pm, both girls left the house.
9On 14 October 2023, you were communicating with Alice via text messages and offered to provide her with ‘crack’ if she showered with you. She declined and told you that she was only 14 years old. You then requested that she send you sexually explicit pictures of herself as payment for drugs. You eventually agreed to provide the ‘crack’ to both girls in exchange for money instead, which they withdrew from Kathie's account, using PayID (Charges 1 and 3: Traffick drug of dependence to a child).
10At approximately 10:00 pm that night, Alice and Rosie went to Eva's house to see you. They sat in Eva's bedroom together and you provided both girls with cans of Woodstock bourbon to drink.
11You then took a glass ‘crack pipe’ out of a case and helped both girls to smoke methylamphetamine from it, which they did by taking ‘a puff’.
12You then agreed to provide both girls with more methylamphetamine, and offered to administer it by squirting it from a syringe directly into their mouths. Both girls declined that, but agreed to allow you to inject it into them.
13You took Rosie into the bedroom’s adjoining bathroom and showed her a clear syringe, filled with methylamphetamine. You tried to kiss her on the mouth and she pulled away, stating ‘no’ and ‘I'm 13’. You asked her ‘do you still want this?’ while holding up the syringe and, when she replied that she did, you stood her up and started kissing her neck and grabbing her breasts and buttocks over her clothing. (Charge 2: Sexual assault of a child under the age of 16)
14You then used the syringe to inject methylamphetamine into Rosie's arm. While doing so, you held Rosie's arm and continually tried to move it towards your crotch.
15Rosie then left the bathroom and returned to Eva's bedroom. You then took Alice into the bathroom and used a syringe to inject her with methylamphetamine. Due to being unable to find her vein, you tried to inject her with the syringe approximately nine times. Using Rosie's phone, Alice recorded you injecting Rosie on two of those occasions.
16A short time later, both girls left the address and returned to Rosie's house. When they got there, Kathie saw that both girls were ‘off their faces’ and observed the ‘track marks’ on their arms.
17During the early hours of 15 October 2023, Alice sent text messages to you and you agreed to provide her with more methylamphetamine in exchange for photos of undressed underage girls.
18During that day, Alice returned to Eva's address to see you. Once there, you took her into the bathroom, before holding her against the wall and sticking a syringe partially into her neck. You told her that if she told anyone about you giving her drugs, you would kill her family. Alice believed that you would follow through with the threat.
19You then used the syringe to inject her in the arms with methylamphetamine. You told her to sit in the lounge room and gave her a Woodstock bourbon can to drink.
20You locked the front door of the house and sat next to Alice on the couch. You started rubbing her leg then moved your hand so that you were rubbing her vagina over her clothing. You told her to take off her top and, when she refused, you put your hand up the front of her top and grabbed her breast, skin on skin. (Charge 4: Sexual assault of a child under the age of 16).
21Alice managed to get away from you, ran out the back door of the house, and jumped the fence back to Rosie's address. On a later date, she disclosed the sexual assaults to Eva and showed her the videos she had taken on the phone.
Investigation and Arrest
22Alice and Rosie provided statements to Police on 24 October 2023 and 25 October 2023, respectively.
23On 27 October 2023, police attended Eva’s house. In the bathroom vanity of that residence, they located and seized a glass smoking pipe, a cut plastic straw/tube, and a zip-lock bag containing a crystalline substance.
24In the backyard, in a partially burnt pile of rubbish, they located and seized two Woodstock bourbon cans. Eva told police that any unburnt items on the pile of rubbish had been placed there after 11 October 2023.
25On 29 October 2023, police re-attended Eva’s house. In the same burnt pile of rubbish, they located and seized a used, capped syringe.
26On 5 January 2024, you were arrested, then interviewed at the Bendigo Police Station.
27During the interview you made admissions to:
(a) Alice and Rosie hanging out with you at Eva’s house one night and one night only. You initially denied injecting either girl with methylamphetamine but when showed the two videos provided to police, you admitted they depicted you injecting Alice. You said that you never injected Rosie with Meth.
(b) Providing Alice and Rosie with methylamphetamine in exchange for money, via PayID. Alice and Rosie smoked it with a glass ice pipe, which you provided them and was located by police at Eva’s house.
(c) After this, the girls then made you aware that they were underage, ‘possibly 16’.
(d) When the girls asked for more methylamphetamine, you offered to squirt it into their mouths, but they declined. You then went into the bathroom with Alice and injected her twice in the arm with a syringe filled with methylamphetamine.
(e) You denied there was any sexual conversation or interaction between you and either girl, and you were never violent or threatening towards them. However, there was a text message conversation with Alice where she offered to send you nudes.
Objective gravity
28This was most egregious offending. At the time of the offending, you were a 37 year old man. You plied two young teenaged girls with alcohol and serious drugs in the hope that they would engage in sexual behaviour with you. The circumstances in which you injected drugs into their bodies are appalling (although I note that you do not face a charge of supplying a drug of dependence to a child).[8]
[8] See s 71B of the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981 (Vic) (‘Drugs Act’).
29The offence created by section 71AB of the Drugs Act attracts a maximum penalty of 20 years’ imprisonment. It is considerably more serious than the trafficking offence created by section 71AC (maximum 15 years’ imprisonment). In the quantity-based hierarchy of offences in Part V of the Drugs Act, it falls between trafficking simpliciter (15 years) and trafficking in a commercial quantity (25 years). This is no doubt because of the community revulsion for introducing children to drugs of dependence.
30The objective gravity of a given instance of offending against section 71AB will be assessed in light of all of the circumstances. An important consideration will be the age of the ‘child’ involved.[9] Here both Alice and Rosie were well under the age of 18 – they were young children. That is an aggravating feature of your offending.
[9] A person under 18 years’ of age - see Drugs Act s 3(1).
31There was a degree of preparation and planning involved. You first provided the girls with alcohol and exchanged contact details before raising the possibility of providing them with methylamphetamine.
32Rosie and Alice were vulnerable as they were under the influence of alcohol and alone in a house with you.
33The sexual assaults took place in this setting. Although the actual conduct was towards the lower end of gravity for this crime, as it was generally sexual touching on top of the clothing, the fact that both of your victims were alcohol and drug affected adds to the objective gravity of your offending. It is also relevant that you were providing the drugs as a means to assault the girls. Further, your victims were well under 16 and the age gap between you and them was great.
34Overall I consider the objective gravity of your offending to be towards mid-range. Your moral culpability is very considerable.
Victim impact
35The court received a detailed victim impact statement prepared by Rosie. Rosie, who is now 15 years’ of age, eloquently details the circumstances of your offending and how it impacted on her. It is clear that your offending has had numerous long term impacts on Rosie’s life. She concludes her statement as follows:
My mood changes constantly. I get angry, frustrated, sometimes sad and isolated. I’m too scared to go on public transport. My mum drives me where I need to go. I also often wonder how my life would be now if this didn’t happen.
It has deeply affected my mum, dad and sister, and still does, especially my mum. She can’t get a job because she is caring for me full time. My little sister I worry about too. It has also affected my extended families, my nanas and pops, uncles, aunties, cousins too.
36It is most concerning that Rosie refers in her statement to her ongoing struggles with drug use for which she has sought counselling. In the months after the offending, she would go to different houses looking for the drug and writes that she still has ‘bad cravings’ for the drug.
37Although the court did not receive a victim impact statement from Alice, I can safely assume that the ordeal to which you subjected her has also had significant deleterious effects on her young life and is likely to impact on her into the future.
38I have taken into account the impact of your offending on Rosie and Alice in determining the appropriate sentence to impose on you.[10]
[10] Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic) s 5(2)(daa) (‘Sentencing Act’).
Personal circumstances
39You are an only child born to a single mother and you do not know your biological father. When you were six years old you lived with your grandmother, grandfather and uncle. You did not see your mother again until you were 10 years’ old when she and your younger stepsister moved into your grandparents’ house with you. As a result, you did not have a positive relationship with your mother.
40Growing up, your household was affected by domestic violence perpetrated by your grandfather towards your grandmother. Your grandfather would repeatedly inflict physical violence towards your grandmother, and on one occasion, stabbed her.
41You experienced difficulties throughout your schooling, including one suspension and repeating one year of primary school. You attended high school until year eight and although you report that you were not bullied, you experienced some difficulties having relationships with other students.
42After leaving school, you did not engage in any further education or training. You started drinking alcohol around 14 or 15 years of age and engaged in binge drinking throughout adolescence. You commenced using amphetamines around 16 or 17 years of age, which developed into habitual, daily usage.
43You worked in low-skilled occupations until obtaining a gas-fitting certificate in your mid-20s for approximately eight years. You began working at a construction site until your employment was terminated due to using ‘Ice’.
44You were substance-free for three years in your late 30’s, however relapsed following the death of your grandmother and a cousin during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
45You have had two significant intimate relationships. You have two sons from your first relationship of nine years. They are currently aged 15 and 17, you are in regular contact with them.
46You also have two daughters from your second relationship of five years. This relationship was affected by substance abuse, with your daughters being born on methadone. They are currently aged three and seven and both have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. You do not have regular contact with your daughters or their mother.
47Your criminal record dates back to 2010 when you were 25 years’ of age. You have been sentenced many times in the Magistrates’ Court. This is your first County Court offending. Much of your previous offending has been drug or traffic related.
48While your record is concerning, you have no prior convictions for drug trafficking or sexual offending. I accept that this offending was out of character.
Mental Health
49You were assessed by Ms Christine Kennedy of David Ball and Associates, Forensic Psychologists for the purposes of the plea. Ms Kennedy and Mr Ball provided the court with a report dated 28 January 2025.[11]
[11] Psychological Report prepared by Christine Kennedy dated 28 January 2025 (‘Exhibit D1’).
50Ms Kennedy asked you about the offending. You denied that your actions were for any sexual purpose and emphatically denied engaging in any sexual acts with either victim.
51Ms Kennedy concludes that you meet the diagnostic criteria for antisocial personality disorder and persistent depressive disorder with anxious distress.[12] Your counsel placed no reliance on Verdins.[13]
[12] Ibid 7.
[13] R v Verdins [2007] VSCA 102 (‘Verdins’).
52On the question of future risk, Ms Kennedy concludes that you are a low-moderate risk of sexual offence recidivism compared to other male sex offenders. Factors that contribute to increased risk are substance abuse, loneliness and the absence of a completed sex offender treatment program.[14]
[14] Exhibit D1 (n 11) 7.
Prospects of rehabilitation
53In a letter to the court dated 2 April 2025,[15] you ask the court for leniency. You explain that you feel ashamed of your actions involving ‘these young girls’. You inform the court that you have completed a number of programs while in custody and you believe that these programs will help you with strategies to live positively once you are released. You want to live drug-free and you recognise that your offending on this occasion occurred because you were not thinking clearly in your drug-affected state.
[15] Letter of Apology dated 2 June 2025 (‘Exhibit D2’).
54While you recognise the impact of your offending on your victims, your letter does not indicate that you feel any remorse.
55Assessing the future prospects of an offender is a very difficult task for a sentencing court. As with much in life, past conduct provides some guidance.
56Your criminal record reveals that when you were sentenced by the Bendigo Magistrates’ Court on 29 January 2014 for offending including reckless conduct endangering serious injury, the court noted that you had been addressing your drug problems and you stated that you were ‘on the path to reform’.[16] Despite this, you continued to receive further custodial sentences in 2015, 2018 and 2022. Most recently, you were fined for possessing methylamphetamine in June 2024.
[16] Criminal History dated 10 August 2024, 8-9 (‘Exhibit P3’).
57This causes me to view your present statements about turning your life around with some caution.
58You have denied experiencing any sexual abuse or unwanted sexual advances during your lifetime. You have also denied paraphilia, rape or coercive fantasies and denied being attracted to adolescent or underage girls. This is difficult to reconcile with your admitted offending.
59On balance, I consider your prospects to be uncertain. Whether you are able to lead a productive law-abiding life is largely up to you. I agree with Ms Kennedy’s opinion that you may benefit from participation in a sex offender treatment program.
Matters in mitigation
60The most important mitigatory consideration are your pleas of guilty. By your pleas you accept responsibility for your offending. You have saved your young victims the ordeal of giving evidence.
61While your guilty pleas were only entered after this court gave you a sentence indication and can therefore not be characterised as early, you are still entitled to a discount on sentence.
62I have also given some weight to the ongoing effects of your interrupted and unstable childhood. While it does not reach the level of childhood deprivation that enlivens the Bugmy[17] principles, it is still a relevant consideration in the sentencing task.
[17] Bugmy v The Queen [2013] HCA 37 (‘Bugmy’).
63I have also taken into account that nearly two years have passed since the date of the offending. Somewhat surprisingly, the matter commenced in the summary stream and was uplifted when the Magistrate refused to give a sentencing indication on the basis that she was not satisfied of the appropriateness of a summary disposition.
Submissions
64Your counsel submitted that a combination sentence consisting of time served and a Community Correction Order is within range for the offending.[18]
[18] May Lawyers, ‘Sentencing Indication Submissions’, Submission in DPP v Metzger, CR-24-01356, 4 March 2025, 2.
65The prosecution submitted that only a head sentence and a non-parole period is adequate to address the relevant sentencing considerations.
Consideration
66As noted earlier your offending is objectively serious and your moral culpability is very high.
67The relevant sentencing considerations are general and specific deterrence, denunciation and community protection. Young and vulnerable girls must be protected from being sexually exploited by men such as you. They must also be protected from being introduced to drugs of dependence given the life long harm that such drugs cause as seen in this court on a daily basis.
68Charges 2 and 4 are both rolled up charges as they each include several separate acts by you. While the maximum penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment is still applicable, the sentence I impose must reflect the totality of your offending. Ordinarily, ‘… a significantly higher sentence is justified on a rolled up charge than for a single offence’.[19]
[19] DPP v Dissanayake [2024] VSCA 320, [92].
69In sentencing you for this offending, I must also have regard to the fact the offence of sexual assault of a child under 16 carries a standard sentence of 4 years’ imprisonment. I must apply the provisions governing the standard sentence scheme set out in sections 5A and 5B of the Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic) when sentencing you for these offences.
70The standard sentence is intended to represent the sentence for an offence in the middle of the range of seriousness, taking into account only the objective features of the offence. The standard sentence scheme does not permit two-stage sentencing and I am not required to separately classify the objective gravity of the offending. The seriousness of the offence must still be assessed in the conventional way, taking into account both objective gravity and moral culpability.[20] The standard sentence, like the maximum penalty, is one factor I must take into account.[21]
[20]Brown v R [2019] VSCA 286; (2019) 59 VR 462, 479 [55] (‘Brown’).
[21] Clarke (a pseudonym) v The Queen [2022] VSCA 89, [27], citing McPherson v The Queen [2021] VSCA 53, 31 (Priest and T Forrest JJA).
71I am also obliged to disregard sentencing practices that existed prior to the introduction of standard sentencing,[22] although the principles found in those cases remain of relevance.[23]
[22]Sentencing Act (n 10) s 5B(2)(b).
[23]Brown (n 20) [4].
72Because more than one of the offences for which I am sentencing you is a standard sentence offence, I must fix a period of at least 60 per cent of the head sentence for the non-parole period unless it is in the interests of justice not to do so.
73The instinctive synthesis involved in sentencing still requires a balancing of many factors, including the nature and objective seriousness of your offending, your moral culpability, as well as your personal circumstances and the matters to which I have referred in mitigation of sentence.
74I have rejected your counsel’s submission that a combination sentence is appropriate as your offending is too serious for such a disposition. Your future risk of offending means that community protection is an important consideration that must be reflected in the sentences I impose for all four charges.
75While your drug trafficking was very small scale and did not provide any financial benefit to you, it is not at the lowest level having regard to the context in which it occurred. You were not charged with trafficking in exchange for sexual favours.[24]
[24] Cf. Youssef v R [2019] VSCA 240 at [18].
Orders
76On charge 1, trafficking in a drug of dependence to Rosie Paredes, you are convicted and sentenced to 2 years and 6 months’ imprisonment.
77On charge 3, trafficking in a drug of dependence to Alice Carter, you are convicted and sentenced to 2 years and 6 months’ imprisonment.
78On charge 2, sexual assault of Rosie Paredes, you are convicted and sentenced to 2 years and 3 months’ imprisonment.
79On charge 4, sexual assault of Alice Carter, you are convicted and sentenced to 2 years and 3 months’ imprisonment.
80The sentence imposed on charge 1 is the base sentence as Rosie was the younger of the two girls.
81Seven months of the sentence on charge 2, nine months of the sentence on charge 3 and seven months of the sentence on charge 4 are to be served cumulatively on the charge 1 sentence and on each other.
82The total effective sentence is therefore 4 years and 5 months.
83You will be eligible for parole when you have served 2 years and 8 months in custody.
84I have imposed a sentence on each of the charges of sexual assault of a child under 16 that falls below the standard sentence, having regard to the sentencing benefit that attaches to your guilty plea, the delay and your personal circumstances.
85Pursuant to section 18 of the Sentencing Act, I declare that the 524 days you have served on remand is to be reckoned as time served with respect to the sentences imposed by the court today.
86As you have been convicted of two class 2 offences, you are a registerable offender under the Sex Offenders Registration Act 2004 (Vic). The reporting period is 15 years.
87I make the disposal orders sought under section 78 of the Confiscation Act 1997 (Vic).
88Finally, pursuant to section 6AAA of the Sentencing Act, had you pleaded not guilty, the total effective sentence would have been 6 years with a non-parole period of 4 years.
0
8
0