Director of Public Prosecutions v Meyer, Rae
[2013] VCC 838
•25 June 2013
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL DIVISION
Case No. CR-12-02178
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| RAE MEYER |
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JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR CHIEF JUDGE ROZENES | |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 20 June 2013 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 25 June 2013 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Meyer, Rae | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2013] VCC 838 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:
Catchwords: Dangerous driving causing death - dangerous driving causing serious injury – remorse – Verdins – good character – no prior convictions – plea of guilty – momentary inattention – low level culpability – concession by prosecution as to sentencing range
Legislation Cited:
Cases Cited:
Sentence: Total Effective Sentence: 2 years imprisonment, wholly suspended for 2 years. Licence cancelled and disqualified for 2 years.
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the DPP | Mr K Gilligan | Office of Public Prosecutions |
| For the Accused | Mr T Gattuso | Slades and Parsons |
HIS HONOUR:
1 Rae Meyer, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of dangerous driving causing death and three charges of dangerous driving causing serious injury. You have no prior convictions.
2 The facts were opened by Mr Gilligan, who appeared to prosecute, and are contained in the Crown Opening, Exhibit A.
3 In these sentencing remarks I propose to refer to the occupants of the other car as the victim and his family. I do so, not out of any disrespect to the victims but to preserve their anonymity as these reasons are likely to be publicly available.
4 In brief summary, on Sunday, 31 October 2010, whilst driving with your husband, you made a U-turn across the Goulburn Valley Highway and a vehicle driven by the victims, a family of four, collided with your car. At the point of the impact the highway was separated by double continuous white lines and was a 100 kilometre per hour speed zone. As a result, serious injury was sustained by the passengers in the other vehicle and, in particular, to the unborn child of one passenger. That child was delivered by emergency caesarean section and died some three days later when her life support systems were disconnected. She had suffered very serious injury.
5 It is not clear whether, immediately prior to you making the U-turn, you had come from an on-ramp or whether you had simply been travelling on the Goulburn Valley Highway. It makes no difference. The fact is that you made a U-turn when you should not have, across double lines and into the face of traffic travelling from behind. You had failed to see the car behind.
6 Four victim impact statements were filed on behalf of the passengers in the other vehicle. Each of them was read aloud in court. They were poignant statement. They spoke of high tragedy. Each of the victims suffered significant injury with lasting effect. There is psychological damage that may never be repaired. Their lives have been changed for ever. They have lost income and life amenity. The loss of the young life is poignantly felt by all members of the victim family; none more so than her mother. A young life cut short is always the hardest loss to bear. You know so from your own personal experience. I was told that you, too, had lost a child in a road accident, which you had the grave misfortune to witness, when the vehicle carrying your son and travelling in front of you was involved in a fatal collision. You know what it is to lose a child and I take into account the particular poignant and tragic impact this has had upon you.
7 Mr Gattuso, who appeared for you, tendered in evidence a letter dated 14 August 2012, written by you to the members of the victim family. It was regrettably the case that lawyers acting in what they perceived to be your best interests, prevented that letter from being communicated to the victim’s family. It is also regrettable that this matter has taken as long as it has to come to finality. I am sure it has been difficult for you and everybody else involved in this matter.
8 I accept that you are remorseful and apologetic. Mr Patrick Newton, Forensic and Clinical Psychologist, in his report of 22 January 2013, said that you presented with him a state of “withdrawn distress” and that you were preoccupied by your concerns for the victim’s family; that you had difficulty discussing your own experience and always returned to expressions of concern and regret for the other family. He detailed your history of relationships and the fact that your first marriage fell apart after the death of your son at the age of 20 in the circumstances I have described. He said that your second relationship also broke down under the stress of your grief and that your present relationship now suffers its own difficulty, with your husband being diagnosed with prostrate cancer. He suffers bouts of depression as well, from the fact that one of his children suicided in 2009.
9 He diagnosed you as suffering a major depressive disorder, recurrent without full inter-episode recovery, and going beyond a mere adjustment reaction. He said that your symptoms were considerably more intense than is typically seen in normal grieving. He said that you continued to feel intense grief at the loss of your own son, which is now intermingled with a profound sense of guilt for your involvement in this accident. He said you feel culpable and worthless, you have contemplated suicide as an act of expiation and that you are a genuine risk of experiencing deterioration in your mental health.
10 Psychologist Beth Kilgour in her report of 26 October 2010, exhibit 6, stated that your pre-existing personality traits of self-deprecation and avoidance of conflict are exacerbated by your current psychological condition and that you have become an overly harsh judge of yourself having an extremely low opinion of your self-worth. She said that you believed there was no greater crime than to cause the loss of a child’s life and that you punish yourself and will continue to do so.
11 Exhibit 5 were a bundle of character references, which described you as firstly a kind and caring person, quite selfless and capable of being relied upon to help others. They say that you go out of your way and that you are suffering emotionally and are carrying an enormous amount of guilt; that you were a caring and loving parent; compassionate and a conscientious and a respected co-worker.
12 The basic purposes for which a court may impose a sentence are punishment, deterrence both specific and general, rehabilitation, denunciation and protection of the community. In sentencing, I must have regard to a range of matters such as the seriousness of the offence, your culpability for it, your personal circumstances and those of the victim, if any. I am required to balance the interests of the community in denouncing criminal conduct with the interests of the community, in seeking to ensure that, as far as possible, offenders are rehabilitated and reintegrated into society.
13 The offence to which you have pleaded guilty is a serious one carrying a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment. A sentence requiring immediate custody will usually be appropriate unless the offender has a low level of moral culpability, as in the case of momentary inattention or misjudgement.
14 Mr Gattuso submitted that your case was truly one of momentary inattention or misjudgement. He said you were flustered by suddenly finding yourself travelling in the wrong direction. He made the point that there was no suggestion of speed, alcohol or drugs, reckless driving, fatigue, or inattention brought about by the use of a telephone or other instruments. You simply made a solitary mistake in not ensuring that it was safe to turn when you did. You did not intend to hurt anyone and in cases where there is unintentional harm caused to another, a sentencing judge must be careful to ensure that a catastrophic consequence does not swamp all other sentencing consideration.
15 I am satisfied that your offending falls at the bottom of the scale of culpability for offending of this kind. That it was the product of a momentary failure to take care whilst in a flustered state. This is not to say that your offending is not serious. It is. The need to take care in the management of vehicles travelling in places where speed converts every collision into an event with potentially fatal consequences is the primary duty of all drivers. You were in a 100km zone and were making a U-turn through double lines and without proper care. You conduct was clearly dangerous.
16 I take into account your health issues, your age and previous good character. I take into account that you have pleaded guilty and I suspect would have done so at an earlier time had it not been for the conservative advice given to you by your lawyers. I am satisfied that you are genuinely remorseful. You have a good driving record and having regard to what happened to your own son would have been acutely aware and cautious. I do not believe that specific deterrence need play any part in your sentence. I do not believe that you will re-offend in this way. I am satisfied that you have harshly judged yourself and have already suffered a substantial, albeit self-imposed penalty. I am satisfied that your mental health issues would make any prison sentence the more onerous and would be deleterious to your health.
17 Mr Gattuso submitted that I should suspend any sentence of imprisonment that I impose. Mr Gilligan for the prosecution agreed that a fully suspended sentence was properly within my sentencing discretion. I am of the view that whilst the public expectation is that for these offences a sentence of immediate custody is required, an informed understanding of the particular circumstances of the offending, and the offender would agree that you should not have to serve an immediate custodial sentence. I propose to fully suspend the sentence I am about to impose.
18 Please stand Ms Meyer.
19 You will be convicted on each of the charges and sentenced as follows:
On the charge of dangerous driving causing death to 18 months imprisonment.
On each of the 3 charges of dangerous driving causing serious injury to 9 months imprisonment. I direct that 2 months of each of those sentences be served cumulatively on each other and on the sentence impose on charge 1 making a total effective sentence of 24 months imprisonment.
20 I propose to suspend that sentence for 2 years but before I do that I am obliged to inform you that you have been convicted and sentenced to a term of imprisonment for 24 months but that you will not have to serve that sentence immediately. However, if you commit an offence in Victoria or elsewhere punishable by imprisonment you may be brought back to be further dealt with and absent exceptional circumstances may be ordered to serve the suspended sentence.
21 Do you understand that?
22 PRISONER: Yes
23 HIS HONOUR: Very well I will suspend the sentence.
24 Under section 89 of the Sentencing Act 1991 I am required to cancel your licence and disqualify you from obtaining one, and I propose to do so for a period of 2 years.
25 Section 6AAA Sentencing Act requires me to state the sentence, being the total effective sentence, and non-parole period that would have been imposed but for the plea of guilty. Had you pleaded not guilty and been convicted by a jury, I would have sentenced you to 30 months imprisonment. I am unable to say if that sentence would have been suspended. It follows that I am also not able to declare what might have been a non parole period.
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