Director of Public Prosecutions v Murekezi
[2025] VCC 934
•3 July 2025
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA AT MELBOURNE CRIMINAL DIVISION | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
CR-25-00063
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| YOHANI MUREKEZI |
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JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE LEWIS | |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 18 June 2025 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 3 July 2025 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Murekezi | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2025] VCC 934 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject: Criminal law - sentencing
Catchwords: Plea of guilty – aggravated burglary – recklessly causing injury – high objective offending severity – reduced moral culpability – drug use – mental health – schizophrenia – schizo-effective disorder – substance abuse disorder – neuroleptic malignant syndrome – punishment – prospects of rehabilitation
Legislation Cited: Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic); Sentencing Regulations 2021 (Vic)
Cases Cited: R v Verdins & Ors [2007] VSCA 102
Sentence:Term of imprisonment for a period of 198 days, and a community corrections order for a period of three years
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the DPP | Ms C. Paganis | Ms J. De Freitas Aiex |
| For the Accused | Ms S. Maskal | Mr C. Corias |
HIS HONOUR:
INTRODUCTION
1Yohani Murekezi, on 18 June 2025, you pleaded guilty before me to:
· One charge of aggravated burglary; and
· One charge of recklessly causing injury.
2The maximum penalty for aggravated burglary is 25 years’ imprisonment and the maximum penalty for recklessly causing injury is five years’ imprisonment.
3The circumstances of your offending are outlined as follows and constitute the factual basis upon which I sentence you.
THE OFFENDING
Circumstances of offending
4The victim in this matter is Mr Yomani Kadane, who was 43 years old at the time of the offending and, like you, lived on Gertrude Street in Fitzroy. Mr Kadane lived in Unit 12, whilst you lived in Unit 1.
5The property itself is a boarding house owned and operated by Unison Housing. It is a two-storey house divided into 12 private residences with shared facilities. Units 1 and 12 share a hallway and are approximately 10 metres apart.
6On Monday 23 September 2024, Mr Kadane was at Unit 12 with his door wide open, as he was in and out of the room cleaning. He walked past your room twice during the process. He did not say anything to you but noticed your presence as he passed.
7At about 8:46am, you left your bedroom and walked down the hallway to
Mr Kadane's room. Mr Kadane was inside his room at the time and had his back to the door. He was bending down, cleaning in a corner close to the entrance door.8You raised your fist above your head and launched into Mr Kadane's room, grabbing him with your left hand and punching him once before leaving the room.
9Shortly thereafter, you re-entered the room and, this time, punched Mr Kadane four or five times to the head. This caught him off guard, and he turned and stumbled backwards, falling to the ground inside his room.
10You then picked up a large, wooden-framed mirror and, whilst holding at one end with two hands, hit Mr Kadane over the head with it a single time. The mirror smashed inside the frame and caused bruising to Mr Kadane, along with multiple lacerations which required sutures.
11You then dropped the mirror and started punching Mr Kadane again a few more times, before exiting the room and returning to your own room.
12Some of this was caught on CCTV from the hallway outside Mr Kadane's room.
13Mr Kadane can be seen in the CCTV leaving his room after the attack with blood on his head, appearing confused. He is seen to walk in and out of his room, gathering himself, before eventually leaving and locking the door, after which he walked to St Vincent's Hospital. It was from the hospital that he contacted police to report the matter.
14Mr Kadane met with police two days later back in his room, where they took a series of photographs. Police observed the smashed, white wooden-framed mirror used in the attack, which they photographed and seized. They were also provided with a number of photographs that Mr Kadane had taken.
Remand and initial interview
15On 8 October 2024, several police officers came to your room and arrested you. You were taken to the Melbourne West police station but were deemed unfit for interview.
Gravity of offending
16With respect to the gravity of your offending, a number of factors come into play. Your counsel acknowledged that the charge of aggravated burglary on the basis of an intent to assault and the accompanying recklessly cause injury charge are serious offences.
17Your attack on Mr Kadane took place in the boarding house in which you both lived. It was unprovoked. The aggravated burglary consisted of you leaving the common hallway area that you shared and crossing the threshold of Mr Kadane's room via his open door in order to attack him. On one view, that constitutes less grave offending than the usual run of confrontationally aggravated burglary seen in this court, because the nature of the intrusion might be viewed as being somewhat less than in those cases. However, Mr Kadane is as entitled as any other person to feel safe in his home, whether that home be a castle surrounded by a moat, or a room in a boarding house.
18Further, you entered his room not once, but twice, in order to attack him. Your use of the mirror as a weapon on the second occasion was both highly dangerous and brutal.
19I acknowledge, however, that the offending was apparently spontaneous and did not endure for very long.
20Nonetheless, these charges both represent serious examples of serious offences.
MATTERS PERSONAL TO THE ACCUSED
21You are 23 years old, having been born in August 2001. You were 23 at the time of the offending.
22You were born in Tanzania, and you came to Australia with your family when you were five years old.
Family
23Your family consists of your parents, and you have eight siblings. You are the second youngest child.
24When you and your family arrived here, you lived in Footscray but subsequently moved to Ballarat. Your family has remained there since. Unfortunately, due to a combination of your personal circumstances, your deteriorating mental health, and resultant intervention orders, you have had no contact with your parents for three years. You maintain some contact with an older sister, Renata.
Education
25You attended several schools, being Corpus Christi School in Footscray, Murtoa College in Murtoa and Damascus College in Mount Clear.
26You left school in Year 9.
27You have some difficulty recalling your childhood experiences and, as a result, the precise detail of your early life is somewhat unclear.
Employment
28When you were 18 years of age, you moved to Brisbane to live with a friend. You worked at Coles in trolley collection and cleaning services. After eight months there, you moved to Melbourne, where you worked as a bricklayer.
29Your mental health deteriorated in 2020, and you have not worked since.
Drug use
30You have a history of cannabis and methylamphetamine use.
31You first started using illicit substances when you were a teenager, although it is not entirely clear how old you were as a result of your memory difficulties, nor is it clear how you were introduced to such substances. You do recall, however, that your first experience with drugs was through the use of ‘party pills', before transitioning to cannabis and methylamphetamine.
32I am told that you have abstained from the use of illicit substances from your initial remand on 8 October 2024 and have continued to abstain subsequent to your release on 23 April 2025. That is to be commended and clearly your future prospects are tied, to some extent, to your continued abstinence.
Mental health
33You have a history of mental health issues and it is clear that your mental health state played a significant part in the offending.
34Dr Rajan Darjee, Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist, provided a report dated 5 May 2025 which was tendered in evidence.
35According to him, you first became psychotic in 2020 when you were 18 years old, and at that point, you were involved with Ballarat Health Youth Mental Health Service, but your engagement was poor. Since then, you have had 20 psychiatric admissions, nine of which were in 2024. The most recent of those was only two and a half weeks prior to the offending. You have had numerous episodes of involuntary treatment and, at the time of arrest, were subject to a community treatment order.
36In addition, you suffer from neuroleptic malignant syndrome, an uncommon but serious and potentially life-threatening medical complication concerning treatment with anti-psychotic medication, where care must be taken in selecting medications for you. Your counsel suggested that management of this condition would create a particular problem in a custodial setting, as compared to the community. I do not accept that submission; it lacks a logical foundation.
37Your psychiatric diagnoses have been schizophrenia and schizo-effective disorder, and substance abuse disorder involving cannabis and methylamphetamine. When unwell, you have grandiose religious delusions, delusions of thought interference, you have heard voices, your thinking has become illogical and disorganised, and you have been disinhibited and disorganised in your behaviour.
38When you were assessed on 8 October 2024, two and a half weeks after the offending, you were acutely and floridly unwell. On reception to prison, you were described as floridly psychotic. You were subsequently provided with anti-psychotic medication and an improvement in your mental state was noted. Regrettably, there was a later decline in your condition.
39Dr Darjee is of the opinion that you were acutely and floridly psychotic at the time of the offending. Further, he is of the view that your mental state at the time of the offending, given the course of your mental illness and how you presented after your arrest and when he saw you, was not due to the intoxicating effects of substance or drug-induced psychosis.
40He takes the view that your delusions may have played a part in your attack on the complainant. Obviously, however, this is a plea of guilty and, whilst your condition clearly played a part in your offending, your counsel acknowledged that there are aspects of Dr Darjee's report relating to your knowledge of the wrongfulness of your behaviour that are not relied upon, in that they would effectively traverse the plea.
IMPETUS FOR AND GRAVITY OF OFFENDING
Verdins
41Defence counsel submitted that all of the limbs described in R v Verdins were enlivened.
42I accept that your moral culpability was reduced as a result of your condition at the time of your offending, in accordance with the conclusion reached by Dr Darjee, to which I have already referred.
43I also accept that your condition has a bearing on the type of sentence that should be imposed. I am informed that, since your release on bail, you have received extensive treatment at Dandenong Hospital. You were subsequently released on a community treatment order. You have stable, NDIS-funded accommodation. You are receiving one-on-one, 24/7 support through the Aplus Disability Services Group. I am told that you have engaged well with the support.
44The nature of those supports can be taken to reflect the nature of your condition. In the circumstances, I take the view that you and, by extension, the community, would be better served by a disposition that does not interfere with the arrangements that have been put in place since your release.
45As a result of the significant effect that your condition had on your offending, you are not an appropriate vehicle for general deterrence. For a similar reason, specific deterrence must be modified significantly.
46Verdins limb 5 is engaged as a result of Dr Darjee's observation that, as a result of the behaviours related to your condition, you have been kept in a cell separately from others and handcuffed. He concludes that “prison is clearly more onerous than it would be for someone without [your] conditions”. Not only do I take this into account when assessing your suitability for a sentence of imprisonment, but also in assessing the effect of the time that you have already spent in custody.
47Limb 6 finds little support in Dr Darjee's report; the highest it gets is Dr Darjee's view that “it is likely [your] mental health will deteriorate further” in custody. That falls short of saying that there is a serious risk that imprisonment will have a significantly adverse impact on your mental health, which is the requirement.
Forensic history
48You admit a criminal history that is relatively limited. Whilst some of the offending is relevant, all of your previous dispositions have been without conviction.
Victim impact
49I do not have the victim impact statement, but in the circumstances, I can safely conclude that the attack was frightening for Mr Kadane, coming, as it did, out of the blue. Mr Kadane can be observed in the CCTV footage visibly shaken by the event.
MATTERS OF SENTENCING PRINCIPLE
Plea of guilty
50You indicated an intention to plead guilty at the second committal mention of this matter on 21 January 2025; that must be assessed as an early plea, and you are entitled to a palpable discount on your sentence as a result.
Prospects of rehabilitation
51Your prospects of rehabilitation are somewhat difficult to determine as the result of the fact that they appear to be closely tied to both your ability to remain abstinent with respect to drugs and your mental health condition. My confidence in your prospects is boosted to some degree by the fact that your criminal record is relatively limited, and also by your swift plea of guilty, which may bespeak some remorse.
Totality
52I have had regard to the principle of totality.
Protection of the community
53I have also had regard to the need to protect the community. As I have already mentioned, I have concluded that the community will be best served if you are allowed to continue in the community with the supports that you have around you.
SENTENCE
54I have carefully considered, balanced and weighed all of the relevant sentencing considerations, and I intend to sentence you on the two charges before me to a combination sentence consisting of 198 days of imprisonment, in addition to a Community Corrections Order for a period of three years.
55The Community Corrections Order will, in addition to the standard conditions, have conditions for:
· Supervision;
· Drug assessment and treatment;
· Alcohol assessment and treatment;
· Mental health treatment; and
· Offending-behaviour programs.
56Now, I understand your client has provided consent to a Community Corrections Order. The order will need to be signed, so we will have that printed out and I'll get you to take it to your client for signature.
57MS MASKAL: Yes.
58HIS HONOUR: I might just go through it with him beforehand, though.
59MS MASKAL: Yes, of course, Your Honour.
PRE-SENTENCE DETENTION
60HIS HONOUR: I will, perhaps at this stage, say that you have served 198 days in custody, and that figure will be declared under s 18 of the Sentencing Act1991 (Vic) as time having been served under this sentence.
COMMUNITY CORRECTIONS ORDER
61Mr Murekezi, the sentence that I am imposing, as I assume you have gathered, is that of 198 days' imprisonment plus a three-year Community Corrections Order. You have already served the 198 days' imprisonment, so you will go straight on to the Community Corrections Order. It has a number of conditions that you have to comply with, and I will just go through those conditions.
62It starts with what are called the mandatory conditions; those are conditions that apply to any Community Corrections Order, and then there are some additional ones on top of that. So:
· The first of the mandatory conditions is that you must not commit another offence for which you could be imprisoned during the time that the order is in force;
· Secondly, you must comply with any obligation or requirement prescribed by Regulation 15 of the Sentencing Regulations 2021 (Vic), and you can ask your legal advisors about that, but those are essentially obligations that are described in the Regulations for behaviour during the course of a Community Corrections Order.
· You must report to, and receive visits from, the Secretary or their delegate, that is reference to the Secretary of the Department of Justice;
· You must report to the Community Corrections Centre within two clear working days of the order starting. Now, what has been nominated on this order is Moorabbin Community Correctional Services at the Moorabbin Justice Centre, 1140 Nepean Highway, Highett. And again, if there is any issue with that, you can raise it with your barrister.
· You must let a Community Corrections officer know within two clear working days of you changing your address or job;
· You must not leave Victoria without first getting permission to do so from the Secretary of the Department of Justice or their delegate;
· You must obey all lawful instructions from and directions of the Secretary or their delegate.
63In addition to those mandatory terms:
· You must be under the supervision of a Community Corrections officer for a period of three years;
· You must undergo assessment and treatment including testing for drug abuse or dependency as directed by the regional manager;
· You must undergo assessment and treatment including testing for alcohol abuse or dependency as directed by the regional manager.
· You must undergo any mental health assessment and treatment - that may include psychological, neuropsychological, psychiatric or treatment in a hospital or residential facilities - as directed by the regional manager; and
· You must participate in programs and/or courses that address factors related to the offending as directed by the regional manager.
64Now, any breach of the Community Corrections Order can mean that you will be brought back here, and one of the things that can happen if you are brought back here is that you can be re-sentenced, including potentially to a term of imprisonment, so I want you to bear that in mind.
65Now, if this could be given to Ms Maskal to take for signing to her client.
66MS MASKAL: Your Honour, if I may approach?
67HIS HONOUR: Yes of course. All right.
ANCILLARY ORDERS
68Were there any ancillary orders to be made? I don't think we have any?
69MS PAGANIS: No ancillary orders are sought, Your Honour. Thank you.
70HIS HONOUR: No. All right. So, are there any other matters that I need to deal with?
71MS PAGANIS: Nothing further from the prosecution, Your Honour.
72MS MASKAL: Nothing further, Your Honour.
s.6AAA
73HIS HONOUR: All right. I don't think I gave 6AAA then, did I?
74MS MASKAL: No, Your Honour.
75HIS HONOUR: All right. But for your plea of guilty, I would have sentenced you to a total effective sentence of three years' imprisonment with a non-parole period of two years.
76MS PAGANIS: As Your Honour pleases.
77HIS HONOUR: Thank you.
78MS MASKAL: As Your Honour pleases.
79HIS HONOUR: All right. You can adjourn the court.
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