Director of Public Prosecutions v Nazeer

[2020] VCC 1789

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

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 20-00753

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

SAJID NAZEER

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JUDGE:	HER HONOUR JUDGE WILMOTH
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	6 November 2020
DATE OF SENTENCE:	10 November 2020
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v NAZEER
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2020] VCC 1789

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject: Criminal law -  sentence
Catchwords: pleaded guilty  one charge attempted home invasion, one charge making a threat to inflict serious injury – earlier confrontation between victim and defendant’s adult daughter -  Defendant and  partner (co-accused) using weapons attacked door  and made threats -  CCTV footage -  extensive criminal history  -  47 years old  -  drug use – major depressive  disorder -  - aggressive parents – daughter suffers from bipolar disorder -  suffers from guilt over prolonged absences from  vulnerable daughter.
Sentence: Total effective sentence 4 years 6 months  with non parole period of 3 years.

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Ms A. Watson	OPP
For the Accused	Ms L. Dubroja	Slades

HER HONOUR:

1Sajid Nazeer, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of attempted home invasion and one charge of making a threat to inflict serious injury.  Both are serious offences for which the maximum penalties are 20 years and five years' imprisonment respectively.

2The offending occurred on 1 March 2020, when you were living in a unit in the same housing complex as your adult daughter, Jordana Mahon-Nazeer.  The victim, Jennifer Wolfe, was living with her young sons in another unit at the complex.  That afternoon, the two women argued over Ms Mann Nazeer having been woken by Ms Wolfe calling her son in the common area of the units and they had a physical confrontation, during which your daughter had been armed with a tomahawk or a meat cleaver, and had sustained a minor facial injury by some means.  She told Ms Wolfe that she would tell her father about the confrontation.  She ran towards your unit and in an agitated state, told you what had happened.

3Mr Thomson, Ms Wolfe's partner, walked towards your unit to explain what had happened.  You came out of the front door and ran towards Mr Thomson with what he described as two samurai swords in your hands.  You yelled at Mr Thomson:  'You're fucked.  You bashed my daughter.'  Mr Thomson ran away and hid in a neighbour's unit.

4Shortly afterwards, Ms Wolfe and her children were in their unit with a friend, Rebecca Appleyard.  You and the co-accused, your partner Ms Po’oi, approached the front door of Ms Wolfe's unit, where you ripped the intercom off the wall.  You were carrying a tomahawk and a sword and Ms Po’oi was carrying a wooden-handled axe.  You yelled out to Ms Wolfe that she had hit your daughter, making her bleed and you were going to make her bleed.

5You applied force to the door, as Ms Appleyard and Ms Wolfe pushed against it to stop it opening.  You started hitting the door with the axe.  Ms Po’oi did the same and the force of the blows made dents in the door.  As the victim called 000, you kept telling her:  'You're fucked.  Wait 'til I see you.'  You then left that unit, and the victim, in a very distressed state, went to another unit with her friend and her sons.  The incident was captured on CCTV outside the victim's unit.  The footage shows the incident clearly, with you leading the attack and Ms Po’oi kicking the door forcefully several times.

6On 4 March, you and Ms Po’oi were found by police at a motel in Moorabbin, where you were staying.  In your room were found a blue and white cap, similar to the one you had been wearing at the time of the offending, a mobile phone and small quantities of methylamphetamine and GHB.

7On 5 March, having been contacted by your solicitor, you went to the police station and were arrested.  When interviewed, you made no comment, except to say you were in a different neighbourhood at the time and did not own such a cap.  You have remained in custody since then, having been refused bail on one occasion.

8You have an extensive criminal history dating from the age of 18, including previous convictions for serious violence.  You have served several prison terms.  In 2004, at the age of 31, you were sentenced to eight years, with a non-parole period of six years, for a road rage incident, during which you inflicted serious injuries on the victim, who was the new partner of your former partner.  You were paroled in 2009 and completed your parole.  In July 2019, you were released from prison, having served a two year sentence.

9You are a 47 year old man, a single man, born in Pakistan, who migrated to Australia with your parents and five siblings when you were aged 10.  You came from a background of poverty in Pakistan and life in Australia was a struggle as well, with both parents working long hours, leaving the children alone.

10At school, you were bullied on racial grounds.  It was several years before you could speak English, but you eventually completed Year 11 at school and later completed Year 12 in prison.  After leaving school, you worked in various unskilled jobs, but have not worked since 2011.

11You became a father at the age of 19, but the relationship with the child's mother ended after three years, apparently due to your drug use and you have not seen that child since.  You have a close relationship with your other daughter Jordana, whose mother Naomi tragically committed suicide in 2011.  The co-accused, Ms Po’oi, was your partner at the time of the offending, but that relationship ended after you were both incarcerated.

12You have a history of drug abuse since the early 1990s, starting with daily use of amphetamines for several years, followed by daily use of crystal methamphetamine from the time of your partner, Naomi's, death, as well as GHB three times a week.

13You have been in custody for the current offending since 5 March 2020 and have remained abstinent from drugs.  Because of the COVID pandemic, you have had limited access to programs and visits from family, but with good behaviour you have been able to work in the kitchen from 8 am to 3.30 pm each day.  In March and early April you experienced several days of 24 hour lockdown owing to the pandemic.

14The psychologist Ms Carla Lechner assessed you recently and diagnosed disorders associated with drug use, as well as a major depressive disorder.  She considered you would benefit from a drug rehabilitation program and trauma-focused personal counselling that focuses on grief and mood management.  A clinician from the Caraniche treatment organisation provided a letter dated 5 May 2020, reporting that by that time, you had engaged well in four sessions of personal counselling while in prison, demonstrating a motive for change.  No further drug counselling has been possible because of the pandemic conditions.

15You recounted details to Ms Lechner of your troubled background, including the aggression of your father towards you and your mother and brothers and the tragic suicide of Naomi by standing in front of a train.  Your daughter, Jordana, appears to suffer from some form of mental instability said to be bipolar disorder.  Last year she stabbed you, resulting in a punctured lung, requiring a week in hospital.

16I am told that your relationship with Jordana is complicated by the guilt you feel over your prolonged absences from her while in prison.  She was only 12 when her mother died and you raised her after that, but you feel you owe her a debt for failing to be with her as a vulnerable young woman.  At the time of this offending you had recently been released from serving a two year sentence, and your daughter had been aged only 18 when you were imprisoned and had been left alone.

17Although without formal testing, Ms Lechner assessed you as being of low average intelligence and she considered that other factors, combined with this, affect your capacity for consequential thinking.  These factors include significant drug abuse, with a focus on your immediate need for them each day, low mood and a high level of emotional distress.  She considers you have very negative thoughts which you struggle to manage, and you tend to minimise your violence as being due to drugs and avoid taking responsibility for it.

18However, in regard to the current offending, you explained that you became angry when you saw that your daughter had been hit and you and your partner took GHB before confronting the victim at her unit.  You said the drugs overtook you and you felt remorseful afterwards.

19Ms Dubroja, who appeared on your behalf on the plea, submitted that you understand the influence of drugs on your behaviour and you made that apparent to Ms Lechner as well.  You and Ms Po’oi had deliberately taken GHB when you learned of the harm done to your daughter and it was then that you armed yourself and went to the victim's unit.  You knew from experience what your reaction could be under the influence of drugs and you proceeded to act as you did with that knowledge.  Although the timeframe was narrow, you reacted by deciding to take revenge for the harm to your daughter and equipped yourself with a weapon, before going to her front door.  In that sense you planned the offending.

20You have remained abstinent in prison and have engaged well with drug counselling briefly.  You have insight into your tendency to relapse into drug use sometime after your release from prison, once you resume contact with people you know, who are all drug users.  You are keen to be able to help your elderly mother and you understand that you will need to sever ties with your drug user friends in order to live with her.  Your prospects for rehabilitation can only be said to be guarded, given your drug history and offending history.

21Ms Dubroja submitted that a prison term, combined with a Community Correction Order would offer you that chance to undergo drug rehabilitation, as indeed Ms Lechner recommends.  However, my view of the offending is that it is too serious to warrant any disposition other than a significant custodial term with a non-parole period.  The need for both general and specific deterrence is clear in this case.

22You took steps to seek revenge by violent means, creating a scene which must have been terrifying for the victim and her friend and of course the children, who were inside the apartment.  This was their home and they were entitled to feel safe there.  It is not good enough to say, as you told Ms Lechner, that you would not have done it if you had known that there were children there.  The threat to inflict serious injury was a serious example of that offence, because of the fact that you and the co-accused were outside the door of the apartment, bashing and kicking the door in a display of violence.

23You have said that in hindsight, you should have called the police, but under the influence of drugs, you decided to try and sort it out yourself.  This was at a time when you were using methylamphetamine daily, as well as GHB three times a week.

24Your plea of guilty at an early stage means you are entitled to a discount on your sentence for having avoided a trial and importantly, spared the victim and other witnesses from having to give evidence and be cross-examined.  It is also an indication of remorse and of recognising the wrongfulness of your actions.

25Mr Nazeer, I now sentence you to four years' imprisonment for Charge 1 and two years for Charge 2.

I order that six months of the sentence for Charge 2 be served in cumulation upon the sentence for Charge 1, resulting in a total effective sentence of four years and six months.

I fix a period of three years which you must serve, before being eligible for parole.

I declare that you have been in custody for 250 days of presentence detention, which is to be reckoned as already served and I shall cause that to be noted on the court record.

If you had pleaded not guilty to these charges, I would have sentenced you to six years' imprisonment, with a non-parole period of four years. 

The prosecution seeks an order for disposal of the cap and I make that order, unless there is any objection.  Are there any other matters?

26MS DUBROJA:  No, Your Honour.

27HER HONOUR:  Thank you.

28MS WATSON:  No, Your Honour.

29HER HONOUR:  Thank you.  All right, I think that completes everything.  So Mr Nazeer, that link will be turned off in a moment, but it may be that Ms Dubroja would like to have a couple of minutes to speak to you and so I'll leave the Bench, but I'll ask my associate and my tipstaff to remain here and leave the link open for a few moments.

30MS DUBROJA:  Thank you Your Honour.

31MS WATSON:  As the court pleases.

32HER HONOUR:  Thank you.

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