Director of Public Prosecutions v Patariki (a pseudonym)
[2025] VCC 931
•7 July 2025
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA AT MELBOURNE CRIMINAL DIVISION | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
GENERAL LIST
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| JAMES PATARIKI (A PSEUDONYM) |
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JUDGE: | His Honour Judge Palmer | |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 20 June 2025 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 7 July 2025 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Patariki (a pseudonym) | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2025] VCC 931 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:CRIMINAL LAW
Catchwords: False imprisonment – conduct endangering persons – Possess with an intent to destroy or damage property – make threat to destroy property – breach of community corrections order - serious offending – threats – offending in context of relationship with previous family violence – mental ill health – alcohol and drug abuse – significant criminal history – moderate to high risk of reoffending – early guilty plea
Legislation Cited: Crimes Act 1958 (Vic);
Cases Cited:DPP v Gaby [2020] VCC 752; R v Verdins (2007) 16 VR 269
Sentence: On CR-25-00439 total effective sentence of three years imprisonment with a non-parole period of one and a half years.
On CR-22-00067 contravention proven, CCO cancelled, resentenced to one year in prison.
6AAA: Five years imprisonment with a non-parole period of three years.
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the DPP | Ms E Dane | Office of Public Prosecutions |
| For the Accused | Ms S Buckley | Balmer & Associates |
HIS HONOUR:
Circumstances of offending[1]
[1] The detailed circumstances of offending for Indictment Q12043233 are set out in the Summary of Prosecution Opening for Plea (29 May 2025). I have also read and taken into consideration Outline of Prosecution Sentencing Submissions for Plea (19 June 2025), Contravention Package (19 June 2025), Prosecution Submissions in relation to Contravention Hearing (18 June 2025), Outline of Submissions on behalf of the Accused for Plea and Contravention of Community Correction Order (17 June 2025); Sandra Cokorilo, Psychological Assessment Report (17 June 2025); and the other filed material.
James Patariki,[2] in the early hours of 23 September 2024, you repeatedly called Kiara Barker asking her to come to the house you were living at in Broadmeadows. You had been friends with Ms Barker since you were teenagers, and had been in an on and off relationship with her for the several previous years.
[2] The names of the offender, victim and lay witnesses have been replaced with pseudonyms.
Ms Barker agreed to drop by your house on the way to picking up her eight year old daughter from the airport. She arrived at around 5 am. Once she was inside the house you became paranoid and argumentative. Over the next nine hours:
a.You imprisoned Ms Barker in your bedroom by refusing to allow her to leave, by sitting on a chair blocking the door, and by means of threats. When you needed to go the bathroom, you grabbed Ms Barker by the collar and shoved her down the hallway with you.
b.You splashed petrol around the bedroom floor, causing it to splash onto Ms Barker’s legs, socks and hair. After you had done this, you lit up numerous cigarettes and flicked your lighter, causing it to spark. At one stage the flooring in the bedroom caught fire.
c.You made numerous threats, including threats to punch Ms Barker, to cut your own throat with a razor blade, and to burn down the house either with yourself or with both of you in it (including while holding a lit candle).
d.You used Ms Barker’s phone to order the delivery of alcohol and food.
e.You caused Ms Barker to fear that she was going to die.
At around 9 am, Ms Barker’s brother Justin became aware that Ms Barker had not picked up her daughter from the airport. He began to look for her. At around 1 pm he learnt that her car was parked near your house. He left work immediately and arrived at your house at around 2 pm. He knocked on the door. Ms Barker called out “just go, he’s going to set the house on fire”.
Mr Barker shouted at you to let her out. This went on for about five minutes, until the door opened, and Ms Barker ran out. In her brother’s words, she was “bawling her eyes out and she looked like death. She was white as a ghost. It was like she’d been traumatised”. Mr Barker grabbed his sister and they left. They reported the matter to the police at around 5.30 pm that day.
The following day, at approximately 11 am, police arrived at your house with a search warrant. There was a strong smell of petrol coming from your bedroom. You told the police to “fuck off”, that “the place is covered in petrol”, and that you would “blow us all up”. One of the police officers tried to engage with you. You told him that if anyone came inside the house you were ready to burn the house and yourself.
Members of the Critical Incident Response Team arrived at around 12 pm and took over negotiations. At around 1.15 pm, you came out of the front door, poured petrol on the ground, and lit it. You then went back into the house. You finally surrendered just before 3 pm. When police entered the house they found several containers of petrol, candles, numerous lighters, and several burnt items. You were interviewed that day and made significant (but incomplete) admissions.
You have pleaded guilty to the following offences:
a.Charge 1: false imprisonment, contrary to the common law, the maximum penalty for which is 10 years imprisonment;
b.Charge 2: conduct endangering persons (Ms Barker), contrary to section 23 of the Crimes Act 1958, the maximum penalty for which is five years imprisonment;
c.Charge 3: possessing something with intent to destroy or damage property (the petrol, candle and lighters), contrary to section 199 of the Crimes Act, the maximum penalty for which is five years imprisonment; and
d.Charge 4: making a threat to destroy property (the house, when police attended), contrary to section 198 of the Crimes Act, the maximum penalty for which is five years imprisonment.
Objective seriousness and moral culpability
Your offending, on the first charge, was extremely serious:
a.You imprisoned and threatened Ms Barker over a period of around nine hours, causing her to fear for her life;
b.Although you did not physically harm Ms Barker, you did endanger her;
c.Although she has not made a victim impact statement, it is obvious that the incident would have been profoundly traumatic for her;
d.When police arrived, you made further threats, and the drama was only brought to an end through the skill and perseverance of trained negotiators; and
e.Although there was no family violence intervention order in force at the time of the offending, the offending did take place within the context of a relationship that had been marred by previous family violence.
It is obvious that general deterrence, just punishment and denunciation are important sentencing purposes for offending of this kind.[3]
There is significant overlap between the different charges, particularly charges 1 to 3. This is evidenced by the fact that I have taken the conduct on which the second and third charges are based into account in determining the seriousness of the first charge. I therefore need to be careful to avoid double punishment. I will do so by ordering a significant degree of concurrency between the sentences for the various charges.
Personal circumstances and subjective matters
[3] The only evidence of current sentencing practice to which the parties referred me is the case of DPP v Gaby [2020] VCC 752 (Judge Cahill), which was a guilty plea to a single charge of conduct endangering another person.
You were born in New Zealand and migrated to Australia with your family when you were three years old. You are now 36 years old, and an Australian citizen. Your parents were hard working, strict and religious. Although you have a positive relationship with them, you found it difficult to meet their expectations. They now live in Queensland.
You left school before the end of Year 8 and have not undertaken any further study. You have worked in factories, warehouses and construction sites, typically working for a couple of months, and then taking a couple of months off. You have frequently been homeless. Ms Barker has been the only significant intimate relationship of your adult life.
You started drinking at around the age of 14, and developed a very problematic relationship with alcohol. Justin Barker said that you are “either a really nice guy to talk to”, or a menace, and “that’s because of the alcohol”. When you are like that, he says, “it can last for days”. You have also used various illegal drugs and they – particularly methamphetamine – have also caused you a lot of trouble.
You have been diagnosed with a number of serious mental health conditions and cognitive limitations. These are exacerbated by your substance abuse. You were in the grip of a mental health episode at the time you committed this offending. The prosecution accepts that this reduces your moral culpability. The prosecution also accepts that your mental health conditions mean that prison will weigh more heavily on you. I find that these conditions also make you a relatively poor vehicle for general deterrence. [4]
[4] R v Verdins (2007) 16 VR 269 limbs 1, 3 and 5.
You have a significant criminal history, commencing in 2010, with offences involving violence, robbery, theft and property damage. You have committed offences while on bail, and on more than one occasion breached a family violence intervention order which Ms Barker had taken out against you. There is a need for specific deterrence, albeit this is moderated to some extent by your mental health issues.[5]
[5] R v Verdins (2007) 16 VR 269 limb 4.
In 2020, you were stabbed in your right arm, which is your dominant side. You have not worked since. You have been operated on eight times; but the damage is so severe that you cannot use your right hand. Doctors recommend that the arm be amputated. The injury is an ongoing trauma for you, and has left you feeling useless, hopeless and self-conscious. It also means that your time in prison weighs more heavily on you.
You have been in custody since your arrest on 24 September 2024. You have used your time in prison to undertake programmes designed to help you reintegrate into the community, to deal with substance abuse, and to engage in personal growth. You also completed an Iron Man challenge. Before going to prison, you had also engaged to some extent with a community correction order (I will return to this shortly).
Your prospects for rehabilitation are nevertheless guarded. Ms Cokorilo assesses both your risk of general reoffending and your risk of intimate partner violence as moderate to high. She says that you lack the internal resources and external supports to achieve meaningful rehabilitation and sustained behavioural change unless you are intensively supported. Hopefully, you will get some of that support if you are released on parole.
You pleaded guilty at a very early stage and thereby saved the courts, witnesses, prosecuting agencies and the community as a whole time, money, inconvenience, uncertainty and stress. Your plea confirms your willingness to accept responsibility for your offending and your remorse.
Despite these factors in mitigation, the seriousness of your offending is such that you must serve a substantial term of imprisonment. This rules out a combination sentence. I also note that you failed to comply with your previous community correction order (CCO). I will deal with that contravention shortly.
Orders
If you had not pleaded guilty, I would have sentenced you to five years imprisonment, with a non-parole period of three years. Because you pleaded guilty, I am instead imposing the following sentence:
a.On the charge of false imprisonment, I convict you and impose a sentence of two and a half years imprisonment (this is the base sentence).
b.On the charge of conduct endangering persons, I convict you and impose a sentence of one year imprisonment, three months of which are to be served cumulatively on the base sentence.
c.On the charge of possessing anything with intent to destroy or damage property, I convict you and impose a sentence of six months imprisonment, one month of which is to be served cumulatively on the base sentence.
d.On the charge of threatening to destroy property, I convict you and impose a sentence of nine months imprisonment, two months of which are to be served cumulatively on the base sentence.
e.This makes for a total effective sentence of three years imprisonment. I order that you serve one and a half years of your sentence before you become eligible for parole.
f.I declare that you have already served 258 days of your term of imprisonment as pre-sentence detention.
Contravention of CCO
On 27 October 2022 you were sentenced for the offences of theft and robbery. The circumstances of that offending are set out in the reasons of the sentencing judge, Judge Gaynor. Her Honour sentenced you to 11 months and three weeks imprisonment, followed by a CCO of two years duration. You were released from prison on 4 June 2023. Although there was some compliance with the order, the compliance was patchy. This was in part due to your homelessness and substance abuse. You also committed the offending for which I have just sentenced you while the CCO was in force. As a result you have been charged with contravention of the CCO. I make the following orders:
a.I find the contravention proved.
b.I cancel the CCO.
c.On the contravention charge, I convict and discharge you.
d.I re-sentence you on the original offending to one year in prison, to be served cumulatively on the sentence I have just imposed.
e.I declare that you have already served 347 days of this sentence by way of pre-sentence detention. This means 18 days of the sentence are left to serve.
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