Director of Public Prosecutions v Pearson
[2014] VCC 2309
•17 March 2014
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL DIVISION
Case No. CR-13-015873
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| TRENT COLIN PEARSON |
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JUDGE: | Dean | |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 3/12/2013, 4/12/2013, 5/12/2013, 6/12/2013, 14/3/2014 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 17 March 2014 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v. Pearson | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | 2014 VCC 2309 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the DPP | Mr D. Porceddu | O.P.P. |
| For the Prisoner | Mr G. Boas | Balmer & Associates |
HIS HONOUR:
1 Trent Colin Pearson, you have pleaded guilty to 10 charges of armed robbery contrary to s.75A(1) of the Crimes Act 1958. The maximum penalty for that offence is 25 years' imprisonment. You have also pleaded guilty to one charge of assault contrary to common law. The maximum penalty for that offence is five years' imprisonment. You have also pleaded guilty to one charge of attempted theft, contrary to s.321M and s.74(1) of the Crimes Act 1958. The maximum penalty for that offence is five years' imprisonment. Finally, one charge of conduct endangering persons contrary to s.23 of the Crimes Act 1958. The maximum penalty for that offence is five years' imprisonment.
2 You pleaded guilty at committal mention and I have taken your early pleas of guilty into account in your favour in mitigation of sentence. You have admitted an extensive criminal history in Queensland dating to 2006. Your convictions and court appearances include convictions for robbery in company, burglary, assault and committing a public nuisance. You were released on parole from a prison in Queensland on 12 March 2013 and you arrived in Victoria on 15 March 2013 to visit your father who had been injured in an assault.
3 Your offending in Victoria commenced on 8 April 2013 whilst you were the subject of the parole order in Queensland. Upon completion of the sentence that I will impose upon you, you will be required to serve a further 116 days' imprisonment in Queensland by reason of you breaching that parole order.
4 On 13 December 2013 I sentenced your co-offenders, Cruz Wilson, Nicholas Boromeo and Matthew King, in relation to seven charges of armed robbery in the case of Wilson and six charges of armed robbery in the cases of Boromeo and King. These reasons for sentence are to be read in conjunction with the reasons that I delivered in their cases.
5 A prosecution opening was read to the court and tendered in evidence and your offending may be summarised as follows:
6 28 April 2013 and 2 May 2013 you committed a series of 10 armed robberies on convenience stores or service stations in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne.
7 On 8 April 2013 at 1.25 am you committed an armed robbery on a BP service station in Hampton. You were armed with a knife. Approximately $400 was stolen by you. Your co-offender, Cruz Wilson, remained outside the front door and acted as a lookout.
8 On 29 April 2013 at 7.30 pm you committed an armed robbery at a Caltex Service Station in Mornington. You were armed with a knife or a pair of scissors. You stole cigarettes and approximately $1200 in cash.
9 On 30 April 2013 you committed an armed robbery on a Shell service station in Moorooduc. You were armed with a knife. You stole money and cigarettes to the value of $940. Later that evening at 9.58 pm you committed another armed robbery on a Liberty service station in Baxter. You were again armed with a knife. You stole approximately 80 packets of cigarettes and $1000 in cash.
10 On 2 May 2013, your co-offenders Wilson, Boromeo and King travelled to Melbourne and you all met up at your father's unit in Hampton. Six armed robberies were committed by you and your co-offenders that day on convenience stores or service stations. On each occasion you were the offender who entered the premises and you were armed with a knife. Approximately $2300 in cash and cigarettes were stolen during the course of these offences.
11 At approximately 11.10 pm on 2 May 2013 you entered a Shell service station in Mornington and committed and armed robbery. After leaving the premises you approached a person who was filling his vehicle with petrol. You forced him into his car and removed the keys. This conduct constitutes the charges of assault and attempted theft on the Indictment. You drove away from the premises at high speed and lost control of your vehicle on Racecourse Road, Mornington. The car rolled and crashed through paddock fencing. This conduct constitutes the charge of conduct endangering persons on the Indictment, those persons being your three co-offenders who were present in the vehicle.
12 Police arrived shortly afterwards and you were arrested and taken into custody. You made no comment to most questions asked of you by investigating police and denied committing the armed robberies, the subject of the charges before the court.
13 It is plain from this summary that your offending is of the utmost seriousness and the sentence that I impose must be calculated to deter you and others from offending in this way. The protection of the community is a significant sentencing consideration in this case and you also must be punished for the offending that you embarked upon.
14 You placed a number of shop attendants under great stress and fear and threatened them with actual violence. You also exposed innocent members of the public to the threat of violence and your co-offenders were exposed to the risk of serious injury by your dangerous driving. I accept the submission made by the prosecution that you pose a risk to the community when you are intoxicated, as you were to some degree, on these occasions. Following your arrest on 2 May 2013 blood alcohol testing revealed a reading of .161 per centum.
15 You were born on 27 July 1989 in Perth and you are now aged 24. Your childhood and developmental years were characterised by abuse and deprivation. I have received in evidence a Forensicare report of Prof Paul Mullen that describes your childhood and adolescence as "grossly disturbed and disrupted".
16 You were exposed to violence, alcohol abuse and drug abuse at an early age and this has no doubt led to the development of your offending behaviour. You have a long history of contact with mental health services but Prof Mullen does not conclude that you are suffering from a psychiatric illness. Rather, your mental health has been impaired by drug and alcohol abuse and the trauma you suffered as a child. The diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as a child also resulted in you being treated with dexamphetamine and Ritalin which may have compounded your impaired development.
17 I have also received in evidence a psychological report of Ms Carla Lechner, a consulting and forensic psychologist, that effectively repeats the findings made by Prof Mullen. Furthermore, I heard evidence from your mother, Trudy Harvey, and it is clear from her evidence that you did suffer significant trauma as a child. Nevertheless, you have her continuing and ongoing support.
18 The report of Prof Mullen concludes that you exhibit a degree of insight into your offending and you are a person of normal intelligence. He concludes that you are now suffering from depression and I accept that this is causing you a degree of hardship in prison and your imprisonment will compound that condition.
19 Any assessment of your prospects for rehabilitation must be guarded and the likelihood of you reoffending will depend on whether you are able to remain drug and alcohol free from your release from prison.
20 In my opinion your rehabilitation will be facilitated by an extended period of supervision on parole. I accept that you are now, to some degree, remorseful for your offending. As Prof Mullen observes, you have some insight into that.
21 Section 9 of the Sentencing Act 1991 provides for the imposition of an aggregate sentence in a case such as this and it is, of course, supported by your counsel and by the prosecution. It would appear that the provisions of s.9(1A)(b) are not engaged in your case as all your offending occurred whilst you were released under a Queensland parole order.
22 In determining the appropriate proportionate penalty in your case I have also taken into account the fact that you will be required to serve 116 days' imprisonment in Queensland on the completion of the sentence I impose.
23 Your counsel submitted that I should have regard to the principle of parity in sentencing and in particular the sentence I imposed on your co-offender, Cruz Wilson. In my opinion the relevant factors in your respective cases are such that it is open to me to impose a sentence in your case that is materially greater than the sentence that I imposed upon Wilson for the following reasons: (i) you are older than Wilson; (ii) you performed the acts that constitute the offences that you were charged with and Wilson was in effect a secondary offender; (iii) you have an extensive criminal history; (iv) the protection of the community is a significant sentencing consideration in your case; (v) you offended whilst on parole and (vi) in my opinion your prospects for rehabilitation are not as good as those of Wilson.
24 Finally, I wish to record that in arriving at the sentence that I will impose I have not in any way taken into account the sentencing range submission made by the prosecutor during the plea hearing in this matter on 4 December 2012 which took place prior to the decision of the High Court of Australia in R v. Barbaro [2014] HCA 2.
25 In the result the sentence of the court is as follows:
26 In relation to Charges 1 to 13 on the Indictment you are convicted and sentenced to be imprisoned for an aggregate term of six years and three months.
27 I order that you serve three years and nine months before becoming eligible for release on parole.
28 I declare that you have served 319 days by way of pre-sentence detention, not including today.
29 But for your plea of guilty I would have sentenced you to a term of imprisonment of eight years and imposed a nonparole period of five and a half years.
30 HIS HONOUR: You can be seated. There are a number of ancillary orders that I have been asked to make. They concern a s.464ZFB(1) order. Is that opposed?
31 MR BOAS: Not opposed, Your Honour.
32 HIS HONOUR: There is also a number of compensation orders in relation to the money and goods stolen from the service stations and convenience stores.
33 MR BOAS: Not opposed.
34 HIS HONOUR: Finally, there is a forfeiture and a confiscation order. I take it they are not opposed either.
35 MR BOAS: No, Your Honour.
36 HIS HONOUR: Thank you. I have made those ancillary orders.
37 MS TANG: Thank you, Your Honour.
38 HIS HONOUR: Is there anything further required?
39 MR BOAS: No, Your Honour.
40 MS TANG: No, Your Honour.
41 HIS HONOUR: Thank you.
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