Director of Public Prosecutions v Peoples

[2017] VCC 1503

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

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 17-00356

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

TRAVIS PEOPLES

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE SMALLWOOD
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	17 October 2017
DATE OF SENTENCE:	17 October 2017
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Peoples
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2017] VCC 1503

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:
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Legislation Cited:
Cases Cited:
Sentence:

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr P. Stefanovic
For the Accused	Ms M. O'Brien

HIS HONOUR:

1Travis Peoples, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of theft, one charge of dangerous driving causing serious injury and have pleaded guilty to uplifted matters of making graffiti and unlicensed driving.

2You pleaded guilty at an early reasonable opportunity and indeed, from my understanding of the material, expressed your intention of pleading guilty before the Crown had a conclusive case against you.  You must get the benefit of that.

3I accept for these purposes that you have displayed remorse within your, I suspect, limited capabilities, and you must also of course get the utilitarian benefit of that plea of guilty.

4You are now 26 years of age, having been 25 years of age at the time of the offending.  You do have a concerning criminal history, though I note there is not a lot for driving.  You have been in trouble for it before.

5You have been incarcerated on previous occasions and somewhat disturbingly though not unusually have expressed to your counsel, that you have in the past, coped with gaol well.

6The offending can be summarised in brief and I will annexe the Crown opening to my sentencing remarks.  In any event, the graffiti involves in April 2016 tagging a wall in Richmond which cost $200 to partially remove.  The unlicensed driving relates to the driving which occurred during the course of the dangerous driving causing serious injury.  It speaks it for itself.  You are not to be sentenced as the original thief of the vehicle.

7The charge of dangerous driving causing serious injury is obviously by far the most serious in this scenario even though it carries a maximum penalty half that of theft.

8In the early hours of Saturday 28 May 2016, you, Madison Gainsford and Christie Isaacs were in the Melbourne area.  You were in a stolen car and you were driving it.  As I said that gives rise to the basis of theft of a motor vehicle.

9Between 2 am and 3 am, the three of you were in the Northcote area and ultimately at approximately 10 am, you were driving north along Heidelberg Kinglake Road towards Hurstbridge.

10You were affected by methamphetamine and other substances and were obviously struggling to maintain proper control of the vehicle.  At that time you went on to the wrong side of the road.  A family were coming towards you and had to go on their wrong side of the road to avoid you.  That family must have been terrified.

11It is not the basis of the charge but it gives rise to part and parcel of the dangerousness of what occurred after that.

12You continued on the wrong side of the road and approximately 200 metres south of Gosfield Road in Hurstbridge you lost control of the vehicle, veered to the left of the road and left it colliding with a tree.  It obviously left the road with force.  The driver's and front passenger air bags were deployed.

13At the time of the collision, it is now the position, that you were driving the vehicle.  Gainsford was in the front passenger seat and Christie Isaacs, the ultimate victim in this matter, was in the rear right hand seat.

14You and Gainsford received minor injuries.  Christie Isaacs received far more serious injuries.  She lost consciousness and received a large laceration to the top of the head.  The bleeding covered her face.  It must have been obvious to you how badly injured she was.

15You and Gainsford got out of the car and began to call for help.  A person driving along saw you, I assume, yelling for help and asking people to stop.  You had blood on you and I accept that you, in that situation, had endeavoured to rescue certainly Isaacs from the vehicle and the position it was in.  Other vehicles turned up and called 000. 

16On the spot first aid was given to Isaacs and your behaviour at that point has been described as not displaying remorse.  I am prepared to accept that with your background and those circusmtances after an accident, I am not going to make judgments as to how you conducted yourself.  It is important that you did remain in circumstances where had you desired to, you clearly could have fled.

17In any event you gave a name of someone driving the vehicle who clearly was not. Again in a situation such as this with your background, I do not take particular or give particular importance to that, bearing in mind your ultimate assertion that you would be pleading guilty in the way that I have already indicated.

18An ice pipe was found on you.  You and Gainsford were taken to hospital.  You were subject to a blood sample which revealed that you had methylamphetamine and metoclopramide in your system, whatever that is.

19You were both cleared to be interviewed by police.  Dr O'Dell took photographs of you.  Again, you told Dr O'Dell whether that you were a rear seat passenger.

20You were interviewed by police and denied that you were driving, denied the graffiti but admitted that you had had some ice previously.

21What effectively brought you undone in terms of this plea is that from the gaol you made a number of phone calls implicit in which were admissions that you in fact had been driving the vehicle at the time of the impact.  I take it no further than that, other than in the way that I have already indicated.

22Ms Isaacs was taken by an ambulance to the Alfred Hospital.  She had a traumatic brain injury requiring intracranial pressure monitoring and management, a left frontal subdural haemorrhage, right sided degloving injury of the scalp, a right hemothorax requiring intercostal catheter drainage and diagnostic endoscopy to rule out further lung trauma.   She had an undisplaced left facet fracture which required her wearing a hard collar for six to 12 weeks.

23She was transferred to a Dr Pallet on 9 June.  She was mainly in post-traumatic confusion for some 20 days which indicates a very significant, at least, brain injury.  She left hospital on 6 July on a planned overnight leave and simply failed to return.

24In terms of the fracture, on 26 August it was seen to be healing well and she did not report for follow-up after that.

25There is no victim impact statement before me.

26It is clear that she did suffer serious injury, under the new definition.  Obviously there was an element of suffering but I am in no position to make judgments as to what the ongoing psychological effects on her may or may not be.

27Offending such as this has to be regarded as serious.  It calls for the application of general and specific deterrence, denunciation and appropriate punishment.

28I am well aware of the decision of Neethling and all the other cases surrounding the sentences that are given for this sort of offending and I am aware of the principles that are involved.

29General deterrence obviously has to play a large part in this sort of offending as well as in your situation obviously, specific deterrence.

30In terms of matters personal to you, I have before me a psychological report from Mr Hanley and I also have certificates of courses you have completed whilst in custody, the submissions of your counsel and a counselling report from a Forensicare counsellor who indicates you also saw a Forensicare psychologist in prison on three occasions.

31In a situation such as this, I do not see much point in going through what was clearly a very, very, disadvantaged childhood.  You were placed in foster care and undoubtedly wardship, at a very early age.  You were placed back in the care of your mother at around about eight years of age.  You come from a family of 11 siblings with whom you have no contact.  You did not get past Year 7 and Year 11.

32The family household for what it was, he concluded, a significant amount of physical and verbal violence.  You were using alcohol and cannabis by the age of eight and other drugs by your early teenage years.

33You came into contact with the criminal justice system at a very early age.  You have had, as is not uncommon in these matters, minimal work history.  Though as I indicated, you have completed certificates during this period of time in custody.

34You have had multiple short-lived intimate relationships.  You have three children, all of whom are young and most of whom or all of them, as I understand, virtually have no contact with.

35Your situation calls very much into play the principles outlined in Muldrock.  A background like that is very difficult to overcome as a result of your situation, anti-social personality, drug addiction and clearly gross instability.

36What has become apparent is that whilst Verdins is not applicable in this case and your counsel concedes that, that you are at very serious risk of being completely institutionalised.  You have indicated to your counsel that on previous occasions that you have loved being gaol.  I understand you have reasons behind all that.  To have no decisions, to have no responsibilities, as long as you look after yourself effectively, and I have got no doubt you can do those things.

37This time however, your counsel assures me and I am prepared to accept on the balance of probabilities, you have undergone something of a change.  You have expressed a desire not to return to gaol.  You have done the courses which I have outlined, and most importantly in the report from Kirsten Hendrickson, a senior social worker, she saw you 28 times or has seen you 28 times during your period in custody, and in writing a letter to you says:

"[You] have demonstrated a strong commitment to counselling, attending all sessions and always showing a willingness to talk through [your] experiences and reflect on [your] behaviour.  [You] also demonstrated a willingness to consider other perspectives and other situations from other points of view".

38That is encouraging to say the least, in a situation such as this where you have previously accepted in gaol, to just simply go to ground.   

39It is also clear referred to in the report of Mr Handley, the psychologist Warren who saw you, regarded as you being of average to high average intelligence and that gives me even more confidence in your capacity to rehabilitate.

40You are and have been dealing with anger management and responses in what you perceive as threatening situations, and that is to your credit.  Really, what it is going to come down to, as far as this sort of offending is concerned, is that if you, upon your ultimate release from prison, return to the use of amphetamines, the consequences will be that you will simply go back and the odds are very high that you will spend the bulk of your life in gaol.

41I accept for these purposes that you are aware of that and are at least, for the moment, determined to try and turn that around.

42In assisting you in that, Ms Watson has offered support to you.  She has an eight year old daughter who you know.  You have known her for some period of time, and upon your ultimate release she will offer you accommodation and support.

43The prospects of your rehabilitation are really up to you Mr Peoples.  The risk of you re-offending has to be regarded as moderate to high but I do believe that you have a commitment to try to avoid that.  I have taken into account all the submissions that have been made on your behalf.

44You are still a young man.  You are at an age where sometimes people in your situation are able to turn their lives around, make use of the facilities and resources that are available to them and stop offending.  As I said, if you do not do that, the consequences will be inevitable.

45Taking all those matters into account, it is serious offending.  You just cannot drive a motor vehicle in that condition.  The risk that you put other people at is massive and the situation came pretty close, I would have thought, to killing your passenger.

46You do have prior convictions for dishonesty and I take those matters into account as well.

47I should also point out that, if I have not done this already, that your counsel has conceded very properly in my view, that the level of the dangerous driving causing serious injury is in the mid or above range and I think that is, as I said, properly and very sensibly conceded.  That is the position of the Crown and that is the view I have taken in any event.

48The charge on the indictment theft, six months;

49Dangerous driving causing serious injury, two years' and six months;

50I direct that three months of the sentence imposed for theft be served cumulatively upon the sentence for dangerous driving, which gives you a head sentence on the indictment of two years' and nine months.

51In these circumstances, on the charge of graffiti, seven days;

52On the unlicensed driving, seven days.

53Those are to be served concurrently with each other and with the sentence on the indictment.

54I do not know if I can do this as an aggregate but I will do it on each.  As to the charge of theft is concerned, I am obliged to disqualify you from having a licence.  You have not got one.

55So on the charge of theft of a motor vehicle and on the charge of dangerous driving causing serious injury, any licence to drive a motor vehicle is hereby disqualified and you are disqualified from obtaining one for 18 months, but I backdate that.  That is to be backdated to 28 May 2016 which I believe I have the power to do.

56I direct that 508 days you reckon as having been served under this sentence.  I direct there be a minimum term of two years on the two years nine months.

57So as you understand the benefit of you having pleaded guilty, but for you plea of guilty pursuant to s.6AAA I say, that you would have received a sentence of four years' with a minimum term of three years.

58The disposal orders are made and handed down.  So there are no other orders I have to make?

59MR STEFANOVIC:  No, Your Honour.

60MS O'BRIEN:  No, Your Honour.

61HIS HONOUR:  Yes, all right.  You can take him now, thanks.

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