Director of Public Prosecutions v Peters

[2016] VCC 1592

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

AT WARRNAMBOOL

CRIMINAL DIVISION

Case No. CR-16-00187

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

V

JOHN JAMES PETERS

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE SMALLWOOD
WHERE HELD:	WARRMAMBOOL
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	24 October 2016
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Peters
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2016] VCC 1592

REASONS FOR SENTENCE

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Catchwords:

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Crown	Ms A. Hassan
For the Accused	Mr M. Turner

HIS HONOUR:

1       John James Peters, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of indecent act with a child under the age of 16, and one charge of indecent assault.  Those offences happened in the same incident in around about 2012.  Each of those crimes carries a maximum penalty of ten years' imprisonment.

2       You pleaded guilty to a settled indictment and you must get the benefit of that.  You must also get the utilitarian benefit of your plea of guilty which has saved the community the cost and time of a trial.  You are now 65 years of age and very importantly have no prior findings of guilt of any description.

3       The matter resolved and the Crown opening is therefore quite limited in content.  The situation is that one complainant, IH, was born on 1 July 1996 and was aged between 15 and 16 years at the time of the offending.  The complainant MR was born on 9 February 1998 and was aged between 13 and 15 years at the time of the offending.  They were sisters.

4       You are now 65 and were between 60 and 62 years of age at the time of the offending.  The mother of the children rented a house from you.  She knew you as a customer from a fish and chip shop.  Around that time she and the children moved into the property and you attended the house frequently.  From time to time you were physical with both the girls and had on occasions kissed each of the girls on the neck, which are just simply mentioned as uncharged acts.

5       On an occasion when you were leaving the address you grabbed both of the girls at the same time and ran your hands up the backs of the girls at the same time and quickly kissed each of them on their necks.  That gives rise to Charge 1 and Charge 2, indecent act and indecent assault because of the age.

6       Those crimes are class 2 offences and makes you eligible to be put on the Sex Offenders Registration and your reporting will be for a period of eight years and I direct that that be entered in the court records.

7       I have before me the victim impact statements of each of the girls which I have to be a bit careful because of course the original allegations were of greater number.  I have taken each of those impact statements into account.  They indicate the seriousness with which such offending has to be in the normal course of events viewed.

8       In my view the offending is at the lowest end of such offending.  It can vary very considerably in terms of seriousness and this is a situation where there is no penetration, no, on the charges before me, touching in an intimate way other than the overall description of indecent.

9       I then look to matters personal to you.  You were brought up on a farm, your father died when you were young and you have worked ever since.  You left school at year 7 and you are barely able to read and write.  You have farmed sheep, you have run a transport business, you have done wood cutting and super spreading.   You have never been married.  You do have a number of family living nearby but essentially you have worked all your life and you have never before been in trouble of this description.  You, on the materials, appear to be somewhat reclusive and live a very simple existence.

10      In those circumstances I think it is very unlikely that you would offend in this way again.  So specific deterrence has very limited value.  General deterrence when it is offending against a child must always be present.  I think so far as denunciation and punishment is concerned, any member of the community would see this as being at the lower or lowest end of the scale.

11      However it must be a penalty which does not suggest that the offending was trifling or that the rights of the victims are in any way insignificant.  After listening to your counsel, the prospects of your rehabilitation should be good and the risk of you re-offending slight. 

12      Accordingly if you agree to be placed on a 12 month adjourned bond with conviction, conviction is a punishment in itself.  Coupled with that adjourned bond will be the special condition that you pay $1,000 to the Royal Children's Hospital within a period of three months and that a receipt for that sum be provided to the court in verification that in fact it has been paid.

13      So accordingly, you are 65, no priors and a very good work record, they are things which you are entitled to take into account and I give you the benefit of them.

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HIS HONOUR:  All right with that?  Get your client to sign if he wants to.

MR TURNER:  Yes Your Honour.

HIS HONOUR:  All right, that undertaking is signed and made.  Thanks.  You can be discharged now, thank you Mr Peters, you can leave the dock, I just want to talk to the Crown for a minute.  You're excused Mr Turner, thanks.

MR TURNER:  Thank you Your Honour.

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