Director of Public Prosecutions v Peterson

[2021] VCC 52

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

 Revised

Not Restricted

 Suitable for Publication

AT MELBOURNE

CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 19-01455

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

LAITH PETERSON

---

JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE DEAN
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	29 January 2021
DATE OF SENTENCE:	3 February 2021
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Peterson
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2021] VCC 52

REASONS FOR SENTENCE

---

Subject: CRIMINAL LAW

Catchwords: Sentence – Plea of guilty – Recklessly cause serious injury – Limited criminal history – Serious example of offence – Little remorse – Significant trauma to victim – Community protection – General deterrence – Specific deterrence – Disrupted background – Reasonable prospects of rehabilitation

Legislation Cited: Crimes Act 1958 (Vic)

Cases Cited: R v Verdins (2007) 16 VR 269

Sentence: Total effective sentence of 4 years and 9 months imprisonment with a non-parole period of 2 years and 9 months – s.6AAA declaration – 6 years imprisonment with a non-parole period of 4 years.

---

APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Ms S. MacDougall (For Plea) Mr A. Lew (For Sentence)	The Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Ms A. Hancock	May Lawyers

HIS HONOUR: 

1Laith Peterson, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of recklessly causing serious injury contrary to s.17 of the Crimes Act 1958 (Vic). The maximum penalty for that offence is 15 years' imprisonment.

2You pleaded guilty following contested committal proceedings and the matter being listed for trial in this court.  Accordingly, yours is a late plea and your counsel conceded that it is limited evidence of remorse in your case.  Nevertheless, it has spared witnesses and the community the burden of a criminal trial and I have taken your plea into account in your favour in mitigation of sentence. 

3You have admitted a criminal history comprising a number of offences related to driving whilst intoxicated and one prior conviction for intentionally causing injury in 2006 for which you received six months' imprisonment which was wholly suspended.  Your criminal history is evidence of your long-standing alcohol abuse disorder and is otherwise of limited relevance for sentencing purposes in the circumstances of this case. 

4The prosecution opening, accepted as accurate by your counsel, was tendered in evidence and your offending may be summarised as follows –

5On 30 September 2018, you were residing with the victim of your offending, Geoffrey Cousins in his home in Watsonia.  You had known one another for approximately 14 years and he had recently allowed you to move into his house after you had moved out of a flat that you were residing in.  Mr Cousins was 15 years older than you.  You were both heavy abusers of alcohol and you both abused illegal drugs of dependence. 

6Following extensive alcohol and drug use on the previous day, you became enraged with Mr Cousins sometime after midday on 30 September 2018 and savagely assaulted him by punching him in the head and kicking him in the body.  After this unprovoked attack, you removed his blood-soaked clothing and attempted to clean his body with hot water, causing him extensive burns. 

7In an account provided to a consulting neuropsychologist Martin Jackson, you stated that you had become enraged with Mr Cousins because he told you he had drugged girls and sexually assaulted them.  There is no independent support for this account of your offending but if it is reliable, it does not in any way justify your serious assault on your friend.

8Following your attempts to clean Mr Cousins who was then unconscious, you telephoned friends who attended the house and arranged for him to be conveyed to The Royal Melbourne Hospital where he arrived at approximately 6.15 pm.  He was suffering from multiple injuries and was in a reduced conscious state.  Following emergency treatment, he was admitted to the intensive care unit.  He remained in a reduced conscious state for three weeks and has suffered permanent cognitive impairment such that he can no longer care for himself. 

9However, it is the prosecution case that for the purposes of the charge you have pleaded guilty to, the serious injury comprises a combination of nasal fracture, fractured posterior 11th rib, subdural haemorrhage with cerebrospinal fluid hygromas, burns and bruising.  The medical evidence does not establish that these injuries caused Mr Cousins' reduced conscious state and subsequent cognitive impairment. 

10Nevertheless, the injuries relied upon were plainly substantial and protracted and in my opinion, this is a serious example of the offence that you have pleaded guilty to.  During the course of a drunken and drug‑fuelled rage, you brutally assaulted your friend in his own home and you have shown, in my opinion, little remorse for your offending.  

11Mr Cousins' brain injury is such that he was not able to provide a statement to investigating police or a Victim Impact Statement.  I have, however, received in evidence a Victim Impact Statement prepared by his sister, Dr Diana Cousins, and I accept that the injuries he has suffered as a result of the assault upon her brother has caused both significant trauma to them and in turn, seriously disrupted their lives.

12It is the fundamental responsibility of the Court to protect our community's citizens from senseless violence such as this and other people must be deterred from offending in this manner.  Alcoholism lies at the route of your crime and in my opinion, specific deterrence is also a relevant sentencing consideration in this case.

13I now turn to your personal circumstances. 

14You were born in New South Wales on 7 November 1972 and are now aged 48.  Your childhood and developmental years were seriously disrupted by your parents' alcohol and drug abuse, culminating in you being placed in state care when you were 17.  You completed Year 10 at school but struggled with formal education and it is now apparent that you suffer from a significant deficit in your reading and writing capacity. 

15Whilst your admitted criminal history is of limited relevance as I have stated, you also have a criminal history in New South Wales as a young offender.  The particulars of this have not been provided to the Court.  You also have a history of being the victim of sexual abuse as a child which took place in the setting of your parents' chaotic lifestyle. 

16You moved to Victoria when you were 23 and have previously been married.  Your wife died in 2011 from an alcohol-related illness.  You have two adult children with whom you have limited contact.  You have a stable work history as a bricklayer and at the time of your offending, you were in full-time employment in that occupation.  You are financially self-sufficient. 

17I have received in evidence a Neuropsychological Report of Mr Martin Jackson, setting out your background and psychological profile.  I accept that you suffer from longstanding alcohol abuse disorder and this has led to some impairment in your cognitive functioning but I do not accept that impairment is properly described as severe.

18You are capable of living independently, have been in full employment for your adult life and there is no evidence of any formal thought disorder in your case.  Furthermore, you are of average intelligence.  However, I do accept that you have deficits in your reading and writing skills.  Nevertheless, I accept that you suffer some impairment in executive functioning due to alcohol abuse and this may have contributed in a limited way to your offending.  But the principal cause of your attack on Mr Cousins was you becoming enraged whilst heavily intoxicated. 

19Your counsel submitted that the principles enunciated by the Court of Appeal in R v Verdins (2007) 16 VR 269 are engaged in your case, and in particular specific and general deterrence are to be moderated in their application to you by reason of your alcohol‑related brain injury. I accept that this is so but to a limited degree.

20Furthermore, imprisonment has not adversely impacted on your alcohol-related brain injury as you are not consuming alcohol and your mental and physical health has accordingly improved. 

21In arriving at the appropriate sentence in your case, I have also had regard to the fact that you have spent approximately 11 months in custody during the COVID-19 pandemic and the hardship of imprisonment has been increased by reason of the restrictions imposed in response to that.

22Finally, I accept that your prospects of rehabilitation are reasonable but this is dependent on you receiving ongoing treatment for alcohol and drug abuse.  In the result, the sentence of the court is as follows.

23On the charge of recklessly causing serious injury, you are convicted and sentenced to be imprisoned for four years and nine months. 

24I direct that you serve two years and nine months before becoming eligible for release on parole. 

25But for your plea of guilty, I would have sentenced you to six years' imprisonment with a non-parole period of four years.

26I declare that you have served 856 days by way of pre-sentence detention not including today.

‑ ‑ ‑