Director of Public Prosecutions v Priest

[2017] VCC 857

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

AT LATROBE VALLEY
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 16-02188

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

SACHA DION PRIEST

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE SMALLWOOD
WHERE HELD:	Latrobe Valley
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	26 June 2017
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Priest
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2017] VCC 857

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

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Ms D. Guesdon
For the Accused	Mr Davis

HIS HONOUR:

1Sacha Dion Priest, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of persistent sexual abuse of a child under the age of 16 years.  That crime carries a maximum penalty of 25 years' imprisonment. 

2Firstly, pursuant to s.464ZF of the Crimes Act, I make an order that you provide a saliva sample for DNA purposes.  I must advise you, that order having been made, if you refuse to provide such a sample, police may use reasonable force to take it from you, and that order is made and handed down.

3You pleaded guilty at the earliest reasonable opportunity, and must get the benefit of that plea of guilty.  You are now 37 years of age.  You made admissions to police and in the context of the pretext conversation, which also goes to your credit.  I accept that ultimately there as appropriate remorse, and you must of course get the utilitarian benefit of that plea of guilty. 

4There are no relevant prior convictions, and I have not been informed of anything subsequent.

5Next, pursuant to the Sex Offenders Registration legislation, you will be placed upon the register, and I must advise you that the reporting conditions will be for life.

6A summary of the offending, put in simple terms, is as follows.  And I point out that the Crown opening is of some length, and has been exhibited, and I will direct that it remain on the court file.

7In simple terms, when this offending occurred you were 34-35 years of age.  The complainant in the matter was 15 years of age at the time, approaching 16 years.  I may also indicate for the purpose of the complainant and her family, her name is not used, so it anonymises, so do not take it as a - it happens every time, all right?

8At the time of the offending, you resided in a bungalow in a town.  Also living at that address was your mother.  You and your mother were members of the Jehovah's Witness congregation in the town, and at the time of the offending, the complainant resided with her mother, her father and young brother in the town.  Her parents were cleaners, and went to Melbourne on a regular basis.  They were also members of the Jehovah's Witness Church.

9You had known the complainant since she was about five.  I do not think I need to go through the detail of where families went to, but in any event, in 2012 you were living in the town, as I have indicated.  The complainant commenced a casual job delivering newspapers, and would frequent your residence and spend time with you and your mother.

10In 2014, you began a friendship with her brother, and would attend their residence to play with him.  In the same year, when she was 15 years of age, you began playing squash together once a week.  In June of 2014, the two of you began a non-sexual, romantic relationship, and would meet at a mutual friend's place.

11In November of 2014, you began a sexual relationship.  I might point out that it was indicated to me in the statement that your mother made to the police about the very dysfunctional background and childhood that you had, and I accept that.  But it is also very clear from her statement that she was warning you very, very clearly that the relationship was not to become a physical one because of the age difference, and you were apparently expressing understanding of that.

12In any event, in November of 2014 when it did become a sexual relationship, you would frequent her residence while her parents were at work, or sneak in through her bedroom window while her parents were asleep.  You would also have her sneak out of her residence and drive her to remote locations.

13In May 2015 she ended the relationship with you, and there were what was fairly described as uncharged acts after it ended, of which she has very little recollection.

14The incidents which give rise to the persistent sexual abuse occurred over a period of around about nine months, or less than that as I understand it, which is not within the very high range of timeframes over which they can occur.  I simply point out that the sexual acts with a patently inexperienced child involved penetrations of effectively all sorts, and persistence.  I accept that it was indicated to you by the complainant that this was causing her emotional concern, and indeed at one stage I think you told your mother that it ended because she had so much anxiety over it.

15It think it is important in this situation just to relate a couple of matters that come from the Crown opening, which were not actually read out in court.  There is one incident - and there are a significant number of incidents that give rise to this charge, where you fully introduced your penis into her vagina.  You had penile-vaginal sex with her for a short period of time, she told you to stop because it was hurting.  You told her that you were happy to be able to penetrate her all the way, because you had not been able to totally penetrate previously.  This was on a bush outing.  She was then bitten by something and walked out of the scrub.

16In any event, she missed her menstrual cycle for two months, as is indicated in her victim impact statement.  She stressed about the possibility of being pregnant to you.  You were happy at the prospect of her being pregnant.  When she in fact had her period, you became upset.  That is indicative - I know that it is not alleged to have occurred on every occasion, but clearly the penetrations were taking place at least on that occasion in an unprotected way.

17On another occasion, in the back seat of your vehicle, you rubbed her vagina over her clothing.  By this stage, the offending had been going on for quite some time.  She then became upset about what had occurred and began crying.  You became angry at her and told her she had "asked for it".  You then dropped her off a few doors up from her residence and she walked home.

18On another occasion sometime after that, you were having her masturbate you by rubbing your penis and moving her head up and down on your penis.  You were unable to ejaculate, and became disappointed with her.  This caused her to cry, and she felt she "couldn't do the job properly". 

19They are just simple illustrations of the nature of this relationship, if it can be called that, as it progressed.  You were over twice her age, and clearly had a very significant degree of control over her.  As is said in the case of ED v The Queen:

"It is the persistence of the sexual relationship over time which is at the heart of the offence.  The repetition of the sexual abuse is likely to heighten the victim's fear that the abuse will occur again and increase the damage which she suffers.  Equally, the repetition is likely to make the offender progressively more aware of the effect that the abuse is having on the victim.  In each of these respects, culpability is heightened.  On the other hand, it would be quite wrong to conclude that the offender's culpability varies in direct proportion to the length of the relationship.  Other factors may be of greater significance, such as the nature of the pre-existing relationship between the offender and the victim, and the nature and intensity of the sexual abuse which takes place."

20In this particular situation, you must have been aware as to the psychological effects, bearing in mind her background and her temperament, that this sort of offending would occur.  I accept on the material before me that she was expressing distress about it all, and you must have been well-aware of that as time went on.  It was a breach of trust, not only of her being a child, and her parents, and you going into their home, but also a breach of the trust of your community, as I have already described.  As I say, they were matters which must have clearly been in your mind, and your mother had warned you against it.

21Victim impact statements were filed and had been read out - one at least, from both the complainant and her mother.  The mother describes the pain that offending such as this causes against a family, and the complainant describes very eloquently the damage that this sort of offending occurs.  It has not - in her situation, formally as I understand it, been diagnosed as a post-traumatic stress disorder, but from having dealt with many of these matters, particularly in the last decade, it is clearly what it would seem to be.

22She describes the consequences of this in her victim impact statement, bearing in mind that this is coming from a 17-year-old child who has her whole life in front of her, and I would have no doubt would be afraid that what you have done has jeopardised very large portions of that.

23She said:

"The very first encounter left me shocked.  It wasn't registering what had just happened.  But as things kept happening, I began to feel disgusted with myself.  I felt trapped and cried every day.  I felt God was going to kill me, and if he didn't, then I would.  I wanted to die a lot of times after sexual acts occurred, I would cry and then he'd get angry at me, which left me scared.  I felt like an object of no value.  Depression and anxiety took over my life.  I began skipping my monthly period and having an irregular cycle.  I stopped doing any type of schoolwork, and began to want to have nothing to do with anybody.  I distanced myself from some of my oldest friends and my family, and also quit my job, as I couldn't handle it anymore.  I began to self-harm, and associated with people that used me and had no value in my existence, because I thought that's all I deserved.  I have no relationship with my father, who had blamed me multiple times for what had happened, and neglected me the entire time.  I felt alone and unsupported in a place I was meant to feel loved.  I did not feel safe mentally in my own home.  I used to be able to feel comfortable in a room full of people I knew, but now I feel scared, anxious and want to leave that room, even if I do know every single one of them.  I can't go to certain places anymore, and I hate leaving the sight of the person I feel most safe with, my uncle.  I look at all these other young girls who are my age and look like they're having so much fun with their lives.  I wish I could feel that way.  I wish I could feel empowered and have the confidence a young person going out into the world has, or should have.  Every day now I feel angry, I feel like a burden to everyone, as well as to myself."

24They are textbook descriptions of the consequences that offending of this nature has on young girls.  The offending has to be, obviously, regarded as serious.  It was in the case of The Queen v Sposito, now some 25 years ago, that Marks J, as he then was, said - and this was about incest, but relates to the same:

"A society which fails to protect its children from sexual abuse by adults, particularly by those entrusted with their care, is degenerate."

25This offending, as I have indicated, is very serious, and calls very much for the application of general deterrence.  Specific deterrence must play a part, though I would be very surprised if you ever did this again.  It also calls clearly for denunciation and the appropriate punishment.

26A significant gaol term is the only sentencing option available in this matter, and the Crown have provided me with the sentencing snapshots, and it would appear that the median is around six years.  I am not going to buy into weighing up each and every aspect of these matters, but as the Crown submit, this is towards the medium, and I agree, that is, in terms of moral culpability and seriousness of offending. 

27I then look at matters personal to you.  There is a report of Dr Kennedy, which is on file.  There was the statement of your mother, which I was referred to, and there are references as to work. I accept, for sentencing purposes, that you had a very dysfunctional childhood.  I accept that you have had over the years depression, that you have been since a young age, suicidal, possibly because of the nature of your upbringing.  As well as other matters, you have limited life skills.  There was some suggestion of schizophrenia at one point, but that would seem to have been some sort of drug-induced psychosis situation.

28Dr Kennedy seems to regard you as having symptoms of a borderline personality disorder, and you have been through a period of drug addiction and use of ice and substances such as that.  I accept that on those matters and in your particular situation that it will be harder in gaol for you than it might be for other prisoners.  Other than that, the principles enunciated in Verdins would appear to be to have no real application.

29The prospects your rehabilitation are up to you.  The risk of you reoffending was described by Dr Kennedy as low, and whilst I may agree with that ultimate opinion, I think that it is most unsatisfactory how it was arrived at in this situation.  On the positive side, you do appear to have a good work record.  You do appear to have, at least for the present time, the support of your mother.  You do appear to have some sort of insight into the nature of your offending, and in your situation, the plea of guilty, as I have indicated in the admissions, are of real significance. 

30I do not think there is any need for me to go into any more of the background.  As I have indicated, I think a significant gaol term is the only sentence that is available, and taking all those matters into account in terms of trying to ascertain where this fits within the regime, so that you are sentenced as follows.

31On the charge of persistent sexual abuse, five years and three months.  Because of the matters put forward by your counsel, and because you have no other prior convictions for this sort of offending, I have given you a minimum term, which is lower than might have otherwise have been the case, and it will be one of three years to be served before you become eligible for parole, and your counsel will explain to you what will need to be done before you are to be paroled, if you are.

32Pursuant to s.6AAA of the Crimes Act, I say that but for your plea of guilty, I would have sentenced you to be imprisoned for a period of seven and a half years, with a minimum term of five.

33Are there any other orders I need to make?

34MS GUESDON:  No Your Honour.

35HIS HONOUR:  No?  All right, you can take him now, thank you.

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