Director of Public Prosecutions v Purtill
[2014] VCC 526
•15 April 2014
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised (Not) Restricted Suitable for Publication |
AT BENDIGO
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION
CR-13-02279
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| NEROLIE PURTILL |
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| JUDGE: | HER HONOUR JUDGE WILMOTH |
| WHERE HELD: | Bendigo |
| DATE OF HEARING: | 15 April 2014 |
| DATE OF SENTENCE: | 15 April 2014 |
| CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Purtill |
| MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2014] VCC 526 |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject: Criminal law – sentence
Catchwords: One charge of armed robbery of pharmacy – offender addicted to Oxycotin for pain relief – 44 year old woman with serious health problems affecting quality of life – exceptional case
Cases Cited: R v Verdins [2007] VSCA 102
Sentence: CCO 12 months
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Director of Public Prosecutions | Mr P. Jones | DPP |
| For the Accused | Ms M. Aumar | Stuthridge Legal |
HER HONOUR:
1 Nerolie Joy Purtill, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of armed robbery, which is a very serious charge and for which the maximum sentence is 25 years imprisonment.
2 On 1 September 2013, you went to a pharmacy armed with a blood-filled syringe and wearing a stocking over your head as a disguise. You demanded the medication Oxycontin from the assistant, who handed three packets to you. You went home and consumed several tablets as pain relief for the medical condition from which you suffer. The pharmacy was the one you had been attending regularly for your supply of prescribed Oxycontin and the assistant easily recognised you as the stocking did not properly disguise your features. The police came to your house the next day and you cooperated with them in handing over the packets of medication and the clothes you had been wearing. When interviewed, you made full and frank admissions and you were very remorseful.
3 I must say at the outset that this is a very sad case. You are aged 44 and you grew up in the context of the abuse of your mother at the hands of your father and you then married and experienced abuse from your husband, resulting in you leaving him when your daughter, your only child, was two years old. She is now 15 and lives with you. You have suffered from very poor health and significant pain for most of your adult life. Because of the condition of Crohn's disease, which causes bowel obstruction from time to time you have required pain relief from Oxycontin and, at the time of the offence, you had run out of it and had no current prescription. You became desperate and devised the plan to rob the pharmacy.
4 Tendered at the plea hearing this morning was a considerable amount of medical documentation; reports from your treating doctors and from the St John of God Hospital. From that material and from your counsel's submissions, I am able to briefly summarise your relevant medical history. At the age of 21, you had been diagnosed with endometriosis, which led to multiple health problems requiring both major surgery and day or overnight procedures on many occasions. You also suffer from depression and anxiety, with panic attacks and borderline personality traits. Your treating psychiatrist is of the opinion that you are susceptible to dissociative episodes while stressed and are vulnerable to having recurrent depressive episodes. You were hospitalised for treatment for major depression and generalised anxiety disorder in 2010.
5 From sometime in late 2011 and early 2012, you had been seeing a drug counsellor, Dianne Roberts, for help in managing the use of pain relief medication. This was interrupted by your admission to hospital, but although you re-engaged with Ms Roberts in mid-2012, it appears you did not actually attend her. You told her though that you were successfully managing the medication, by regularly picking it up from the pharmacy instead of stockpiling it, and you were discharged from the service by Ms Roberts. After the armed robbery, you re-engaged with her service and, by early this year, Ms Roberts was satisfied that you were managing well. You were discharged from the service again at that time, when Ms Roberts was advised that you were actually in hospital.
6 Your surgeon, Mr Rodney Mitchell, has recently reported that you were indeed admitted to hospital in March this year in a very serious condition, suffering from a complete small bowel obstruction and metabolic derangement due to what he described was acute renal failure, dehydration and malnutrition. You weighed only 35 kilograms and required intravenous feeding. Whilst in hospital, you developed a thrombosis and an infection, both of which were treated successfully and you were discharged after six weeks. You are no longer using Oxycontin, but have a Fentanyl patch instead. Bearing in mind the long-standing and difficult problems you have had with Oxycontin, that is a significant improvement in your circumstances, even though I understand it is still not easy for you.
7 Ms Aumar, your counsel, submitted that this is an exceptional case and that therefore imprisonment, although usually warranted for this crime, should be avoided. That is conceded by the prosecution, given that the principles in the case of Verdins apply in this case. That means that, because of your serious health problems, your criminal culpability is somewhat reduced and, for the same reasons, you would find the experience of prison more onerous than would others who do not suffer as you do.
8 I agree with those submissions and intend to place you on a Community Corrections Order instead. You will already know that part of your obligations under the order will be to not offend again. You only offended on this occasion for a very specific reason. You were immediately remorseful and indeed, you wrote a letter of apology to the pharmacy assistant.
9 You pleaded guilty from very early on and that is also an indication of remorse. That entitles you to a discount on your sentence because it has facilitated the course of justice and the progress of this case, and indeed, it is of great value to the criminal justice system because it has avoided a trial.
10 Clearly, you are not generally a person with antisocial tendencies, quite the reverse. You graduated from university with a bachelor of education degree and you taught in local schools over the years. When teaching was not available, you took on other jobs and became the manager of Hungry Jacks in Bendigo. Your background and the other mitigating factors suggest strongly that you are unlikely to offend again in any way at all. Although armed robbery is a very serious crime and others must be deterred from committing it, your personal circumstances mean that you are not what we call a good vehicle for general deterrence, nor is a harsh punishment necessary to deter you from future crime.
11 Would you stand now, please, Ms Purtill.
12 You have been assessed as suitable for a Community Corrections Officer and accordingly the order will begin today and will last for 12 months. You will be under supervision and must submit to testing and assessment in relation to drug use, meaning, in your case, prescription medication, as well as for your physical and mental health issues. I will make no order in relation to unpaid community work because of your health. You must attend the Bendigo Community Corrections Office at 18-20 St Andrews Avenue, Bendigo by 4pm today.
13 The other matters I need to address; first of all, if you had pleaded not guilty to this charge, I would have sentenced you to a Community Corrections Order for two years. The prosecution seeks an order for disposal of the various items associated with the armed robbery.
14 Ms Aumar, I did not find out whether there was consent to that or not?
15 MS AUMAIR: There is.
16 HER HONOUR: Consent - I make that order, therefore. Also, an application under s.464ZF of the Crimes Act; that is an application whereby the prosecution seeks an order for a forensic sample of saliva to be obtained.
17 Once again, Ms Aumar, is there consent to that?
18 MS AUMAIR: I consent, yes.
19 HER HONOUR: Very well, I make that order, and I simply must advise you about that, that the police have the power to use reasonable force to obtain that sample, if need be, but I trust that will not be necessary.
20 The final matter is the compensation order; there is an application for that to be made for the payment of $229.80 to the pharmacy. I make that order and that is not opposed, and there will be a stay of three months for the payment of that amount.
21 The Community Corrections Order is available for you to sign, Ms Purtill. Ms Aumair, do you want to have a look at that?
22 MS AUMAIR: Yes, thank you.
23 HER HONOUR: Is there anything further, Mr Jones, Ms Aumair?
24 COUNSEL: No, Your Honour.
25 HER HONOUR: Thank you. Adjourn the court until tomorrow, please.
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