Director of Public Prosecutions v Quirk

[2019] VCC 605

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

AT LATROBE VALLEY
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 18-01137

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

GEOFFREY QUIRK

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE SMALLWOOD
WHERE HELD:	Latrobe Valley
DATE OF HEARING:	6 May 2019
DATE OF SENTENCE:	6 May 2019
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Quirk
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2019] VCC 605

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr. S.Devlin	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Mr. D. Ewart	Tyler Tipping & Woods

HIS HONOUR: 

1Geoffrey Quirk, you have pleaded guilty to two charges of causing injury intentionally, and two summary matters, they being trespass likely to cause public disturbance and criminal damage to a door chain.

2Cause injury intentionally carries ten years, the other two charges carry imprisonment in terms of months' as well as, obviously, fines. 

3You are now 50 years of age on my calculation and you have a significant and long criminal history.  Importantly, in your circumstances, that criminal history really only involves two matters of violence, one of some ten or so years ago, and one of even more antiquity than that. 

4You have been locked up on previous occasions and have spent periods of time in custody, both, as I understand it, in New South Wales and in the Northern Territory.  You obviously have had a fairly itinerant lifestyle. 

5The circumstances here are, and I do not quite understand it how it was worked out, but it would seem that you were in a relationship with a lady whose two children you knew. 

6One of those children had a complaint about money being paid into a bank account and an argument with the two victims in this matter ensued. 

7You were called where you were doing community work, and told that the dispute was taking place.  In any event, I do not think I need to go into all the detail of it.  It was about a pension that had been mis-applied, and your stepson, if that be the correct word, and the ultimate victims were all sitting in a house.  You attended at that house and simply, at that point in time at least, wanted the stepson to go with you and he would not. 

8You had just, prior to that, kicked in the door, that is damaged by breaking the chain, and you then commenced to punch both a Ms McGuinness and a Mr Matts who were inside, each of those was punched repeatedly, I accept that each of those sustained injury, and that is what is outlined in the charge. 

9There is no aggravated burglary here, because obviously the Crown would never be able to prove at the time you entered, you intended to assault anybody.  At the end of the day, however, you did.  You were interviewed by the police and essentially denied it. 

10I have heard the victim impact statement read out in court and it is clear that the person who is the author of that statement has difficulties of their own, but I do take into account that firstly there was an assault upon a female and secondly, it would seem pretty clear that the two of them were pretty defenceless insofar as you were concerned and I make it very clear, I am not sentencing for aggravated burglary.  It did take place in your own home. 

11On the face of it, this is a situation where, I think in the normal course of events, an active custodial sentence would be imposed. 

12However, the circumstances here are, as has been pointed out by your counsel, you have been on a Disability Pension for something in excess of 30 years.  You have a number of difficulties.  You are apparently blind in one eye, you have a Pacemaker and you have an acquired brain injury which I thought was probably self-apparent when you were giving your particulars upon arraignment. 

13You have essentially been able to survive in life with those difficulties and it appears clear, again from what I am told from the Bar table, and accept, that you have anxiety problems which cause you to get very, very wound up and indeed, at the police station, you got yourself into such a state when you were about to be interviewed.

14The relationship you were in at that time has now ceased and you are now in a stable relationship.  You are living in a house which is secure and you are essentially just getting on with your life.

15The circumstances here are that one of the important things is the delay that is involved, and I make no criticism of any of the people involved for doing that, but initially it was listed as a summary matter and would have been dealt with a long time ago. 

16An aggravated burglary charge was then filed which of course, took it into the committal area.  Application was made for summary jurisdiction, was refused and ultimately the matter has ended up before me in the trial court.

17It is a significant delay in these sorts of circumstances, and I am assured from the Bar table that you have committed no offending in the meantime.  The law related to delay has very clearly been outlined by Vincent J in the past, and it is fair to say that in certain situations, justice delayed is, and can be, justice denied. 

18Your present partner has her own difficulties with post traumatic stress disorder and a hip replacement and I think that it is obvious that the pair of you are just simply trying to get on with your lives.

19The prospects of your rehabilitation are really up to you.  It is a bit hard to tell with somebody who is just about to commence their 50s, and you should realise yourself, Mr Quirk, you are getting old, too old for this sort of thing.  If you do not realise that, someone is going to lock you up at some stage in the future. 

20But I think you have reached a stage now, where if you have not worked it out, you are never going to, so I am prepared to give you the benefit of the doubt with all that. 

21I take into account certainly the nastiness, if I can put it that way, of the offending that took place but it was in a set of circumstances that is understandable and I think that where you have been, in the past, able to complete a significant number of community corrections orders, it is obvious that you do not have some sort of social disorder, or any sort of bipolar disorder or anything like that, and I think it is just, in this situation, getting the matter over and dealt with and you receiving an appropriate punishment.

22In all those circumstances, it is clear that some sort of either a combination sentence or a community corrections order has to be imposed.

23I have taken the view that a community corrections order here, as long as it is of sufficient duration with sufficient work hours, suffices all the sentencing propositions that come into play, and accordingly, what I am going to do is put you on a community corrections order.  It will be for a period of three years. It will have 300 work hours, it will be with conviction and I will put no other conditions upon it. 

24I should point out, for the purposes of the transcript, that 300 hours is the maximum I can give without having you assessed, and where there is to be no treatment components, I cannot see any point really having you assessed.  Corrections will be Traralgon.

25MR EWART:  It will be Morwell.

26HIS HONOUR:  Morwell, is it.  Morwell, yes.  Obviously general deterrence, specific deterrence, denunciation, appropriate punishment all play a part in this instinctive synthesis. 

27MR DEVLIN:  Yes, Your Honour, if Your Honour please.

28HIS HONOUR: Also pursuant to s.464ZF of the Crimes Act I make an order you provide a saliva sample for DNA purposes.  That order having been made and I will be signing it shortly, I must advise you that should you refuse to provide such a sample to police they may use reasonable force to take it from you, and again the police station there will be Traralgon, I am assuming Mr Ewart?

29MR EWART:  Yes, Your Honour.  Thank you sir.

30HIS HONOUR:  Do I do a 6AAA on a straight CCO, I do not anymore, do I?  It is only when it is a combination, I do it.  I can if I want to, and I do not want to. 

31MR DEVLIN:  The forensic sample order will be emailed to Your Honour's associate. - - 

32HIS HONOUR:  Yes, I sign that and then a copy can be sent to Mr Ewart. 

33MR DEVLIN:  Yes.

34HIS HONOUR:  Who will explain it to his client before he reads it.  Yes, apparently I am supposed to give one.  In this situation pursuant to s.6AAA, I say that but for the plea of guilty, I would have sentenced you to be imprisoned for a period of time with a community corrections order to follow.  I am unable to say what period of time because I (indistinct).  So pleading guilty saved your gaol, putting it bluntly. 

35HIS HONOUR:  Just stand up for me a moment, Mr Quirk, if you would.  All right, it is a CCO, it is 300 hours which is fair whack.  It is over three years, all right.  I know you can get through CCOs so get through it.

36What you have got to come to terms with is you are getting too old for this stuff.  All right?  You really are.  In a situation such as this, I put it to you simply, if you had fought it out or if it had come on, say a year earlier, we would have locked you up. 

37All right, so the delay has worked for you in that way, but you just cannot keep taking these sorts of chances.  I know you have got your problems, but stay at home.  All right?

38OFFENDER:  Yes.

39HIS HONOUR:  Yes, thanks, you can be discharged out of there now. 

40OFFENDER:  Thank you, Your Honour.

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