Director of Public Prosecutions v Ramsay
[2025] VCC 632
•21 May 2025
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA KOORI COURT JURISDICTION | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
CR 24-01686
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| ANTHONY RAMSAY |
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JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE JOHNS |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne |
DATE OF HEARING: | 28 April 2025 |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 21 May 2025 |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Ramsay |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2025] VCC 632 |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject: Criminal Law- Sentencing
Catchwords: Dangerous driving causing serious injury – Profound childhood disadvantage – PTSD – significant criminal history – substance use
Legislation Cited: Sentencing Act (Vic) 1991
Cases Cited: Bugmy v The Queen (2013) 249 CLR 571 - R v Verdins (2007) 16 VR 269 - R v Renzella [1997] 2 VR 88
Sentence:TES Three years imprisonment, non-parole period 2years and 2 months.
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Director of Public Prosecutions | Ms S. Stephanides | Office of Public Prosecutions |
For the Accused | Ms H. Edwards | Victoria Legal Aid |
HIS HONOUR:
1Anthony Ramsay, you have pleaded guilty before me in the Geelong Koori Court to a charge of theft of motor car, and a charge of dangerous driving causing serious injury. Theft of motor car carries a maximum of 10 years' imprisonment. Dangerous driving causing serious injury carries a maximum penalty of five years' imprisonment. You also pleaded to a charge of failing to render assistance, which carries a maximum of 10 years' imprisonment and you have admitted a relevant summary offence of dangerous driving relating to your driving subsequent to the collision. That offence carries a maximum penalty of two years' imprisonment.
2You have a lengthy criminal history and a lengthy driving history, or road traffic history. The facts of the matter are set out in Exhibit A, the summary of prosecution opening and Exhibit A forms part of these reasons. In brief, you were driving a stolen Kia Sportage down Pakington Street at around 6.45 am on 20 September 2023 when you collided at speed with Lachie Reed who was riding a bicycle in the bike lane. You stole the Kia at around 4.45 am from the Salvation Army. You were unlicensed at the time, having been disqualified from driving for a period of six months from 5 June 2023.
3You were disqualified at a court appearance on that date where you were also dealt with in relation to theft of motor vehicle, driving whilst disqualified, threats and other offences. You were in custody at the time. On your own admission, during the period of driving on 20 September 2023, you were substance affected. You told consultant psychiatrist, Adam Deacon, that you had been using methamphetamine and LSD at the time. You were exceeding the speed limit. CCTV footage shows you driving considerably faster than other road users at the time. You were driving somewhat erratically, including crossing over to the incorrect side of the road.
4Mr Reed, on the other hand, was riding his bike on the way to work as he always did. He was riding in a bicycle lane, a clearly marked bicycle lane, wearing a high visibility top and had a working flashing red light mounted to his bicycle. CCTV footage shows you overtaking a bus on the incorrect side of the road immediately before the collision, narrowly missing another vehicle, cutting in front of the bus, driving over the dedicated bike lane line and directly colliding into the back of Mr Reed. The force of your collision threw Mr Reed from his bicycle into a parking sign on the side of the road.
5The force of that contact caused the parking sign to bend. The rear wheel and seat were ripped from the bike and the frame was bent. Mr Reed suffered life-threatening injuries. You drove on. You told Adam Deacon that you freaked out. Remarkably, your driving behaviour that followed was just as dangerous and erratic in the aftermath, as set out in Exhibit A, in relation to the summary offence of dangerous driving you have admitted. I was told that you ended up at the Aboriginal Centre in North Geelong, where you tried to seek some advice. Staff there contacted police and you were arrested and taken to Geelong police station.
6You were unfit for interview. Once remanded in custody, you were placed on an inpatient assessment order. At the time of this criminal episode of driving, you had not been long out of custody. Mr Reed was taken to Geelong Hospital and placed in an induced coma. His injuries include a skull injury with bleeding to the brain, severe brain swelling, fractured left forearm which was severely damaged requiring the bones to be reconstructed with plates and screws, fracture to the spine at T1, cuts and abrasions to right shoulder and left forehead, 2-millimetre haematoma to the head.
7He remained at the Royal Melbourne Hospital where he was taken for treatment until 26 September 2023. Thereafter, he was required to wear a back brace to stabilise his fractured spine, to take medication daily due to nerve damage for his left hand. He continues to suffer headaches and is required to take pain medication. Dr Schreiber, a forensic physician employed by the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, reviewed the medical history of Mr Reed, the CCTV footage and other medical records obtained during the course of the investigation and opined that:
“Mr Reed sustained blunt trauma to the head, trunk and limbs, resulting in a devastating constellation of skull injury with bleeds around the brain, a fracture to a stature giving bone and complex fractures to the forearm as well as medical complications. The head injury with brain mid-line shift was potentially life threatening. It required rest and observation with medication for seizures. Without this management, a fatality may have been possible.”
8A victim impact statement was filed and read to the court. I take the significant impacts upon your victim into account. The incident has greatly affected him in many ways. Some of the impacts he will have to live and adapt to for the rest of his life. His spine was fractured in the collision that forced him to wear a Jewett brace for seven weeks which greatly impacted mobility. It meant he couldn't shower himself and had to sit in a shower chair and indeed that might continue. Since the accident he had to sit to support his back while he was not in the brace. It was draining, physically exhausting and mentally exhausting as well, that aspect of it.
9The accident limited his ability to do everyday tasks that he had once found joyful and fulfilling, including riding a bike. He still suffers from constant back pain, just from simply walking around and he is faced with constant reminders of the catastrophic collision due to his injuries and scarring. There is uncertainty now as to whether he will need more surgery it was stated. There is significant scarring. His eyesight has been damaged from the head injuries. Psychologically and emotionally, he is struggling, understandably. There has been considerable financial stress. It affects his energy. He is always tired. His sleep has been terrible, and it has taken away many aspects of his simple enjoyment of life and the plans that he and his fiancée were making for themselves together, and that is just a very inadequate summary of some of the impacts upon your victim.
10Turning to the objective gravity of the offending.
11It is at least a midrange example of the offence of dangerous driving causing serious injury. The driving behaviours are a sustained period of erratic driving, exceeding speed, substance affected, you were in a stolen vehicle. You should not have been driving at all.
12You were three months into a six-month licence disqualification. The action of cutting in after overtaking the bus and driving into the bike lane is a serious breach of the standards of driving. There was severe impact, no braking at all and your victim was highly visible.
13The charge of failing to render assistance is a serious charge also. I was reminded that the maximum penalty for that offence increased five-fold from June 2005 from two years to 10 years. Santamaria JA in the case of Tokay v R stated:
The maximum penalty for a contravention of s61(3) of the Road Safety Act has increased five-fold since June 2005. The maximum is now 10 years. That maximum penalty reflects the serious community concern and disapproval of the failure to stop and render assistance. Several judges of the court have described the reprehensible nature of the offence, particularly in circumstances where the victim has suffered serious injury and have referred to the fact that offenders must expect a substantial term of imprisonment.
14Turning to your personal circumstances.
15You were born in 1988. You are a 37-year-old man of Aboriginal heritage who strongly identifies with your Aboriginal heritage and culture. It must be said you have had a very sad life. In particular, your childhood was desperately sad, lacking in many ways, lacking nurture and lacking support and it was a childhood that shaped you and led you down the path of at times
self-destructive and antisocial behaviours.16I was told your parents abandoned you as an infant and your paternal grandmother tried to care for you. You relocated many times, which was disruptive. You were exposed to violence and alcohol in her care via her partner. You were in and out of foster care at different stages. Your father spent lengthy periods of time in custody. You were in his care for a brief period when aged around five until he went back to prison under sentence and was there for the remainder of your childhood years.
17In 1995 you were placed in permanent foster care. A protection application was made and you became subject to a custody to the Secretary order. You remained in continuous custody of the Secretary until 2002. At that time you were placed in several foster homes. There was at least one recorded incidence where you were physically assaulted by your foster parent.
18I was provided with DFFH historic case notes which related to the time when it was Department of Health & Community Services and also reports from that period. These documents were very helpful in understanding your background. They provide documented accounts of the disadvantage, dysfunction and abuse you experienced as a child.
19As so often happens, these experiences intersected with early exposure to drug use, criminal offending and experiences with Youth Justice. You commenced using illicit substances at the age of 12.
20Experiences of physical abuse and neglect whilst an infant, and in later years physical abuse at an alternative education facility or camp in Queensland called 'Dimbulah', book-ended a childhood which had little in the way of emotional support or anything that came close to meeting your psychological and emerging mental health needs and I will return to your mental health issues in a moment.
21You were born in Bairnsdale but mostly raised in Geelong and Cairns. I was told your mother lives in New South Wales, and you have ceased contact with her. Your father lives in Geelong. You have contact with him and are of the view that he is now a prosocial support now that he is drug free. You have two living half-brothers and a half-sister. A brother passed away from a car accident many years ago which had a significant impact upon you. A sister passed away also.
22You attended primary school in Geelong and secondary school until mid-year 10 in Cairns. You were expelled from school multiple times for behavioural issues, and behavioural issues which on the opinion of Dr Deacon have their foundation in your early childhood experiences.
23I mentioned the Dimbulah school, which is also referred to as 'the farm' in the materials. You and others were removed from there due to the physical abuse that was taking place there. You were taken back to Victoria, as I was told your mother was unwilling and unable to continue to care for you. You were told that you would be returning to live with your grandmother, but on arriving in Victoria you were told that you would return to an out-of-home care facility and went to one in Anglesea. You absconded frequently from the residential facility and had contact with police.
24You left the care of the Secretary when you were 17 and, as is often the case unfortunately, an indictment on a very imperfect system, you then spent considerable periods of time in custody.
25You also struggle significantly with drug use and mental health throughout your adulthood. You used methylamphetamine through your 20s. You struggled with heroin use, and you were also using LSD at the time of the offending. You have had repeated presentations to mental health services as the materials set out in detail.
26You are the father of four children, a 19-year-old, 15-year-old, 13-year-old and a seven-year-old, and you do have contact with them. You spoke about them lovingly during the Sentencing Conversation. You told the Elders what each of them was doing. I was told you have contact with your father and an uncle in the community and you want to pursue work with your father upon release, I was told in the fencing area.
27It has weighed heavily upon you the loss of multiple family members during periods of custody, and you have not been able to attend funerals. That has been a heavy weight upon you throughout what has been lengthy periods of custody, including one period where you spent considerably longer in custody on remand than you were ultimately sentenced.
28Despite your disrupted and unstable teenage and schooling years, you are proud of your work ethic, and it is again something you discussed during the Sentencing Conversation. The materials indicate you were first put to work when you were in foster care at the age of 12. You recall working on a farm as a farmhand at that time and you are proud of your ability to engage in work. You have completed an apprenticeship as a plasterer with your stepfather and you have worked as a plasterer and in other manual jobs whilst not in custody.
29I accept that in the lead-up to the offending, you had approached mental health services at hospital and the Geelong Magistrates' Court due to a deteriorating mental state. Since your remand, you have been in management protection units and self-harm is an issue.
30Despite your difficulties, you have endeavoured to work on yourself in custody and to do courses. You have completed the 'ice and me' program, the 'cannabis and me' program and regularly attended Narcotics Anonymous. You have also been prescribed methadone and you instructed counsel that this was the first time you had commenced pharmacotherapy in custody. You also completed a food handling certificate and you have worked in the bakery and in horticulture. You are currently assigned duties in a metal workshop.
31Your period in custody has been additionally difficult due to you undergoing tests for suspected prostate cancer. You are still awaiting outcomes of a series of tests, blood tests and ultrasound tests which you have had. You have been told to expect a diagnosis of prostate cancer. That is undetermined as of yet. You have participated fully in the Sentencing Conversation, which is central to the Koori Court process, the conversation you had with Aunty Lyn and Uncle Wayne. You are an eloquent man and you managed to get several points across.
32Your partner also participated. It is clear your partner needs your support. She made clear that she needs you with her and also wants to reunite with her children. She suffers from several ailments and her experience weighs heavily upon you whilst you are in custody. You spoke about your artwork, and it is clearly a therapeutic and rehabilitative process for you engaging in the artwork that you have in custody and that clearly means a lot to you. Copies of your artwork have been filed. I have viewed them, and they are very good. They are a credit to you. You also wore a T-shirt displaying some of your artwork when you attended the Sentencing Conversation.
33Amongst other things during the Sentencing Conversation, you expressed a desire to be released on a CCO. This was in part due to the drug rehabilitation and support and the mental health rehabilitation and support that you can get in a more optimal setting on a CCO than you could in custody. You also expressed the strong view that you will not get parole. That is not a matter that I am able to speculate upon, but it is a matter than I am mindful of.
34At the Sentencing Conversation you mentioned a letter of remorse which I have now viewed and has now been filed and again, it is an eloquent expression of the different situation you find yourself in now that you are in a controlled environment, and you are not using substances. You are embarking upon programs, and you did express appropriate remorse in that letter to the Court. Before I leave the Sentencing Conversation, you mentioned that apology letter of course during the conversation. You spoke at length about your children, particularly Raphael who is doing concreting in Cairns. You spoke about what you want to do when you get out; to work, to engage fully and provide a role model to your children. You spoke of your remorse and your understanding of the impacts on the victim during that conversation. You also spoke about your connection to culture and your mob and the artworks you have been engaged in, the pharmacotherapy that you are on and your general desire to successfully work on the significant challenges you have in addressing drug use and mental health frailties.
35Dr Deacon opines that early attachment disruption and instability likely predisposed you to developing a marked personality dysfunction in later life and that is a proposition that comes as no surprise, and it is the experience of courts that that is a common feature in a background such as yours.
36I received reports from Dr Deacon and from Austin Campbell. Dr Deacon also states you have a complex psychiatric history. You have had an extensive contact with multiple mental health services in custody and the community. You have acquired a range of diagnoses. He says:
Mr Ramsay has been diagnosed with a mix of borderline, unstable and antisocial personality disorder based on persistent pattern of mood instability, interpersonal difficulties, poor impulse control, aggression and self-harm. Mr Ramsay has a history of multiple psychotic presentations. He has required three inpatient admissions at Thomas Embling Hospital. He has previously been diagnosed with schizo-affective disorder with a different diagnosis of drug induced psychosis.
37He goes on to say:
Mr Ramsay was itinerant and presumably very difficult to community manage. He was not consistently managed. He was seemingly drug-affected for many months leading to the offences on 20 September 2023. He appears to have experienced drug-induced psychotic states, but the specific quality and duration of these episodes and presentations is difficult to characterise. He has not prescribed antipsychotic medication on a consistent basis in the community in 2023.
38Dr Deacon went on to say:
Mr Ramsay provided a plausible account of the offences. He notably referred to multiple stressors that contributed to triggering a seemingly despairing, helpless and careless mental state. He appears to have engaged in a period of sustained drug use that contributed to an agitated and reckless mental state. He admitted to recklessly driving the car with seemingly very little regard to the potential and likely risk of harm to others and he said he did not deliberately drive into the cyclist, but he was aware that he'd hit someone. He said he freaked out and continued to drive recklessly. Mr Ramsay's aberrant mental state is attributable to the impact of multiple drugs combined with his underlying personality vulnerabilities (borderline and antisocial). His propensity to struggle to cope with stress and adversity and adversely wracked with anger and impulsivity, assists in understanding his decision to drive recklessly. Mr Ramsay did not report that he was afflicted with psychotic symptoms at the time of the offending. There is no evidence that there is a causal link between an active mental illness and the offences.
39I do find that on the basis of Dr Deacon's findings that your underlying personality vulnerabilities, as he refers to them as, explain to a degree the self-centredness and careless, indeed 'reckless' as he uses the word, episode of driving and probably in more detail your background and those vulnerabilities go further to explaining the failure to stop and render assistance. But of course when I say explain it, they explain it in combination with the effects of drug use.
40Dr Deacon also stated that:
Mr Ramsay's personality-based problems are ingrained and unlikely to substantially change unless he engages in intensive therapy. He is however unlikely to be a particularly good candidate for therapy.
41Psychologist, Mr Campbell, stated that in reference to you:
He is likely to experience significant psychological distress in response to real perceived abandonment, in response to acute stressors or as a result of unresolved traumatic experiences. Mr Ramsay is at risk of relapsing into illicit substance use in response to these experiences which is likely to result in a significant deterioration of his mental health. In the event of this, Mr Ramsay's risk of reoffending is high due to his likelihood of engaging in opportunistic offending in attempt to have his immediate needs met or in an attempt to regain a sense of control stability following engagement with mental health support and accommodation available to him within the correctional system. When acutely psychotic substance affected, it does not appear that Mr Ramsay is capable of effectively considering the consequences of his actions upon himself and others and his risk of reoffending during these periods appears significantly elevated.
42Mr Campbell also opined that it appears likely that your engagement in offending behaviour is:
… an unconscious maladaptive attempt to seek support due to services available to him and a relative sense of stability and normality within the correctional environment.
43The prosecution concedes that the existence of a constellation of mental health conditions you suffer, and the natural stressors of awaiting a possible cancer diagnosis, together with the impacts of the risk of institutionalisation in your case, and consideration of your Aboriginality in that context, will likely weigh more heavily upon you than it would for a person in normal health, and as such that enlivens an aspect of Verdins which relates to consideration of hardship in custody, and of course your counsel relies on that also and I have no difficulty finding that established.[1]
[1]R v Verdins (2007) 16 VR 269.
44The matters are also entwined with the Bugmy mitigation which is available to you with full effect. In a general and specific sense, the forces that shaped you and shaped your responses throughout life have had a knock-on and ongoing effect, an effect which is relative to other aspects of your functioning such as the personality vulnerabilities that have been touched upon. Holistically, those traumas in your early life, the instability, the lack of nurture and care and the related borderline disorder, antisocial personality disorder and other vulnerabilities, attract mitigation of sentence and they go some way, as I have said, to explaining your engagement in the conduct on 20 September.[2]
[2] Bugmy v The Queen (2013) 249 CLR 571.
45They also, as has been noted by Dr Deacon and Mr Campbell, give rise to concerns in relation to prospects of rehabilitation and highlight the risk associated with you in the community, particularly when under the influence of substances due to impulsivity and acting out behaviours. Your counsel relies upon your plea of guilty, in particular for its utilitarian benefit. I accept that.
46I also accept that it is reflective of your contrition and acceptance of responsibility against your prospects of rehabilitation. I do accept that you have a level of remorse based on your statements during the Sentencing Conversation and the letter that has been filed, authored by you.
47Your sentence is mitigated due to your participation in the Koori Court. The Sentencing Conversation has recognised that it is a more difficult process than a General List plea for reasons of the challenge involved and for you having to speak for yourself, be accountable, and there is an element of shaming that occurs in that process. You participated fully as I have said. You are also entitled to significant mitigation due to the hardship in custody with your experience due to your mental health vulnerabilities.
48It was submitted by your counsel that Verdins has application in relation to the appropriate sentence for you given your treatment needs and I accept what is before the court. The expert evidence that is before the court as to your optimal treatment needs. That consideration needs to be balanced as part of the instinctive synthesis, the intuitive synthesis, of all relevant sentencing factors.
49Delay is something I have taken into account. It has been hanging over your head for some time this matter.
50The hardship in custody aspect is exacerbated due to the current investigations into potential cancer. I accept that is weighing heavily upon you, as is your firm desire to support your partner and the strength and anxiety that surrounds that situation for both you and her.
51I have had to give careful consideration to your prospects of rehabilitation and I find that, based on your engagement in the Sentencing Conversation, and the eloquence and the positive attributes you have in relation to your artistic ability, your work ability, work history and the steps you have taken towards rehabilitation whilst in custody via courses and endeavouring to get treatment, drug treatment, but also mental health treatment, that you have some positive prospects of rehabilitation.
52I am guarded about your prospects due to the significant challenges you face in the community that are apparent on a perusal of your criminal record but also an understanding of the historical material and the expert psychiatric and psychological material.
53I had you assessed for a CCO. A significant reason for having you assessed was due to considering whether after a period in custody, that would be a better way of treating and offering support for rehabilitation in relation to drug use, drug vulnerability and in particular mental health assistance. I received the assessment report, and you were assessed as suitable. It was put in terms of 'with reservation' and that the risk of reoffending was high. It was a frank and thorough report. Whilst I have carefully considered the utility of a CCO, in particular in order to provide court supervised treatment and some certainty of release date, I have concluded that in order to reflect appropriately the sentencing factors of general deterrence and denunciation, that a head sentence and non-parole period is the only sentence within range.
54I have also taken into account Renzella time. You were sentenced to a period of five months' imprisonment in June 2021, but you had spent 585 days in custody and as far as I am aware you have never been entitled to or given credit for those days and you are not entitled to credit in the pre-sentence detention sense for that period. You are entitled to have it considered and taken into account as Renzella time, not in a mathematical sense, but in the way that is permitted, and I do so.[3]
[3]R v Renzella [1997] 2 VR 88.
55I have been mindful in setting a head sentence as to your concern that you will not get parole and that is a concern that on my objective assessment has some strength to it. I am mindful, as I must be in arriving at sentence, that an individual may serve the entirety of the sentence. I am also mindful that in your case, you have made positive steps towards rehabilitation, and you are engaging with services in custody and programs in custody and I would recommend that you be considered for parole. You have somewhere to live, and you have goals and supports that you can access in the community.
56I have moderated the sentences that I impose and consider them to reflect some leniency. I have moderated the sentences and the total effective sentences for your plea, the significant Bugmy mitigation, the significant hardship in custody and the Renzella time.
57I sentence you as follows, Mr Ramsay.
58On Charge 1, you are sentenced to four months' imprisonment.
59On Charge 2, you are sentenced to two and a half years' imprisonment.
60On Charge 3 on the indictment, you are sentenced to two years' imprisonment.
61On the summary offence, drive in a manner dangerous, you are sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment.
62Four months of the sentence imposed on Charge 3 will be served cumulatively on the sentence imposed on Charge 2, and two months of the sentence imposed on the summary offence of dangerous driving will be served cumulatively on the sentence imposed on Charge 2. That makes a total effective sentence of three years' imprisonment.
63I set a non-parole period of two years and two months. I declare that you have served 608 days as pre-sentence detention in relation to this matter. In relation to Charges 2 and 3, your licence is cancelled, and you are disqualified from obtaining another for a period of four years.
64Ms Stephanides, are there any other orders sought?
65MS STEPHANIDES: No, Your Honour.
66HIS HONOUR: Ms Edwards, nothing else I need to attend to? Thank you for your assistance. I will adjourn the court.
67MS EDWARDS: Apologies, Your Honour.
68HIS HONOUR: Yes, sorry, Ms Edwards.
69MS EDWARDS: The s6AAA statement.
70MS STEPHANIDES: Yes.
71HIS HONOUR: Yes, I did not do the s6AAA statement. Sorry, you are quite right. I must do that. I had written that down, but I had not turned the page. Were it not for your pleas of guilty, I would have sentenced you to a total effective sentence of four years with a non-parole period of two years and
10 months.72COUNSEL: As Your Honour pleases.
73HIS HONOUR: Adjourn the court.
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