Director of Public Prosecutions v Reeves
[2014] VCC 2171
•16 December 2014
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL DIVISION
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| V |
| TAYLAN REEVES |
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JUDGE: | HER HONOUR JUDGE HAMPEL | |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 7 August 2014, 13 November 2014 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 16 December 2014 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Reeves | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2014] VCC 2171 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the DPP | Ms L. Dipietrantonio | OPP |
| For the Accused | Ms J. Sutherland | Tony Hargreaves & Partners |
HER HONOUR:
1. Taylan Reeves, the offending the subject of the nine charges to which you have pleaded guilty occurred over a 15 month period, from 15 May 2012 to 16 August 2013. You were 18 and 19 at the time. The charges cover a spate of conduct over this period, most linked in some way to your use of various internet chat sites. You used these websites to meet and communicate with the victims of your offending. Under the guise of a number of false identities, you had sexually explicit chat sessions and/or web cam sessions with children, teenagers and adults. You used these sites to view and download child pornography (Charge 1), solicit naked images of children (Charge 2), to transmit indecent communications to children under 16 (Charge 4), to receive child pornography (Charges 7 and 9), and to use a carriage service to procure a child under 16 for sexual activity (Charge 8).
2. Over this 15 month period, your involvement in this world of online sexual communications intensified, and your offending expanded to include serious sexual assault. You bullied and manipulated three of your online victims into meeting you, and sexually assaulted them (Charges 3 and 6, rape, and Charge 5, procuring sexual penetration by threat or fraud).
3. The first charge to which you have pleaded guilty is one of possess child pornography. The offending covers the entire charge period, and relates to a vast quantity of child pornography which was stored by you on various devices: a mobile phone, two laptops, a hard-drive and an iPod touch.
4. The nature of the pornographic material found on these devices is consistent with the pattern of the other offending covered by the charges. That is, it relates to both young boys and young girls, and evidences a foot fetish. Over 2000 Category 1 – 5 child pornography images, and 220 Category 1 – 5 child pornography movies were found on your devices. The material ranged from images of children which did not involve sexual activity, through sexual but non-penetrative acts involving children, or children and adults, to penetrative activity involving children, and children and adults, and to images and movies involving sadism and bestiality. The images and movies relied on for this charge are of unknown victims. They do not include any images or movies involving the victims of any of the other charges on this indictment.
5. Charge 2, using a carriage service to solicit child pornography material, is a rolled up charge relating to six instances of offending between 17 May 2012 and 27 July 2013. On each occasion, the conduct involved you meeting females on an internet website, and later communicating with them on Skype. You would arrange for them, or their young children to appear naked or engage in sexual activity over webcam. You negotiated payments for this to occur. Although chat logs relating to this offending were located on your laptop after your arrest, the corresponding images or videos were not found.
6. Charges 3 and 6 are both representative rape charges. Charge 3 is representative of three occasions of rape of Lisa Lessie.[1] In May 2012, in the guise of a 16 year old boy, you met and communicated with Lisa over various chat sites. You knew she was 14 years old. A week after the communications commenced, you began importuning Lisa to send you pictures of herself. She initially resisted, but then eventually sent you pictures. At first, she was clothed, but later, in compliance with your persistent demands, she sent you photos taken when she was naked. Over time, and at your instigation, the conversations became sexually explicit. You began demanding that the two of you meet, threatening Lisa that if she did not agree, you would publish the naked images she had sent you everywhere, including in her street and at her school.
[1] Pseudonym used.
7. Your first attempt to meet was on 15 June 2012 at a shopping centre in Frankston. Lisa asked to bring a friend, which you told her she could not do. She told you her mother would not let her go out. You then told her to sneak out of her house at 2 am to meet you. When Lisa refused, you again threatened her with the publication of the photos. At close to midnight on 15 June 2012, you called Lisa’s mother, telling her to ask Lisa what she had been up to. No doubt fearing that you would make good your threat to publish the photos if she did not comply, Lisa then reluctantly agreed to meet you. You told her not to wear underwear or a bra when you met, again using the same threats. At 2 am on 16 June you met Lisa out the front of her house. You took her to the front yard of a nearby vacant house. There, you sat down in the front yard, pulled Lisa’s pants down and began digitally penetrating her. She was saying “No, stop. I don’t want to do this” but you persisted, and held her hands back as she was struggling so that she could not protect herself. It is this that constitutes the first occasion of rape.
8. You then told Lisa that if she did not let you continue, you would tell her mother what she had been doing. You then grabbed her and licked her vagina. This forms the basis of the second occasion for this representative charge. You pulled your pants down and tried to have penile vaginal intercourse with Lisa, but were prevented from doing so as she was kicking and screaming. This is an uncharged act. You then violently digitally penetrated Lisa again. This caused her considerable pain. She said she felt “disgusted and sad…’cause it hurt me a lot”. This forms the basis of the third instance of rape on this representative charge, and the instance for which you fall to be sentenced. You then asked her if you could ejaculate on her face. She said no and you masturbated until you ejaculated. This is again an uncharged act, but part of the relevant surrounding circumstances.
9. You left and Lisa went home. The following day, 17 June, you communicated with Lisa on Skype. On 2 July, you communicated with her again, and, amongst other things, asked her for more nude photos. It was not until police contacted Lisa in October 2013 that she disclosed what you had done. When you were arrested, following a search of your electronic devices, images, personal details and videos relating to Lisa were found on your laptop and your iPod touch.
10. The offending the subject of Charge 4 also involves the use of Skype. This is a rolled up charge of using a carriage service to transmit indecent communications to a person under 16 years. This offending occurred between 1 August 2012 to 28 May 2013. Using a false identity, you had sexually explicit conversations with young teenage boys and girls. Three such Skype conversations were located.
11. Charge 5 is representative of three occasions of procuring sexual penetration by threats of Charlotte Harold.[2] You began communicating with Charlotte in September 2011 over a chat site. You were using a false name, and knew Charlotte was 16 years old. This is of course is before the period covered by the offending.
[2] Pseudonym used.
12. Consistently with your pattern of offending, in March 2012, at your instigation, your conversations became sexually explicit. You started making requests to Charlotte for her to send you naked images of herself. After several requests she felt pressured and sent you some naked images. A few weeks later she asked you to delete the images, and you told her should would have to meet you and delete them herself. These acts, although relevant to the background and circumstances of the charge of procuring sexual penetration by threats or fraud, are not the subject of a separate charge. You did not meet at that stage, and communications between the two of you became less frequent.
13. In September 2012, a year after you first began communicating with Charlotte, you started communicating with her again. You mentioned the naked images. You said that when you meet up you should have sex. She said she did not want to have any sexual interaction with you, but she just wanted to get to know you. You agreed to meet in the regional Victorian town where Charlotte lived.
14. On 16 September 2012, you met Charlotte in her home town. You drove her to a football field. On the way, you asked her to take her shoes off and put her feet on the dash board. She refused. When you arrived at the football field, you sternly insisted that the two of you sit in the back of your car. Charlotte complied, although she said she did not want to. She said she did not feel comfortable. When you were both in the back seat, you put your arm around her, grabbed her head and began kissing her. She pulled away. You then started massaging her feet and moved up her legs. You told her to take off her stockings and underwear. Charlotte told you she did not want to. You continued and she eventually told you she would remove them herself. She did so, she said, as you were talking sternly and seemed physically strong. You then digitally penetrated her. This forms the basis of the first occasion of this representative charge of procuring sexual penetration by threat. You then forced her head onto your penis. Although you were holding her head down firmly, she managed to push you away. This forms the basis of the second occasion. You digitally penetrated her again. Charlotte said that ‘this time [you] were a lot rougher, it was really hard and [you] used more force.’ She told you to stop because it hurt, and you did. This forms the basis of the third occasion, and the instance for which you fall to be sentenced in relation to Charge 5. A measure of the force that you used was that when you had finished, your fingers were covered in blood. A measure of your contempt for Charlotte is that you used her jacket to clean the blood from your fingers and the car seat.
15. In her statement, Charlotte was upset and very scared. She told you she had to go to work. You drove off, and said things to her that made her feel upset and uncomfortable, such as ‘what if I did not take you home.’ She reported continuing pain for a day or two after the incident.
16. A couple of weeks later, on 2 October 2012, you sent Charlotte text messages apologising to her for making her bleed, and asking her for more naked pictures of herself. She did not reply and your responses became aggressive. You threatened to post naked pictures of her on Facebook, saying you would only stop threatening her if you had sex. Charlotte reported the matters to police and on 15 October 2012, she made a VARE statement.
17. Charge 6 is representative of four occasions of rape of Vera Romanov.[3] In the guise this time of a 14 year old boy, you began communicating with Vera through chat sites. You knew she was 15 years old. Again, consistently with the technique that you had used with other victims, you began by just chatting, then started asking Vera for nude photographs. She refused initially. You sent her some nude photographs and eventually she, reluctantly as she described it, sent you one of herself. You then demanded she send you more, threatening her that you would publish photograph that she had already sent if she did not comply.
[3] Pseudonym used.
18. As a result, she sent you a number, which she put at 10 or 20 or more. You sent her photographs of naked girls in various poses, and directed her to send photos of herself to you, in the same poses. She complied. Again, there is no separate charge in respect of this conduct. It is part of the background and surrounding circumstances for Charge 6.
19. You told Vera she was to meet you near her school on 15 October 2012. She told you she did not want to. At some stage, you told Vera that you were going to have sex with her whether she liked it or not. At another stage, you told her that nothing sexual would happen when you met. When she still resisted your demands to meet you, you threatened her, telling her that you would send the photographs to her school principal.
20. As a result, Vera met with you at the appointed place. There, you hugged and kissed her. She told you she wanted you to delete the photos. You then kissed her again and started feeling her breasts. After a while she sat up because she did not want to continue. She said to you, "you said nothing sexual was going to happen". You laughed in her face and said “and you really believed me?” You then told Vera to get in your car. She got in the back seat and you drove her somewhere a short distance away to a secluded spot.
21. There you parked the car, got into the back seat, told Vera to undress and digitally penetrated her. This forms the basis of the first occasion of rape. You forced her to perform oral sex on you, forming the basis of the second occasion. You then told her you wanted to have sex. She asked if you had a condom, and you said "no", but you got on top of her and penetrated her vagina with your penis. She told you to stop. This forms the basis of the third occasion. You then told Vera to perform oral sex on you again. At that stage, you asked her how old she was. She told you she was 16. You then ejaculated onto her face. This forms the basis of the fourth occasion of rape, and the one for which you fall to be sentenced in relation to Charge 6.
22. Vera said that whenever she said no to something, you would threaten her again, knowing that she did not want anything to happen. Disturbingly, you recorded the ordeal to which you subjected Vera on your mobile phone, and retained the footage. It was amongst the pornographic material found when your various electronic devices were seized and analysed. When you had finished with Vera, you drove her back to the place you had met her. You deleted your contact details from her mobile phone. You told her that you did these things to girls ‘for fun’.
23. Like Lisa, Vera was embarrassed and ashamed, and did not report what had happened to her parents or the police. She was later contacted by police and on 13 September 2013, she too made a VARE statement. Other details and images relating to Vera, in addition to the filming of the rapes were also located on your laptop, your iPod touch and your mobile phone following your arrest.
24. Charges 7 and 9 are charges of using a carriage service to cause child pornography material to be transmitted. Again, you met the victims of these charges through various websites and then proceeded to communicate with them using Skype. You used false identities. The victim of Charge 7 is an 11 year old girl, Kara,[4] who in April 2013, advertised for acting work on a legitimate online website. She provided her correct details, including her age and mobile telephone number, in the advertisement.
[4] Pseudonym used.
25. On 23 May 2013, you contacted Kara, pretending to be an agent interested in hiring her for a role. You proceeded to communicate with her over Skype using live webcam. In the guise of an acting agent, you asked her to put on a bikini, remove her shorts, show you her breasts, and then remove her bikini pants. She did all of that. You then asked her to spread her legs in front of the camera, she refused and turned the camera away from herself. You told the victim that you were a fake, and that you had recorded the images of her and that you would send the recording to her parents and to her school unless she complied with your demand. Distressed, she turned the camera back to face her and did what you asked. You then told her that you had deleted the recording and ceased communication with her.
26. Kara who was only 11, was clearly out of her depth, and understandably very frightened by what had happened. Unlike some of the other girls, she was brave enough to tell her parents. As a result, the police were contacted, and Kara made a VARE statement on 4 June 2013. Records of your conversation with Kara were found on your laptop.
27. Following Kara’s complaint on 16 August 2013, you were arrested, and questioned. You made a no comment record of interview. You were charged, and released on bail. This was your first contact with police.
28. Charge 9 is a rolled up charge covering six instances of using a carriage service to cause child pornography material to be transmitted. This occurred between 10 and 14 August 2013. During that time, you were communicating with your victims over an internet chat site. You pretended to be a teenage girl and you were communicating with young teenage boys and girls. Six chat messaging addresses were found saved in your computer. You had sexually explicit conversations with these six young people, and you asked for and received almost 70 child pornographic images from the six victims. Records of the conversations, as well the images, were located on your computer.
29. Charge 8 is a charge of using a carriage service to procure a person under 16 years of age for sexual activity. You met the victim, Holly Simpson,[5] in July 2013 on a chat site. Knowing Holly was 14, you pretended to be a 14 year old boy. You told Holly that you were looking for models for a car photo shoot, and asked her to send images of herself. She did so. You then asked her to send ‘more disturbing images.’ She refused, you threatened to leak the pictures she had sent. Holly said that she was scared and she did not know what to do. She sent you some images of the sort you had requested, and you responded by asking for more. You then requested that the two of you meet, and again threatened her with releasing the images if she did not comply.
[5] Pseudonym used.
30. You asked her again to meet, and she agreed. She said she felt she had no choice. You told her you would delete the naked images if you met up and she gave you $50. You arranged to meet at the Sunbury Railway Station on 4 August 2013 at 3 pm. On that day, Holly told her parents she was going to meet a friend. Obviously suspicious, her parents told her she could not go, and they looked through her phone and her iPad. She told her parents what was happening and they reported the matter to the police. Police located chat logs and images relating to you on Holly’s iPad.
31. As arranged, you went to and were at the railway station at Sunbury at 3 pm that afternoon. The police were there and spoke to you. They took your details, but did not at that stage arrest you. It was about two weeks after that that you were arrested for the first time, in relation to the offending concerning Kara.
32. On 25 October 2013, that is over two months after the first arrest, and following the taking of statements from other victims, you were again arrested, questioned and charged with further offences. Again, you made a no comment interview. You spent three days in custody before being released on bail. You remained on bail until you were arrested for the third time on 7 February 2014. This final arrest followed analysis of the materials found on your computers and electronic devices.
33. You did not apply for bail following this third arrest, and by 11 April, just under two months later, you had acknowledged your involvement in these offences and had through your legal representatives, resolved all charges brought against you, and entered pleas of guilty in the Magistrates Court to a negotiated settlement encompassing all of the conduct to which I have referred. You were then committed in the fast track, for a plea to this court.
34. This is clearly very serious sexual offending. It involves a wide range of deviant sexual activity. It involves possession of a large amount of child pornography of the sort available to those committed to searching the darker online world, and involving victims unknown to you, through to possession of child pornography, deliberately solicited by you from victims groomed by you, and obtained through coercive behaviours ranging from engaging young people in increasingly sexualised chats and image sending, deceiving them into sending images for fake modelling jobs, through to blackmail type threats and demands, and you progressed to serial acts of coercing obviously unwilling victims into meeting you, and subjecting them to debasing sexually penetrative acts against their will.
35. There is a clear escalation of your behaviour over the time of the offending, and what appears to be a greater preparedness to overcome the resistance of your victims, or to overbear their wills. You exploited the willingness of the adults with whom you communicated in order to view sexually explicit viewings of the children they produced for you.
36. You manipulated, coerced and deceived young people into sending you intimate images of themselves, then blackmailed them into sending you more, or showing you more. You became more insistent on doing what you wanted to do with the victims of the penetrative offences, insisting on unprotected penile vaginal penetration of the victim of the final charge involving non-consensual penetration, and ejaculating on her face. You were rough, causing pain, and in one case, vaginal bleeding. You mocked your victims, and again in the case of the last, filmed the rape.
37. A number of your direct victims have filed victim impact statements. It is clear you have caused them considerable harm. They are distressed, and embarrassed. The very description of the offending, and their responses at the time shows how their youth and immaturity made them susceptible to your manipulative and predatory conduct. They were, each in their own ways, vulnerable to exploitation. They blame themselves, although they are not to blame. Through your conduct, they have lost their innocence.
38. There is a number of unknown or unidentified victims. It is important to make the point that they too are just as much victims as the victims of your direct contact offences, or the victims who have been identified from the online chats. It is really important to emphasise that the viewing of child pornography is not a victimless offence. Children are exploited in order to make the images that are then posted online, and every person who accesses them, produces and creates a market, and therefore increases the likelihood of exploitation of vulnerable children. None of it therefore, is properly to be regarded as victimless offending. The only distinction that can be made is that some victims are identified, others are not.
39. This account of your offending highlights the dangers that immature young people are exposed to when engaging in unsupervised online communications. It is essential in my view that parents, guardians, and schools, all play a part in teaching young people about establishing safe boundaries when communicating on line. It is also essential that strategies are developed to assist young people to recognise when they are at risk of being lured into engaging in compromising online activity, and to show them how to extricate themselves from such situations.
40. Whilst it can be said that there are worse examples of your offending, it can also be said clearly that there are much less serious examples here of offending, and I do not think much is gathered by doing fine distinctions between what worse could have happened than what actually did.
41. It is clear that subject to considerations personal to you, denunciation, just punishment and deterrence, both general and specific must carry considerable weight. The reports of the psychologist Patrick Newton, tendered on your behalf, make it clear that protection of the community is also an important factor in your case.
42. This is a complex and difficult sentencing exercise. You are only 20 years old. You are an intelligent young man, brought up by loving parents in a happy, stable family. Your parents have given you a good home and a good education. No neglect, mental illness, family violence, behavioural disturbance, substance abuse, poverty or misfortune had blighted their lives, or yours, as you grew up. Until this offending came to light, you appeared to be the model son of model parents. You excelled at school, you became a prefect in your final year, and you did well enough in your VCE to undertake a combined law/psychology degree at Latrobe university. You had hopes, clearly as Ms Sutherland acknowledged, not to be realised now, of becoming a human rights lawyer. This offending occurred during your final year at school and the first year of your law psychology course.
43. You had from your early teens worked in your father’s business, earning the respect of family, friends and your father’s employees when your selfless dedication to assisting him when the business encountered serious difficulties in late 2012 took you well beyond the bounds of what could otherwise be described as filial devotion.
44. You have got a significant history of volunteering at Foundation House, where your mother, who has a masters in social work, has worked for a long time with some of the most traumatised refugees who are granted asylum in this country. Your devotion to your mother, when in 2013, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent surgery was deep and sustained.
45. These two significant events, the business crisis effecting your father's business and then after, your mother’s diagnosis with cancer, cannot provide any explanation for your offending. Both occurred during the period of offending, after it had commenced, and your offending neither abated nor intensified as a result, as far as I can work out on the timeline. It appears that it went on, apparently unaffected.
46. You have been a model brother to you younger sister, a girl who is about the same age as the victims of the rape charges. By contrast, to your behaviour, as detailed in the depositions and agreed facts, you had always treated your mother and sister, and the women in your family and social circle, with respect.
47. Although the period covered by the charges commenced in 2012, when you were in Year 12, and continued until your arrest in August 2103, during your first year of university, it is clear from the agreed facts on the plea, and from what you told Mr Newton, that your interest in child pornography had begun well before then. Consistently with the presentation to your family and friends, and at school, this was a secret part of your life, standing in stark contrast to your behaviour and attitudes in those contexts.
48. As Ms Sutherland said, there is a complete dissonance between your values as evidenced by the heartfelt letters written by your family, and the impressive testimonials provided by a wide range of people who have known you over the years, on the one hand, and the way you treated your many victims. You told Ms Sutherland, and Mr Newton you had “standardised” your victims, and didn’t see them as real people.
49. You have said that when you look back, you are disgusted and sickened by your behaviour, and you only began to understand the impact of your behaviour on your victims, and your family, after the sobering experience of being remanded in custody and spending quite some time underground in the Melbourne Custody Centre, following your third arrest.
50. It is hard to reconcile these two sides to your behaviour. It is hard to understand how you could not, during the offending period, perceive the conflict between your values as evidenced by your offending behaviour and the values you otherwise demonstrated in every other aspect of your life. It is hard to understand how you could act in the manipulative, cruel misogynistic way you did in the contact, or attempted contact offences and, within months of your arrest, express abhorrence for the values underpinning such conduct.
51. I have been greatly assisted by the evidence, and two comprehensive reports from the psychologist Patrick Newton, and the accompanying report by his colleague Dr Matthew Barth.
52. In his evidence, Mr Newton said that you were leading a double life, and you had split your sexual identity from your other identity. In his report he said that you are experiencing something of an existential crisis kindled by your recognition that your behaviour has so comprehensively transgressed not only the law, but also the values and sentiments you explicitly endorsed. He considers this to be indicative of an incipient insight on your part, which if built upon and appropriately channelled could form the foundation for therapeutic progress on your part.
53. Mr Newton said a detailed review of your sexual adjustment indicated the presence of clear broad-based psychosexual deviance. Through your immersion in the dysfunctional and counter social world of online pornography, you exposed yourself to a wide range of material depicting multiple paraphilic behaviours and interests. The material included chat logs photographs and video recordings.
54. Within this broad-based engagement, he identified several key focuses of your deviant interests: voyeuristic material, images of pubescent and peri pubescent girls and images of female feet. Your response to these types of images incorporated strong emotional arousal, and pervasive cognitive distortions reflecting frank psychosexual deviance. Your contact with others became both progressively more deviant in nature, as you sought new material and progressively more personal, as you sought to act out the fantasies which you had developed online.
55. Mr Newton concluded that you experienced persisting confusion about the focus of your sexual orientation. In his opinion, you evidence broad-based deviant responses to material depicting children of both genders and have used the material you obtained from masturbatory purposes. You experience a clearly fetishist arousal pattern. Mr Newton concluded that the level of psychosexual deviance evident in your behaviour is severe and widespread. At another stage of his report, he described it as broad-based. He said it was unequivocally pathological and dysfunctional.
56. He conducted an assessment of your risk of sexual recidivism, using well known measuring tools. A review of historical risk factors indicates a high risk of recidivism. This is because you have offended a young age, have not participated in any co-habiting relationships, have targeted both male and female complainants unrelated to you, and individuals with whom you have no previous acquaintance. And also because your conduct included both non-contact and contact offending.
57. The dynamic risk factors relevant to the assessment of your risk are those associated with the deviant cognitions and pathological arousal patterns intrinsic to your offending. In addition, the level of sexual obsessiveness and preoccupation evident from your offending, your challenges in the area of sexual identity, and the absence of the skills and experience necessary to maintain intimacy, all reinforced and contributed to the psychosexual pathology evident in your case. In Mr Newton’s view, these should be the focus of ongoing specialist treatment. He identified as the factors relevant to some containment of the risk, your remorse, your developing insight and your openness to treatment.
58. In Mr Newton’s opinion, your intelligence and verbal skills should act as assets to your participation in treatment. He considers that the requirements of sex offender registration and the deterrent aspect to sentencing should also confer further protective containment in your case.
59. He concluded, taking into account the combination of all these factors, and assuming that you can successfully complete specialist treatment, that your overall risk of recidivism would be assessed as falling in the moderate to high risk range. Without timely and effective treatment, your risk of recidivism is likely to trend towards the high risk level.
60. Because the level of pathology evident in your sexuality was in Mr Newton’s view severe and broad-based, he said there was an unequivocal need for you to participate in specialist sex offender treatment at the earliest possible juncture.
61. It was clear from the material before me on the plea that you were expressing what I accept to be a genuine commitment to engage in treatment, to seek to address your offending and risk of reoffending. Consistently with that, Ms Sutherland told me that you had expressly instructed her to place Mr Newton's report before the court, despite the bleak prognostications contained in it.
62. Having regard to Mr Newton’s opinion about the importance of commencing treatment at the earliest possible time, the evidence of your expression of commitment to participation and such treatment, and the fact that participation in a sex offender treatment program is usually not made available to a person in custody, until the latter period of their sentence, I acceded to Ms Sutherland’s very sensible suggestion that the plea be adjourned for some months so that you could commence participation in a sex offender treatment program specifically tailored to your needs and provided by, or under the supervision of Mr Newton.
63. You are in the very fortunate position of having the continued support of your parents who themselves are in the fortunate position of – although with some sacrifice – being able to fund such treatment.
64. The supplementary report of Mr Newton and the attached report from Doctor Barth were provided as a result of the treatment administered to you during the three-month adjournment. During that period, you participated in seven treatment consultations with Dr Barth over a total period of 10 hours. The focus of the treatment was the provision of a cognitive behavioural treatment program, to reduce the risk of sexual recidivism. In his second report, Mr Newton said the focus of attention was first:
a. Assisting you to understand the personal factors which contributed to your offending. This included a detailed analysis of the offence chain connected to your conduct, together with work to assist you to understand the emotional needs and interpersonal issues that have underpinned the offending. Specific attention was given to developing interpersonal and social skills to improve your capacity for mature intimacy in healthier ways
b. Addressing cognitive distortions which you endorsed in the sexual domain, identifying and restructuring the offence supporting beliefs you had expressed, and providing education to correct misconceptions regarding the sexual development of young women. Mr Newton noted that in combination, these had facilitated your offending conduct
c. Commencement of relapse prevention training to enhance your behavioural control and reduce the risk of further sexual offending on your part
65. Doctor Barth is of the view that you have made good progress in treatment to date. You engaged well with the specialist counselling provided to you and took good advantage of the opportunity afforded to you by treatment. In the limited time available, you made good progress towards your treatment goals and you expressed a firm commitment to continuing with treatment. This is not easy treatment. As the reports reveal it has been a very painful process for you, and it is much to your credit that you have continued with it, despite the painful realisations about yourself that you have been taken through. Mr Newton emphasised the need for continuing treatment, if your risk is to be contained.
66. I have already summarised the risk evaluation contained in Mr Newton’s first report. In his view, the progress made by you during the seven treatment consultations conducted during the adjourned period, changes that risk assessment in three key ways. First it suggests that the effect of the identified dynamic risk factors are being contained. In his view, you have begun the process of addressing the cognitive distortions, offence supporting beliefs and misconceptions regarding young women and have undertaken work to improve your social skills and reduce the risk of recidivism.
67. Secondly, he considers that you have derived benefit from the treatment provided to date, and that that underscores its genuine protective force. Thirdly, he considers the work that you have done on relapse prevention provides additional reassurance regarding your increased capacity for behavioural control.
68. He concludes:
“While it would be premature to adjust the overall risk category to which Mr Reeves is assigned at this stage, taken in combination, these factors suggest that the overall level of risk in his case is certainly trending lower. With continued treatment it is expected that further reductions in the level of risk could be achieved and sustained.
Mr Reeves has made very good progress in the treatment he has been offered to date, and has begun the process of addressing the dynamic risk factors that were identified in his case. While it is clear that engagement in a considerably longer treatment program will be required before he has comprehensively addressed his issues, the progress he has made in the treatment offered to him so far is encouraging, and augurs well to his rehabilitation prospects. When combined with his intelligence, his good work skills, and his continuing family and social supports, these factors suggest that some optimism regarding Mr Reeves’ prognosis would be warranted”
69. I have recited the detail that I have in my reasons for sentence, because in my view it is essential that prisoner management, correctional authorities and the Parole Board have a detailed analysis of the material relating to your offending for their assessment of you and of the progress you have made, with this early treatment, in order make sensible and informed decisions about your treatment during your period of incarceration, upon any period of parole that the Parole Board sees fit to release you on and thereafter.
70. This is a sad and a very difficult case. As these passages I have just quoted reveal, Mr Newton’s overall view can at best be described as one of guarded optimism that some reduction in the level of risk from high to moderate to high may be able to be achieved, if you are able to participate in timely, long term treatment. You are fortunate that your parents have been able to pay for the treatment at this early stage of your imprisonment. I commend the correctional authorities for facilitating the access by Dr Barth and Mr Newton so such treatment can be undertaken.
71. Given the opinions or the recommendations of Mr Newton, that early treatment and intervention is clearly warranted, and likely to provide the best means of containing the very serious risk that you pose, it is of real concern that such treatment is not currently offered by the correctional authorities to sex offenders sentenced to substantial terms of imprisonment, at the commencement of their sentence and that it is only available to those who can afford to fund it themselves and to express a desire to do so.
72. This is not to detract from its importance in your case, but to bemoan the unavailability of such treatment to any other prisoners who could also benefit from such early intervention and treatment. After all, in cases where the risk of recidivism is such that the protection of the community is a real concern in sentencing terms, treatment should be provided at the time most likely to achieve a reduction in risk. We have come a long way since imprisonment was no more than punitive cold storage. But this case highlights the need for governments to support the provision of offence specific treatment to contain the risk to other children at a time it is most likely to be effective.
73. Given the opinions of Mr Newton about the benefits of continued treatment at this stage of your term of imprisonment, I urge the correctional authorities, in the strongest of terms to provide continued treatment to you at this early stage of your sentence. I recommend that, throughout your term of imprisonment, corrections re-evaluate your need for treatment, and make such treatment available to you as will best seek to reduce, manage and control your risk.
74. It is my hope that the correctional authorities will reconsider, not only for you, but for other prisoners serving terms of imprisonment for sexual offending the provision of sex offender treatment programs at an early stage of their sentence as well as in the period leading up to their release and upon their release.
75. This is, I accept, a case where consistently with the principle in Mills[6] case, the weight to be given to encouraging your rehabilitation must be considerable. Given the seriousness of the offending, and that high risk of reoffending, I consider the best way to balance the need to reflect that seriousness and to encourage rehabilitation, to give proper weight to protection of the community, and to the other sentencing factors that I have indicated is not only to temper the individual sentences, and the total effective sentence to reflect your youth, but to impose a very considerable gap between the head sentence and the non-parole period.
[6]R v Mills (1998) 4 VR 235.
76. In doing so, I am also of course taking into account your early pleas of guilty. I accept that in the circumstances, they are deserving of considerable weight. They have utilitarian value. They have spared the victims the ordeal of giving evidence, and reliving the events. By pleading guilty, you have vindicated their truthfulness in the accounts that they have given. As is evident from what I have already said, I accept that the pleas in your case are indicative of remorse, and support the weighting that I have already said I give to encouraging prospects for rehabilitation.
77. Because you are under 21, the serious sexual offender provisions of the Sentencing Act do not apply. No declaration is to be made that you are sentenced as a serious sexual offender. There is no presumption in favour of cumulation in respect of the third and successive sentences for offences falling with the definition of serious sexual offences.
78. Protection of the community is not the paramount sentencing consideration, and I am not required to consider protection of the community, as the paramount sentencing consideration. You will, however, be subject to the Sex Offender Registration Act reporting conditions. You will be subject to those conditions for life as Charges 3 and 6 are Class 1 offences, and you were over 18 at the time of the commission of the offences.
79. In fixing on the individual sentences, the degrees of cumulation, and the total effective sentence, I am conscious that some of the sentences, taken individually, and some of the cumulation periods appear to be lower than the objective gravity of the offending, and the need to denounce, punish and deter would appear to require. But the sheer number of offences, the wide ranging nature of the offending behaviour, the need to reflect your youth and encourage your prospects for rehabilitation, the need to give proper weight to your guilty pleas, and the need to fix a sentence that does not offend against the principle of totality have led me to fix the individual sentence, and the total effective sentence I have ultimately determined. In cases such as this, it can properly be said that sentencing is an imprecise science, and intuitive synthesis must be given proper deference..
80. Before pronouncing the individual sentences, because the manner in which they must be pronounced is very complicated. I will declare that overall effect of those sentences is to impose a total effective sentence on the state and Commonwealth charges of ten years imprisonment, and to fix a total non-parole period on the state and Commonwealth charges of six years.
81. Could you now please stand Mr Reeves.
82. On Charge 1 of possession of child pornography you are sentenced to be imprisoned for a period of two years and I declare that 12 months of that be served cumulatively upon the base sentence on the State offences and the other partial cumulation orders on the State sentences.
83. On Charge 2 of solicit child pornography you are sentenced to be imprisoned for a period of three years and six months of that is to be served cumulatively upon the total effective State sentence and the other partial cumulation orders I make in respect to the Commonwealth sentences.
84. Charge 3 of rape you are sentenced to be imprisoned for a period of four years and 12 months of that is be served cumulatively according to the formula that I have just pronounced in respect to the State offences.
85. On Charge 4 of transmitting indecent communications you are sentenced to be imprisoned for a period of one year and six months of that is be served cumulatively in respect to the orders relating to the State and Commonwealth offences.
86. On Charge 5 of procure sexual penetration by threat you are sentenced to be imprisoned for a period of three years and one year of that is be served cumulatively upon the State sentences.
87. On Charge 6 of rape you are sentenced to be imprisoned for a period of five years and that is the base sentence in respect of the State sentences.
88. On Charge 7 of transmit child pornography you are sentenced to be imprisoned for a period of two years and six months of that is be served cumulatively in respect to the formula that I have identified in relation to the State and Commonwealth offences.
89. On Charge 8 of you are sentenced to be imprisoned for a period of two years and 12 months of that is be served cumulatively in accordance with the formula that I have announced in respect of the State and Commonwealth sentences.
90. On Charge 9 you are sentenced to be imprisoned for a period of three years and six months of that is be served cumulatively in accordance with the formula that I have pronounced.
91. On my calculations, that makes a total effective sentence on the state charges of eight years imprisonment.
92. On the commonwealth charges, a further two years in total is to be served cumulatively on the total effective state sentences, that is achieved in this way. The sentences on Charges 2, 4 and 9 are to run concurrently with each other, and six months of the sentences on those three charges are to be served cumulatively upon the total effective state sentence.
93. Twelve months of the sentence on Charge 8, and six months of the sentence on Charge 7 are to be served cumulatively on each other, and the partial cumulation in respect of the sentences on Charges 2, 4 and 9 and the total effective state sentence.
94. To achieve that, and to make the declarations necessary under the Commonwealth Crimes Act, the sentences on Charges 2 and 9 are to commence two years and six months before the expiry of the total effective state sentence. The sentence on Charge 7 is to commence 12 months before the expiry of the total effective state sentence.
95. The sentence on Charge 4 to commence six months before the expiry of the total effective state sentence, and the sentence on Charge 8 is to commence upon the expiry of the total effective state sentence.
96. I fix a non-parole period for the State offences of five years and six months, and a non-parole period on the Commonwealth offences of six months. The Commonwealth non-parole period is to commence immediately upon the expiration of the State non-parole period.
97. It is that that leads to, on my calculation, the total effective sentence for state and Commonwealth offences of ten years and the total non-parole period on the state and Commonwealth offences of six years.
98. I declare that you have spent 315 days in pre-sentence detention and direct that that be counted and reckoned as part of the sentence already served. I declare pursuant to s.6AAA of the Sentencing Act, that but for your pleas of guilty, I would have sentence you to a total effective sentence on state and Commonwealth charges of 15 years imprisonment, and I would have fixed a total non-parole period on state and Commonwealth offences of ten years.
99. I have been asked to make a forensic sample order, and I propose to do so having regard to the nature and seriousness of the offences and noting that it is not opposed.
100. I must tell you Mr Reeves that the order I am making is for the taking of a scraping of your mouth, in accordance with the Crimes Act, until a sufficient sample is obtained for placement on the DNA database. I must inform you that if you do not consent to or co-operate in the taking of that sample, under the supervision of an authorised member of the police force, then the police are authorised to use reasonable force to enable that forensic sample to be obtained, and they may well use the more invasive means of obtaining that sample, namely taking a blood sample.
101. I am required to provide you with the reporting conditions under the Sex Offender Registration Act. There is a provision on that for you to sign an acknowledgement having received it. You do not have to sign it the acknowledge Mr Reeves, the court record will show that you have been given it, but our forms require it to be given to you, and for you to have the option of signing it. I will ask for my associate to give to Ms Sutherland, and for that to be taken down to you now. Actually, is that - I cannot see who that is instructing you, Ms Sutherland?
102. MS SUTHERLAND: Mr Teehan, Your Honour.
103. HER HONOUR: It is Mr Teehan, sorry. Perhaps if Mr Teehan could take that down, I will just check the formalities of the orders while we are doing that.
104. MS SUTHERLAND: Yes. Yes, Your Honour, thank you.
105. HER HONOUR: My associate has just pointed out that Charge 5 is a Class 2, not a Class 1 offence, so therefore the Sex Offender Registration reporting conditions are still life because there are two Class 1 offences, that Charge 5 is actually a Class 2.
106. MS SUTHERLAND: Yes, Your Honour.
107. HER HONOUR: Yes, thank you. If that could be given to Mr Teehan. I have also been asked to make a disposal order in respect of the computers and electronic devices and I make that again noting that that was not opposed.
108. MS SUTHERLAND: Yes, Your Honour.
109. MS DIPIETRANTONIO: Your Honour pleases.
110. HER HONOUR: Now Ms Dipietrantonio and Ms Sutherland, does the structure of the sentence and the orders that I pronounced reflect what I said I intended to do, and reflect the requirements under state and Commonwealth law?
111. MS DIPIETRANTONIO: Yes in relation to the first from my perspective, Your Honour, and in relation to the Commonwealth provisions, the instructor from the Commonwealth has indicated that it appears to be correct.
112. HER HONOUR: Thank you. Ms Sutherland too?
113. MS SUTHERLAND: No, I have no objection to it, Your Honour.
114. MS DIPIETRANTONIO: There were two matters Your Honour's sentencing I just wish to raise, they are of little importance, but in regard to correctness if I could raise them, Your Honour?
115. HER HONOUR: Yes.
116. MS DIPIETRANTONIO: When referring to Charge 6, Your Honour - and in terms of the factual basis for that it is at Paragraph 76 of the opening. From what I heard, Your Honour indicated that the victim told him she was 16, it is actually 15.
117. HER HONOUR: I said 15.
118. MS DIPIETRANTONIO: I must have - - -
119. HER HONOUR: I intended to say 15.
120. MS DIPIETRANTONIO: Thank you, Your Honour.
121. HER HONOUR: That is certainly what my notes say, but thank you.
122. MS DIPIETRANTONIO: And the other issue Your Honour is Your Honour indicated that he was arrested on 17 February, it is the 7th.
123. HER HONOUR: Thank you.
124. MS DIPIETRANTONIO: And that will affect the pre-sentence detention there.
125. HER HONOUR: Thank you, yes.
126. MS DIPIETRANTONIO: They're the only two matters that I picked up, Your Honour.
127. HER HONOUR: All right, thank you for correcting that. It does not affect anything in terms of chronology of events or - - -
128. MS SUTHERLAND: No, Your Honour.
129. HER HONOUR: Or tying of offending to anything, it's just pre-sentence detention, is that right?
130. MS DIPIETRANTONIO: Yes, Your Honour.
131. HER HONOUR: All right, thank you. No further orders are required to be made?
132. MS SUTHERLAND: No, Your Honour.
133. MS DIPIETRANTONIO: Thank you, Your Honour.
134. HER HONOUR: Can I thank counsel and your instructing solicitors. This has been a very very difficult, heart rendering matter. The assistance you have given and your sensitivity, all of you in the manner in which it has been presented, dealt with, has been of enormous assistance to me and greatly appreciated, and to the state and Commonwealth instructors for their assistance with that complex weaving through the Commonwealth and state sentencing mix was also greatly appreciated.
135. MS SUTHERLAND: Thank you, Your Honour.
136. MS DIPIETRANTONIO: Thank you, Your Honour.
137. HER HONOUR: I thank you all for your assistance and co-operation in that.
138. MS DIPIETRANTONIO: Could I just check Your Honour, I'm not sure if Your Honour has returned the CEM sample and the DVD, just to make sure that - I think the CEM material was also in an envelope I think Your Honour.
139. HER HONOUR: Yes.
140. MS DIPIETRANTONIO: Thank you, Your Honour.
141. HER HONOUR: Yes, as you can see the ones that my associate has there and the ones that was provided is also there. All right, thank you. Mr Reeves senior and Mrs Reeves, I am required to remain on the Bench until Mr Reeves is removed, but in the circumstances, I will stay here so you can speak to each other before he is taken out.
142. The Corrections requirements means that you can speak, but you are not actually allowed to touch, and I am afraid it is in public view. I tend to look down, but I will certainly give you that opportunity to speak to him before he is taken away, thank you. So you can approach the dock now.
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