Director of Public Prosecutions v Ryrie
[2021] VCC 1034
•28 July 2021
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION
CR 21-00471
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| NICHOLAS RYRIE |
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JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE LACAVA |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne |
DATE OF HEARING: | 21 July 2021 |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 28 July 2021 |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Ryrie |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2021] VCC 1034 |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject: Armed Robbery, Attempted Armed Robbery
Sentence: 3 years’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of 20 months.
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Director of Public Prosecutions | Ms C. Boult | |
For the Accused | Mr J. McGarvie |
HIS HONOUR:
1Nicholas Ryrie, you have pleaded guilty to two charges.
2Charge 1 is a charge of attempted armed robbery and the maximum penalty for this offence is imprisonment for 20 years.
3Charge 2 is a charge of armed robbery. The maximum penalty for this offence is imprisonment for 25 years.
4Both offences were committed by you on the 9 January 2021. The attempted armed robbery, Charge 1, occurred a few minutes before the armed robbery the subject of a Charge 2.
5When you pleaded guilty to the indictable charges you also pleaded guilty to two summary offences. Those summary offences alleged that you committed each of the charges in the indictment whilst on bail. You were charged with other unrelated offending for which you were released on bail on the previous day, that is 8 January 2021.
6The maximum penalty for committing an indictable offence whilst on bail is imprisonment for three months. The fact you were on bail at the time of committing the indictable charges has further implications for sentencing you. Section 16(3C) of the Sentencing Act 1991, 'the Act', provides that every term of imprisonment imposed on a person for an offence committed whilst released on bail must, unless otherwise directed by the court, be served cumulatively. I will impose such cumulation as I deem appropriate in all of the circumstances.
7When you pleaded guilty you also admitted some prior convictions from four previous court appearances in the Magistrates' Court.
8In June 2007 you appeared in relation to criminal damage charges. At that time you were approximately 22 years of age, a youthful offender. The court imposed a community corrections order for a period of six months without conviction. It was a condition of that order that you perform 100 hours of unpaid community work. I assume you completed that order.
9Also, in October 2007, you were convicted of offensive behaviour in a public place and you were fined $400.
10There was then a break of approximately eight years before you again appeared in the Heidelberg Magistrates' Court, in October 2015 charged with marking graffiti on property and being drunk in a public place. Without conviction the charges were adjourned for a period of 12 months. At that time you were 29 years of age.
11In December 2017 you were again before the Melbourne Magistrates' Court, charged with criminal damage and being drunk in a public place. You were dealt with without conviction and the charges were adjourned for one year on condition that you continue to receive mental health treatment.
12As it transpired, those prior convictions were probably an early indication of your troubled life to come. I will have more to say about this later.
13This offending for which I must sentence you is far more serious than any of the previous matters for which you have in the past been charged and appeared in the Magistrates' Court. It is a considerable elevation of your criminal behaviour.
14As you can see from the maximum penalties provided by the Parliament for the offences that you are now charged with, the Parliament and the courts regard this kind of offending very seriously.
15When sentencing offenders for the crime of armed robbery, or attempted armed robbery, the sentence imposed must have appropriate regard to the sentencing principles of deterrence both general and specific, denunciation and protection of the public. But the sentence imposed must be fair and have full regard to your background circumstances and your prospects for rehabilitation.
16On the plea your counsel Mr McGarvie submitted that your prospects for rehabilitation are reasonable. You have good family support and the support of colleagues in the arts world. But you have always had those supports. Mr Cummins, who saw you for the purposes of providing a psychological report, thought your risk of reoffending in a manner involving violence was moderate.
17Regrettably, I think your prospects of rehabilitation are only very guarded. That is because your episodes of offending have occurred in a background of you suffering previously diagnosed mental illness as well as engaging in abuse of drugs and alcohol. I will return to these issues in some more detail a little later. But a history of various episodes of treatment that you have engaged in shows that although at various times you have expressed motivation to abstain from drugs and alcohol, this has proved to be very difficult for you to achieve outside of a controlled rehabilitation and treatment setting. To your credit you have made many attempts at this. I will come back to this later.
18The circumstances of your offending are contained in an agreed summary of prosecution opening in writing dated 25 June 2021. I admitted that document into evidence as Exhibit A. It was read in open court by the prosecutor Ms Boult.
19Your counsel Mr McGarvie agreed that the prosecution opening is accurate and forms a proper factual basis upon which I can proceed to pass sentence upon you for these crimes.
20In those circumstances is not necessary that I here repeat in full that which is set out in the prosecution opening. I do so only in an abbreviated way. These sentencing remarks should, however, be read in conjunction with what is set out in more detail in the prosecution opening.
21You were born on 2 December 1985. At the time of this offending you were 35 years of age.
22On Saturday, 9 January 2021 the victim in Charge 1 left his residential address for the simple pleasure of taking his dog for a walk. It was about 1.10 pm in the afternoon. The victim was walking along Greeves Street in St Kilda. He saw you about 10 metres away looking directly at him. You were wearing a black hooded jumper pulled forward over your head. You approach the victim and said, 'Do you have any change?' The victim apologised, and said 'no'. You then asked him, 'Have you had a blood test?' The victim replied 'yes'.
23You then produced a syringe in your left hand which had an orange cap on it. You pulled the cap off with your right hand. You held the syringe in your left hand at chest level so that the victim could see it. The victim was about 2 or 3 metres away at this stage. You made a demand for cash whilst armed with the syringe. You threatened the victim saying to him, 'I've got HIV, give me change or I'll stick you'. The victim held both of his hands up and told you to 'fuck off' a few times before running away.
24When he was approximately 50 metres away the victim turned to check where you were and he could see that you were still following him. The victim left the scene and called his sister and then the St Kilda police. (Charge 1, attempted armed robbery.)
25A short time later you attended at Coles Express service in Barkly Street, St Kilda. You entered the store wearing the same black hooded jumper with the hood covering your head and a yellow-and-blue chequered shirt around your face, which covered your nose and mouth. You were carrying a syringe.
26You approached the operator, who was an employee working behind the counter, and you shouted, 'I have a needle, I need cash'. You held the syringe in your left hand and showed it to the victim.
27You then proceeded to move around the store holding the syringe up in view of everyone inside the store. You followed another employee around the centre product display shelving unit inside the store. You were heard to say 'HIV needle', and 'Where is the cash? The employee pointed towards the counter. You again approached the victim, who was the operator of the counter, and whilst still holding the syringe you shouted, 'I need cash'.
28The victim was by this stage worried for the safety of his colleague and other customers. He removed 16 five dollar notes from the register and placed them on the counter in front of you. You took the money from the counter and walked out of the store. A short time later the armed robbery was reported to police. At the time of the armed robbery there were at least three other persons present in the store and the robbery was recorded on CCTV footage. Two of the witnesses left the store quickly concerned for their safety and their children.
29A little later, at about 2 pm, you attended at another convenience store in Fitzroy Street, St Kilda. There you exchanged the money stolen from the armed robbery. You exchanged 15 five dollar notes for one 50 dollar note, one 20 dollar note one five dollar note.
30About 15 minutes later you were arrested whilst walking with a female along Gray Street, St Kilda. You were searched. Police located a black hooded jumper, a yellow-and-blue chequered shirt, the clothes worn by you at the time of the offending. Both were found inside a blue backpack together with a five dollar note and a bunch of syringes.
31When the police removed your shoes they located $75 in total in your right shoe in the denominations that you had exchanged a short time earlier. You were taken to the St Kilda police station where you provided a no comment record of interview, as is your right.
32As can be seen your offending in each of these charges is serious. You were disguised wearing a hoodie and in the armed robbery you covered your face. On each occasion you are armed with a syringe. You made threats direct and by implication.
33Although I accept that when you committed these offences you may have been affected by drugs and/or alcohol, you nonetheless clearly knew what you were doing at the time. This can be gauged from your conduct almost immediately after the offending.
34After you completed the armed robbery in Charge 2, you had the presence of mind to try to distance yourself from the offences by changing your appearance. You took off your hoodie and shirt which you used to hide your identity and you placed these in your backpack. You also went to the trouble to exchange the 15 five dollar notes that you had received in the armed robbery for other denominations and then you hid the proceeds in your shoe. That to my mind bespeaks an offender who at the time the crimes were committed knew exactly what he was doing. It does not reflect the actions of someone acting because of the presence of some psychotic influence. You may have been under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs. That may in part explain your offending, but it does not excuse it.
35Your offending in each charge was against a soft target. As I say the victim in Charge 1 was performing the relatively mundane task of walking his dog. Many people in our community carry out this task on a daily basis mostly to enjoy themselves in a relaxing way. They are entitled to do so feeling safe on a public street in broad daylight.
36The armed robbery in Charge 2 was also carried out on a soft target at a convenience store when you were disguised and where there were a number of people present. They were also put in fear. Although there are no victim impact statements relied upon by the prosecution, the court knows from experience that the victims of such crimes are almost always put in fear which is not easily forgotten.
37Having said that, your offending in each charge can be regarded I think as relatively unsophisticated, although each offence appeared to have a limited degree of planning in the way each offence was carried out, by arming yourself with a capped syringe. The offending was random and unprovoked. Fortunately, no one was harmed and in Charge 2 you got away with only $80. Although you took some steps to avoid detection by exchanging the money and hiding it in your shoe, you took no other steps to avoid detection and I think it is fair to say that you were bound to be caught given police arrived on the scene soon after your offending.
38Your offending in the charges on the indictment is aggravated by the fact it occurred less than a day after you had been admitted to bail a second time for other unrelated offences. You had been charged and bailed for offences that occurred in two separate incidents on 27 December 2020 and 8 January 2021. I was told on the plea you are yet to be dealt with for those other offences, soon to be heard in the Magistrates' Court.
39I regard your offending in each charge to be towards the lower end of range for this kind of offending. Having said that, this kind of offending which makes use of a makeshift weapon to threaten a soft target and rob or attempt to rob them is unfortunately relatively prevalent in our community. There is thus a need for the sentence to reflect protection of the public.
40You have pleaded guilty to the charges and you indicated that you would do so at committal mention. The charges proceeded to this court by way of straight hand-up brief on 5 March 2021.
41I treat you as having pleaded guilty at the earliest possible opportunity. By pleading guilty to the charges you have saved the time and cost of a committal and trial and you have admitted responsibility for your offending and you have advanced the administration of justice.
42Further, by pleading guilty in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic, you have not added to the growing backlog of criminal trials in this court. In recent authority, the Court of Appeal in this state has said that pleas of guilty to offending in this context should ordinarily lead to a very recognisable reduction in sentence. In arriving at my overall sentence and in fixing a non‑parole term I have taken all of this into account.
43Because you have pleaded guilty to the charges at the earliest opportunity, you are entitled to receive a reduction in sentence and this will be reflected in the overall sentence that I will shortly pass.
44I turn to a number of matters relevant to your background circumstances, your mental health and your problems over a number of years with drugs and alcohol.
45On the hearing of the plea, your counsel Mr McGarvie filed a helpful written outline of his submissions on your behalf, Exhibit 1.
46You are one of three children to your parents. You grew up and you were educated in Ivanhoe. You have had a good education.
47I was told and accept that you have a close relationship with your mother, who provided a written reference confirming this, Exhibit 2. In her reference she told me of your struggle with mental health and addiction issues over about the last 15 years. She said that over the last six months while you have been in custody on remand you have remained sober and you have expressed to her your regret and remorse for the effect your actions may have had upon your victims. It is her hope that you recommit to seeking treatment for drug and alcohol addiction. It is clear to me that you have had and continue to have the full support of your family despite this offending. Sadly, because of your previous conduct, at the time you offended you were homeless, your parents no doubt very reluctantly had to resort to obtaining an intervention order against you. Nothing could be more stressful for any parent. Yet admirably your parents stick by you.
48I also received a reference from your father, Exhibit 3. In his reference your father refers to your undoubted talent as an artist. This is a subject that has also been commented upon by your sisters and by references from Ms Sigrid Thornton AO, Exhibit 7, and by Dr Lisa Radford, Exhibit 8. Further, it is obvious from your art portfolio that was exhibited as Exhibit 19. You have been properly described as being a gifted artist, something that has been recognised by your appointments to the Victorian College of the Arts and at an organization known as West Space. Ms Thornton, who has known you all of her life, and Dr Radford, who has known you for many years, have both expressed the opinion, which I accept, that this kind of offending conduct by you is entirely uncharacteristic.
49All of the persons who have provided references speak of the fact you are remorseful and you continue to have their full support. Further, I received into evidence a hand written letter from you to the victims in which you have expressed your regret for your offending against each of them, Exhibit 18. I accept all of this evidence that shows you are remorseful, as does the fact you have pleaded guilty to the charges at the earliest opportunity.
50Your father makes the point that your creativity as an artist was not recognised at your school, but you persisted in pursuing your talent, later studying at Swinburne University and later the Victorian College of the Arts, where you excelled and completed your studies with Honours.
51Your father further makes the point that your success as an artist became a burden for you because your work was being overly scrutinised and criticised. That, he says, was a sign of your deteriorating mental health.
52The pressure led to you trying to cope by self-medicating with alcohol and drugs. As will be seen from other evidence, you sought professional help where you have had periods of stability. But as time moved on, even though you had the love and support of your family and the respect of those involved in the arts community, a point clearly made by Ms Thornton and Dr Radford, you could not cope and you became more remote and removed from both. What your father has said is also confirmed by the references from both your sisters, Exhibits 4 and 5, and by the references from Ms Thornton and Dr Radford.
53Much of your working life has been involved in the art scene. You have been involved in exhibiting your own work and the work of others. You have also been employed to advise students of fine arts at the Victorian College of the Arts. You have also had employment in various art supply shops and intermittently in retail and in hospitality. Sadly, as I referred to earlier, at the time of this offence you were both unemployed and homeless.
54I received into evidence a number of exhibits, being records of your attendances over a number of years at various hospitals. They are lengthy documents and I endeavour to summarise a number of facts shown from them in chronological order.
55A discharge summary from Royal Melbourne Hospital dated 25 September 2017, Exhibit 9, said amongst other things:
'Nick is a 31-year-old man who presents in crisis secondary to a four-week history of his alcohol use disorder after previously being largely abstinent for a two-year period. Whilst intoxicated he has been engaging in risky behaviours - running in front of traffic, expressing passive suicidal thoughts and expressing paranoid and grandiose delusional themes. On exploration of the reasons Nick drinks, he reports he is largely self-medicating for his severe social anxiety which he has suffered from since he was a teen'.
56The same document records that you started drinking alcohol aged 14 and you were drinking daily from age 16. There was a period of abstinence recorded for five years when you were aged in your mid-20s which coincided with you attending the Victorian College of the Arts. The document records a period of abstinence since 2015 being interspersed with periodic small relapses which have been increasing in frequency over the last 12 months.
57A further discharge summary from the Royal Melbourne Hospital dated 26 July 2018 was also tendered in evidence, Exhibit 10. That document records amongst other matters:
'Thirty-one-year-old male with a history of severe alcohol abuse presented to RMH in context of alcohol polypharmacy overdose without intention to self-harm - wanting to dull his head. Has in the past presented frequently in the context of suicidal themes when intoxicated and in crisis. Recent discharge from Epworth after five-week admission for depression and alcohol dependence. Managed by private psychiatrist. On assessment insightful into self-destructive substance abuse and acknowledging its chaotic nature - limited motivation to change. Not acutely suicidal, not depressed - took medication not with the intent to die'.
58On 27 November 2017 Dr Henry Caudle, a psychiatrist at Epworth, wrote a report about you, Exhibit 11. He referred to the fact that after you were admitted to the Royal Melbourne Hospital in 2017 in a state of severe alcoholic poisoning it was apparent that you were suffering from mental illness in the form of a major depressive disorder and what was later defined schizotypal disorder. At that time you expressed significant suicidal ideation and that your intoxication had in fact been a suicidal attempt. The alcohol use was felt to be a function of a major mental illness with the purpose of ending your life.
59After treatment at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in 2017 you were transferred to Epworth, Camberwell where you came under the care of Dr Caudle. You were admitted on a voluntary basis, but you absconded and you were again found with a blood alcohol content consistent with someone who had consumed high-strength alcohol quickly with the intention of ending your life. This triggered a longer involuntary stay at the Royal Melbourne Hospital acute psychiatric unit. In November 2017 you were an in-patient at the Malvern Private Hospital rehabilitation centre where you were an in-patient for two weeks, successfully maintaining your sobriety.
60Because at that time your behaviours whilst intoxicated were thought to be also a function of significant mental illness, and because they were considered to be so dramatic and self-destructive, you were placed on a temporary treatment order under the Mental Health Act.
61A further report from Dr Caudle dated 30 July 2018, Exhibit 12, refers to you having completed five years of sobriety after a residential rehabilitation at the Raymond Hader Clinic in Bacchus Marsh. However, the document reveals that you relapsed in 2017 and thereafter struggled to remain sober. Dr Caudle refers to the fact that you were regularly attending Alcoholics Anonymous. The letter also refers to the fact that you are prone to act impulsively, marked by extreme drinking behaviours with subsequent reckless disregard for your own safety and lack of concern on the surface of the worries of your loved ones. The report opines that when sober you are motivated to change but that your grip on sobriety is quite tenuous unless supported in a residential or hospital setting. That I think is an important factor to keep in mind here.
62The letter from Dr Caudle dated 30 July 2018 was in fact a referral of you for in-patient treatment for alcohol rehabilitation at Beleura Hospital in Mornington.
63On 27 October 2018 a psychiatrist at Beleura, Dr Vikram Bhalla, reported to Dr Caudle that your current issues were alcohol abuse disorder and past history of polysubstance abuse and schizoaffective disorder in remission. The letter in part reads:
'As you know, he has been drinking since the age of 14 and his daily intake is variable and it can be up to 20 to 30 drinks a day. He is drinking a mixture of spirits and wines and has been hospitalised more than 10 times. He is also self-medicated with benzodiazepines and opioids. In the past he has been sniffing chemicals (WD‑40) and the last time he abused was approximately a month ago. Previously he also smoked marijuana with the last use being three months ago and in the past he has used LSD'.
64You were discharged from Beleura with prescriptions for monthly injections of various drugs.
65A discharge summary from the Frankston Hospital dated 16 August 2019, Exhibit 14, shows that at that time you were treated for depression, anxiety and alcohol dependence. A further discharge summary on the letterhead of Peninsula Health also dated 16 August 2019, Exhibit 15, records that you presented to the Frankston emergency department in an ambulance after reporting suicidal ideation two days into an alcohol withdrawal admission to Beleura. According to the discharge summary, you reported to Beleura staff a plan to end your life. You reported that you had thoughts to drink Drano to end your life. The summary records you having a history of schizoaffective disorder and low mood. It also records you having a long history of alcohol dependence and polysubstance use and that you have engaged in over seven rehabilitation programs. Beleura Hospital at that time was seeking crisis containment of you due to your increase in suicidal ideation but advised they were happy to facilitate readmission of you as required.
66You were admitted to Casey Hospital on 30 December 2020, nine days before this offending. The admission notes from the Casey Hospital, Exhibit 16, record that at the time you were homeless and that you were brought in to the hospital by ambulance after being found running into traffic, threatening suicide with labile mood and aggressive behaviours. The discharge summary refers to you experiencing psychotic symptoms. It records you as having said at that time, 'I feel like I'm invisible'. It also records 'Believes the whole city of Melbourne is laughing at me', also believes 'The whole city of Melbourne is against me - out to harm me - it's a system'. It records that you were unable to return home at that time because of the existence of an intervention order having been obtained by your parents due to your aggression whilst at home and property damage.
67Mr McGarvie tended in evidence a psychological report from Mr Jeffrey Cummins dated 20 July 2021, Exhibit 17. In that report Mr Cummins recorded much of your history, which I have endeavoured to set out from the tended evidence above. Mr Cummins was of the opinion that your deterioration in your mental health has been integrally related to your dependency on alcohol and other substances. He assessed your risk of further offending in a way that involved violence as moderate and he recommended that you complete an anger management program. Mr Cummins was of the opinion that the primary risk factor for you will be a return to alcohol abuse and/or polysubstance abuse. You told Mr Cummins that you were motivated to abstain from alcohol and other substances. But as has been documented in the past, outside of a residential treatment program, you have found it difficult to continue to abstain from drugs and alcohol and you have relapsed on many occasions.
68Mr Cummins thought that you suffer from a major depressive disorder. He thought that at times you experience mood and congruent psychotic features and at times you experience psychotic symptoms which are alcohol and other drug-induced. It was Mr Cummins' opinion that incarceration will exacerbate your depressive symptoms and that incarceration will be more onerous for you.
69I have difficulty accepting this last opinion of Mr Cummins because it does not sit with the evidence that you appear to be coping well in prison. I have no doubt that you would find imprisonment difficult, as do most prisoners. I accept that you suffer from a major depressive disorder and at times you suffer from psychotic thoughts. But you told the Mr Cummins that in Ravenhall Prison you are working in the kitchen. You told him that since being imprisoned you have gained about 20 kilograms in weight and that your sleeping habits have improved. You told Mr Cummins that you are sleeping about eight hours each night. You also told him that you were 'Probably eating too well - I'm doing a lot of comfort eating'. You told Mr Cummins that you had not been in any trouble in the prison and that there were no discipline issues and that up until the time that you commenced in the kitchen you were running about 8 kilometres a day. You told Mr Cummins that you were not experiencing any suicidal thoughts and that you were motivated to pursue Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous when released from custody. You acknowledge that you are resigned to serving further time in custody.
70Whilst I accept that all prisoners find imprisonment difficult, in your case I think it can at least be said that your mental health has settled in prison and that you are benefiting from abstaining from drugs and alcohol, albeit in a prison environment. From what you told Mr Cummins I think it can be said your overall physical and mental health has improved whilst in custody. I accept that in the prison environment you are again motivated to continue to abstain from drugs and alcohol. Having said all of that I am very conscious of the fact that you have a very limited and largely irrelevant criminal history and that this is the first term of imprisonment that you have experienced, at the age of 36.
71It is clear from the evidence that you have a long history of mental illness, as described above and as summarised by Mr McGarvie in paragraph 5 of his written submissions. I accept that you presently suffer from a major depressive disorder as opined by Mr Cummins. I also accept that for long periods you have suffered from dependence on alcohol and drugs at various times. However, as to what was your mental state at the time of the commission of the offences is not clear. I accept that at the time of offending you may have been affected by drugs and/or alcohol. You have had a long history of both mental illness and addiction to drugs and alcohol. You knew at the time of offending what the consequences of this combination might be. In my judgement your moral culpability for this offending is not diminished because of your mental illness or because your offending may have been motivated to self-medicate on drugs or alcohol.
72As I said earlier, I accept you have pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and you are deserving of a reduction in sentence. I accept you are remorseful. I do not accept that limb 5 of Verdins principles has application here as submitted by Mr McGarvie. As I said earlier I regard your prospects of rehabilitation as being very guarded.
73Mr McGarvie properly conceded that I must impose a term of imprisonment. However, he submitted it should be a relatively short term to be served in combination with a community corrections order with appropriate conditions to assist your rehabilitation.
74The prosecution submitted that a term of imprisonment in combination with a community corrections order would not be appropriate here because such a disposition would not properly achieve all of the purposes of sentencing in a case where your offending is serious offending, albeit by an offender with limited prior convictions who has not before been sentenced to a term of imprisonment. If I were to impose a combination sentence as submitted by Mr McGarvie I could only impose a sentence of imprisonment limited to one year in addition to the 200 days already served by way of pre‑sentence detention.
75I accept the prosecution submissions. A combination sentence here would not properly reflect the sentencing principles of general and specific deterrence or denunciation. In my judgement, having regard to your long history of mental illness and your many failed attempts to rid yourself of alcohol and drugs, I have grave doubts as to whether programs offered by Corrections to address mental illness and drugs and alcohol would assist you. You have had a lot of past treatment from clinics and hospitals better equipped and experienced to deal with these problems than is Corrections. In my judgement having read much of your medical history and your attempts to address your issues, I very much doubt that a community corrections order after your release will assist you. I think your mental health and drug and alcohol problems are too difficult for Corrections to assist with.
76Having said all of that, I accept you are still a relatively young man who is gifted with a beautiful talent as an artist. You still have plenty of time in your life to achieve your ambitions as an artist and make a major contribution to enriching the lives of others. It gives me no pleasure to have to send you to prison. However, in my judgement your prospects for rehabilitation are best served by passing a head sentence that properly reflects the gravity of your offending and the many mitigating factors referred to above and then by the fixing of a non-parole period that gives you hopefully a lengthy period on parole under the supervision of the Parole Board. In that way hopefully you will not relapse back into the grip of alcohol and drugs.
77This is what I have endeavoured to achieve in the sentence that I will now pass.
78On Charge 1, attempted armed robbery, you are convicted and sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 18 months.
79On Charge 2, armed robbery, you are convicted and sentenced to a term of imprisonment of two and a half years.
80On each summary charge of committing an indictable offence whilst on bail, you are convicted and sentenced to a term of imprisonment of two months on each charge.
81I direct that six months of the sentence imposed on Charge 1 cumulate upon the sentence imposed on Charge 2, which is the base sentence, making a total effective sentence of three years' imprisonment.
82I direct you serve a minimum of 20 months' imprisonment before being eligible for release on parole.
83I declare that there has been 200 days pre-sentence detention relating to the sentences passed this day and direct that 200 days be reckoned as having been already served of the sentences passed this day and be entered into the records of the court and be deducted administratively.
84For the purposes of S.6AAA of the Sentencing Act 1991 I state that had it not been for your pleas of guilty to the charges I would have imposed a total effective sentence of five years' imprisonment and I would have fixed a non-parole period of three and a half years before you would be eligible for release on parole.
85There was an application for a disposal order which was not opposed and I will sign that order.
86Are there any questions arising out of that, Mr McGarvie?
87MR McGARVIE: No questions, Your Honour.
88HIS HONOUR: Ms Boult?
89MS BOULT: Nothing further, Your Honour.
90 HIS HONOUR: Very well, thank you.
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