Director of Public Prosecutions v Sandford

[2024] VCC 1246

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

AT MELBOURNE

CRIMINAL DIVISION

Revised
Not Restricted
Suitable for Publication

Case No. 24-00799

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

ALEXANDER SANDFORD

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JUDGE:	HER HONOUR JUDGE WILMOTH
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	1 August 2024
DATE OF SENTENCE:	15 August 2024
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Sandford
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2024] VCC 1246

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject: Criminal law - sentence   

Catchwords:              Plea of guilty to two charges of failing to report - one charge of possessing a drug of dependence and two charges of possessing child exploitation material – high level of depravity – possession for personal use only – limited to one day – repeat offender – currently serving sentence imposed by Magistrates Court – extensive mitigating factors – intellectual disability – Autism spectrum disorder – other psychological disorders – disadvantaged background – Verdins - extensive support with treatment and secure accommodation plans  for eventual release

Sentence:                  2 years  six months imprisonment with  new parole period of 12 months.

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the DPP	Mr D Plummer	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Ms J. Ball	Slades & Parsons

HER HONOUR:

1Alexander Sandford, you have pleaded guilty to two charges of failing to comply with reporting obligations being a registerable offender, one charge of possessing a drug of dependence, namely, methylamphetamine, and two charges of possessing child abuse material.

2On 14 August 2023 police executed a search warrant at your home. They found two zip lock bags of a small quantity of methylamphetamine, described as a point, and a Samsung AKG tablet identified as containing child abuse material. This is Charge 3 on the indictment.

3The device contained 1,208 Category 1 files of prepubescent children under the age of 13 years involved in a sex act or the material focused or concentrated on the anal or genital region of the child.

4The device also contained 144 Category 2 files of pubescent children aged between approximately 13 and 18 years, sexually involved in the same manner as the children in the Category 1 files.

5The secure digital card that was inserted in this device also contained child abuse material, a total of 1,793 Category 1 files of prepubescent children aged under 13 years, sexually involved in the same manner as in the other files. It also contained 190 Category 2 files of pubescent children aged between approximately 13 and 18 years, sexually involved in the same manner as in the other files.

6The material found on the tablet is the subject of Charge 4.

7

Also found in the house was a mobile phone with a number registered to you, containing 48 Category 1 files of prepubescent children under the age of 13, and 68 Category 2 files of pubescent children aged between approximately 13 and

18 years. All these files showed children involved in a sex act, or the material focused or concentrated on the child’s anal or genital region. The material found on the mobile phone is the subject of Charge 5.

8You became a registered sex offender on 29 April 2015 at Broadmeadows Magistrate's Court, when you were convicted on two charges of knowingly possessing child pornography, and sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment. You were placed on the Sex Offenders Register for a period of 15 years and became subject to the conditions imposed under that registration.

9On 21 October 2015 you were convicted of 14 charges of failing to comply with reporting obligations and knowingly possessing child pornography. As a result of this subsequent offending the reporting period was increased to a period for life.

10Also found on the phone seized at your home on 14 August 2023 was a series of messages generated by the social media platform “Grindr” dated between 10 July 2022 and 12 August 2023. The username utilised by you throughout the Grindr messages is 'READ BIO'.

11Your registration as a sex offender at that time required you to report any personal details including internet usernames. Any change in such details is to be reported within seven days of the change occurring. You had not done this, and you were charged with this. That is Charge 1 on the indictment.

12A further failure to comply had occurred during the previous month. On 16 July you went to the home of a friend who lived there with his wife and six-month-old daughter. You spent the night there and left early next morning. You had no contact with the child, but you did not report that you had been in the same house as the child, which was a breach of the condition requiring you to report any such contact, within one day of the contact occurring.

13The images and videos of child abuse material were described in the summary of the prosecution opening. They showed young male and female children and babies being penetrated and tortured, in some instances covering a range of degrading and cruel acts sexually and physically, in the highest range of such material. The titles of the videos contained in the files also indicated a range of penetrative acts and other acts.

14You were interviewed by police on the day of your arrest, and you were charged and bailed. You answered some questions, explaining your use of methylamphetamine as intended to help with your condition of ADHD, and that you last used it a month ago. You had first started using it a year ago, with only four months of regular use.

15You denied ownership of the mobile phone and said it belonged to a friend. You also denied ownership of the digital card. You admitted owning the Samsung tablet but denied being aware of the child abuse material on it.

16You admitted being at your friend’s house on 16 July but denied any knowledge of his wife and child being there.  You said you were under the influence of drugs at the time.

17The maximum penalty for possession of child abuse material is 10 years imprisonment. For failing to comply with reporting conditions it is 5 years, and for possessing a drug it is one year, if the possession was not for trafficking.

18You are to be sentenced as a serious sex offender and must be registered again under the Sex Offenders Registration Act, with reporting obligations for life.

Gravity of the offending

19Ms Ball, who appeared on your behalf, helpfully referred to the principles by which gravity of such offending is assessed, set out in the case of Minehan v R[1], with reference to your circumstances. There was a considerable number of images and videos, including actual children, with the nature of the acts in many instances being very grave; indeed on any objective view these were at a high level of depravity and cruelty, as I said earlier. This makes your behaviour a serious example of the offence.

[1] (2010) 201 A Crim R 243 [94]

20You possessed the material for your own personal viewing and not for sale or other distribution, and you were not part of any organisation. Hence there was an absence of sophistication or deception involved in what you did. Further, it was limited to one day. Those factors mitigate the gravity slightly.

21As for the breaches of your reporting conditions, as Ms Ball submitted, that behaviour is at the low end of the range of seriousness. You told police that you knew your friend had a child, but you did not think to ask him if she was present in the house at the time.

22Similarly, your possession of drugs is also at a low level of seriousness, as it was a minimal amount, and you were using it to 'self-medicate'. Of course, that does not detract from the fact that it is illegal, and you are no doubt well aware of that.

Personal background and circumstances

23You were aged 27 to 28 at the time of the offending and you are now 29. You grew up as an only child, and your parents separated when you were very young. You have three older half-brothers from previous relationships of both parents. You have no contact with your father, who was not present during your childhood, and you have had only limited contact as an adult.

24You have had a better relationship with your mother, but that too is sometimes strained. Nonetheless, you count her as a support.

25As a small boy you were sexually abused, and this was why you were severely bullied later at school when it became known. As a result you left school and began home-schooling in Year 11, but this became overwhelming and you stopped before the end of the year. Since then you have had some work in the fast food industry but this ended when your criminal history became known.

26You have an intellectual disability which was certified in 2015, in the mild disability to borderline range of cognitive functioning. When you were 14 you were diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder with paraphilic traits.

27Dr Aaron Cunningham saw you in February 2023 and said in his report that your intellectual functioning, including your Autism Spectrum Disorder, contributed to your offending by causing adaptive behaviour and affecting your moral reasoning. It also impaired your ability to consider the emotions and thoughts of others, thereby limiting your ability to empathise with the children who were the victims of the creation of the child abuse material.

28For those reasons the principles in the case of Verdins are enlivened and so your moral culpability is reduced to some extent, because the conditions from which you suffer, and their consequences for your decisions and actions, place you in a different situation from those who do not experience these problems.

29The same applies to your experience of imprisonment. I am told that you have already been subjected to an assault while in prison, and indeed Dr Cunningham considers you are vulnerable to abuse and manipulation by other prisoners.

30I have taken both those matters into account in determining the length of your sentence.

Sentencing issues

31

This matter came before me as an application for a sentence indication on

31 July. The sentence I indicated was accepted and you were arraigned on

1 August, pleading guilty to the five charges.

32A considerable number of documents were tendered on the plea, referring to your functioning capacity and the context in which you offended, as I have already indicated.

33You have been found guilty of similar offending on two previous occasions, as I have already outlined.  The criminal history shows that you breached a wholly suspended sentence of imprisonment of 18 months that was imposed in 2015, I think, but with no order being made as to that sentence, you were on a CCO at the time for other matters.

34Then on 20 October 2017 you were convicted of those further charges that I mentioned earlier and were sentenced to an aggregate of 36 months' imprisonment. The suspended sentence was then restored, to be served part concurrently with the other sentences imposed that day.

35Clearly both general and specific deterrence are of significant importance in this case. The community needs to be protected from your offending, and you need to be deterred from repeating this offending. So far prison has not deterred you.

36You now appear to be well supported, conditional upon your release I should add, by various services under the auspices of NDIS, with a plan for treatment and secure accommodation on your release. All these factors would contribute in a meaningful way to the protection of the community.

37Dr Cunningham assessed your risk of sexual reoffending as moderate to high.  Your new NDIS plan, which would come into play once you are released, includes 90 hours of specialist behaviour intervention support and 30 hours of behaviour management strategies.

38Last August a report was written by Ms Sally Capper, a psychologist at MAPS, with whom you engaged in six sessions over about eight months. Ms Capper described the treatment that she provided for you as a range of strategies, in the course of which you appeared to understand the factors contributing to your offending behaviour, although with some limitations. For example, you told her you would continue to have friendships with adult sexual offenders whom you knew.

39Ms Capper also listed a number of protective factors, including the various social and mental health supports. She noted your considerable growth during your time in treatment. Unfortunately, around the same time as this report was written you committed the offences that I am now sentencing you for.

40In determining an appropriate sentence and fixing a new non-parole period, I take into account the plans made for your eventual release and treatment. These are outlined in a report from Ms Larissa Gough, the Disability Coordinator for the Department of Families Fairness and Housing, dated 29 July 2024. You have undergone an assessment for secure and supported housing provided through this service, known as RTF or Residential Treatment Facility.

41You will now not be able to take up that housing opportunity, but in theory at least, you may be able to be re-assessed before your next date of eligibility for parole. It appears to represent a significant step forward in the treatment available for you and may fill a gap that has existed in the past.

42I note that if this is not possible, the alternative support would be through Forensic Disability Clinical Services.

43

As I said, you were arrested on 14 August and you were still in custody until

25 January 2024, when you were sentenced in the Magistrate's Court for other matters.

44

That time on remand resulted in 164 days of pre-sentence detention for the Magistrate Court matters, which I must take into account in the fixing of a new non‑parole period. You were to have been eligible for release on parole on

10 February 2025.

45I sentence you now, Mr Sandford, to the following terms of imprisonment:

46For each of Charges 1 and 2, 6 months, so that is two sentences of 6 months each.

47For Charge 3, 1 month.

48For each of Charges 4 and 5, 2 years and 6 months, so again that is two sentences each of 2 years and 6 months.

49Each sentence is to be served concurrently, resulting in a total effective sentence of 2 years and 6 months. I fix a new non-parole period of 12 months, meaning that you must serve 12 months from today before being eligible for parole.

50In determining this sentence, I have taken into account the principle of totality, and the need to impose a sentence that is not crushing upon you.

51As I said before, you are to be sentenced as a serious sex offender in relation to all charges except Charge 3 on the indictment. You will also be registered on the Sex Offender Register again and will have to continue to provide your details to the police every year for the rest of your life, once you are released.

52Under s.6AAA of the Sentencing Act, if you had pleaded not guilty to these offences, I would have sentenced you to a total effective sentence of 3 years and 6 months, with a non-parole period of 2 years.

53The prosecution seeks an order for forfeiture of items listed on a schedule, and I make that order.  And also an order for the disposal of drugs.

54Any there any other matters first of all, Mr Malik?

55MR MALIK:  No, thank you very much, Your Honour.

56HER HONOUR:  Thank you.  Ms Ball, anything further?

57MS BALL:  No, Your Honour.

58HER HONOUR:  Thank you.  Thank you for your assistance and I will leave the Bench now.

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