Director of Public Prosecutions v Skiles (a pseudonym)
[2019] VCC 228
•1 March 2019
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| CAMERON SKILES (a pseudonym) |
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| JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE MULLALY |
| WHERE HELD: | Melbourne |
| DATE OF HEARING: | |
| DATE OF SENTENCE: | 1 March 2019 |
| CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Skiles (a pseudonym) |
| MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2019] VCC 228 |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Director of Public Prosecutions | Ms D. Mandie | Office of Public Prosecutions |
| For the Accused | Mr S. Kenny | Stary Norton Halphen Lawyers |
HIS HONOUR:
1Cameron Skiles[1], your family life has always been difficult. In August of 2017 for a brief time you were living with your mother. You were 18 and no longer under the care of the state because of the fact that you turned 18, not because of the fact that you no longer required some care and supervision.
[1] A pseudonym name
2So it was you returned to live with your mother who has had very significant difficulties with alcohol and with raising you over the years. After a period of time you were unable to stay with her and you moved to what I will describe as a family friend's premises. That friend is someone I came to hear in evidence in related proceedings. She seemed to be the sort of person the community undervalues as providing some real assistance to young people in difficulty. However, looking after young people in difficulty gives rise to risks that those young people will cause trouble amongst each other.
3At that time you were 18 years old. While staying at this address in Rochester you met a number of other young adolescents, younger than you. On 11 August 2017 you were at a house in Rochester. The first victim, as she was described in the Crown opening, was also there with her friends, enjoying the company of the young people. You and she had never met. You asked and were told her age. She was 14. It seems thereafter you were behaving inappropriately, as were other young men at that event.
4In the course of the evening you slapped the first victim on her bottom and later groped her on her breast. You pleaded guilty to two charges of sexual assault of a child under the age of 16. On 27 August you touched another victim, aged 15, on her bottom and breast in separate and concerningly aggressive episodes at the house that you were living in at Rochester. You pleaded guilty to a single representative charge of sexual assault against a child under the age of 16.
5That young victim spoke of the ongoing impact on her of what you did. She said that she finds it hard to sleep at night and she has moments in the day where she cannot help it but break down. She seemed fragile to me when she was reading her victim impact statement. She says that since the incident she finds it very hard to be alone or near guys. She is a young woman and she is entitled to socialise generally without fear.
6She says that it has torn her family apart and her mother's victim impact statement makes that clear. She says that the effect on her has been a major effect in various ways. She has gone on to hurt herself, which is concerning, something that should not be happening, and she says that because she wonders whether she should have stopped it from happening. As I explained to her at the time, routinely we hear young people, victims of sexual assault, feeling as though somehow it is their fault when it never is; it is entirely your fault. She says that she now realises that people are not as they seem. I take from that she is less trusting, which is something that should not be happening to her.
7Beyond that, on 30 August the police seized your computer and phone. There were images and videos of child pornography or child abuse on your digital equipment. One video made in early August 2017 showed your 15-year old girlfriend masturbating you. You pleaded guilty to sexual assault of a child under the age of 16, which was the act seen on the video, and you also pleaded guilty to one charge of producing child abuse material, being the filming of that act. You also pleaded guilty to possession of images, child abuse images, and I was told in the Crown opening that there were images of your ex-girlfriend semi-naked.
8Your girlfriend at the time was under the care of the Department of Health and Human Services. You knew this, but harboured her when she ran away. You pleaded guilty to the related summary offence of harbouring her. As I understand it, she did not make any statement of complaint but of course this does not diminish the seriousness of your offending against her.
9Thus, in the end I must sentence you for four charges of sexual assault of a child under the age of 16 (and you have pleaded guilty to those charges) two related charges of production and possession of child abuse material, and the summary offence of harbouring the person under an order. These sexual offences are not the most serious examples of these crimes and the prosecution never contended that they were, but as evidenced by the victim impact statement of the second victim and her mother, the impact of these sorts of events, these sexual offences, is significant.
10What is concerning is that you have been before the Children's Court in the past for sexual offending. As a 14-year old or thereabouts, perhaps younger, you received a youth supervision order for a combination of sexual offences, one being a single incident of touching a very young niece on her genitals in the presence of an even younger nephew. Further, while in residential care and under the care therefore of the Department of Health and Human Services you gained access to adult pornography and masturbated in the presence of a younger male resident. As I say, you were dealt with by the Children's Court with a youth supervision order. There are on your criminal record indications that this youth supervision order was breached a number of times, reimposed and then breached again.
11You have a concerning number of prior convictions as a young person. Your prospects of remaining out of trouble are guarded at best. As I have explained to you, hopefully clearly enough that you understand, as you have now matured to 20 years old, not 14, this is the time when you have got to stop doing things that see you before the courts. I add to that, of course, Mr Skiles, most important is that you do not offend against other young women or young children. That would see you face serious gaol terms.
12There have been in your past appropriate interventions, by Youth Justice in particular. You have been part of the MAPS program. I have read the reports from that program as well as older psychological reports and comprehensive Children's Court Clinic reports. What can be distilled from those reports are you had a chaotic and disrupted upbringing, an alcoholic mother and a violent father. Your placement into state care was from about the age of 11 which involved various group homes in various regional towns. It is difficult to settle in those circumstances. This is not an ideal childhood and upbringing.
13There have been episodes of sexual abuse on you as a child and inappropriate sexual encounters that you have had while you were in care while you were a teenager, involving other adults. You have had understandably problems with attaining or maintaining stable mental health and you have engaged in self-harm and destructive behaviours.
14Your education was limited and interrupted. After moving from state care at the age of 18 you have had periods of homelessness. You have used cannabis since an early age of about 14. You have been on remand in the Youth Justice system. While on remand you were prescribed it seems antipsychotic and antidepressant medication. You remain, as I understand it, on antidepressant medication. But beyond all that, you have now been on remand in an adult gaol for these offences for 532 days, or one year and seven months and some days. That is since your arrest as an 18-year old. You are now 20 years old plus.
15You faced more serious charges which caused the remand. However, last week a jury found you not guilty of those charges. On any assessment of your offending that you have pleaded guilty to and your very unfortunate concerning prior criminal history, the amount of imprisonment that you have served in my view is already too much. That is so even before other matters are added to the mix, such as your youth, requiring appropriate application of the principles set out in R v Mills and Azzopardi v The Queen, but I pause to reassure you that I have not approached your sentencing in a staged way. Rather, I have considered all matters for and against you and, importantly, I have considered the sentencing purposes of denunciation of your crimes, deterrence to you and to others, protection of the community from you, in particular from your sexual offending, and I have considered the sentencing purpose of your rehabilitation.
16I have done all this in deriving the appropriate and just sentence. It simply is and must be a sentence much less in terms of imprisonment than you have served. I say this in the face of the Crown submitting that the time that you have served thus far is insufficient and you should serve further gaol and then have a lengthy community corrections order imposed. Your counsel said in his carefully drafted written submissions and then supplemented with his oral submissions, that the time that you have served is sufficient. In particular, if there were added to it, a community corrections order, a prison term is more than sufficient time.
17In my view, I cannot elevate the term of imprisonment to fit neatly with the mathematics of the time that you have already served. That would be to impose sentences for these offences that are disproportionate. All that said, I consider there is a need to establish conditions to facilitate your rehabilitation. That is my statutory mandate. Those conditions are the imposition of a community corrections order with in particular a program condition that you undergo a sex offenders course. I have had you assessed for a community corrections order and one of the recommendations is that you undergo a community corrections order. A sex offenders program is part of the community corrections order.
18I consider that you doing the sex offenders course will not only facilitate or establish conditions that facilitate your rehabilitation, it will also enhance the protection of the community. The community corrections order with a sex offenders program will be onerous in and of itself because I am told it is only available in metropolitan Melbourne. This imposes in my view an unfair burden on regional Victorians beyond those that live in metropolitan Melbourne, but there is little I can do about that, but I encourage community corrections to apply a flexible approach and investigate appropriate programs for one-on-one sex offending counselling for you in the regional towns that are close to you such as Ballarat and Horsham.
19In addition to the recommendation for a sex offenders course, the community corrections officer recommended that you undergo treatment and rehabilitation for mental health, treatment and rehabilitation programs to reduce your reoffending generally, and in particular sex offending, to be under supervision and you have judicial monitoring. I have considered that and heard what has been said in respect of these matters. I do not accept that you are simply a medium risk of reoffending, I think you are a real risk of reoffending, and that must be dealt with by endeavouring to have you properly supervised and monitored.
20I do note that you have mental health problems and that they are long standing. It would be appropriate that you have dedicated psychological counselling to try and deal with your mental health problems and fragility. So I will impose a community corrections order and will include treatment and rehabilitation for your mental health. It will include treatment and rehabilitation, that is programs to reduce your reoffending, by participating in the sex offenders program. You will be under supervision and I will set a date for judicial monitoring so that you come back before me and I can see how things are unfolding. I expect that they will go well but that is entirely a matter for you, and I emphasise again you can continue with the ways that you had when you were young and immature. You still are young, but your time in gaol must have had some impact upon you in the sense that you can see many people who are wasting their lives and you can be one of those or you could be someone who gets away from it. So there it is, Mr Skiles.
21The penalties that I impose are as follows, and I have to deal with it in the separate indictments it seems to me, Ms Mandie. Just bear with me for a moment.
22MS MANDIE: Yes, Your Honour, because the charges are different. Did Your Honour mention the length of the CCO?
23HIS HONOUR: No, I will do it when I do it. I just had put a page that is vital underneath the other pages. In respect of the indictment which is H12604723.3 which relates to the complainant Luella Johnston[2], you are on Charge 1 sentenced to a community corrections order of 12 months. On Charge 2 you are sentenced to a community corrections order of 12 months. Those are concurrent with each other.
[2] A pseudonym name
24In respect of the indictment which is H12604723.2 where the complainant is
Ms Hueles[3], in respect of Charge 1 you are sentenced to two months' imprisonment. In respect of Charge 2 you are placed on a 12-month community corrections order. In respect of Charge 3 you are placed on a 12-month community corrections order. Those community corrections orders will run concurrently.[3] A pseudonym name
25In respect of the final indictment which is H12604723.4A where the complainant is Ms Rice[4], in respect of the single representative charge you are sentenced to four months' imprisonment together with a 12-month community corrections order. In respect of that matter the plea of guilty was much later and there is concerning aggression involved in that.
[4] A pseudonym name
26The base sentence is the term of imprisonment imposed on the indictment H12604723.4A. I order that one month of the sentence imposed on the indictment H12604723.2 be served cumulatively upon the sentence imposed on H12604723.4A, giving a total sentence of five months, together with a community corrections order of 12 months.
27As I pointed out and has become clear in the course of debate on the plea, you have served 532 days on remand for these offences. That figure having been reckoned, I must declare that the sentence of 532 days is part of the sentence I have just imposed. I will ensure that this is entered into the records of the court so the prison authorities are left in no doubt that of the five months' imprisonment that I have imposed you have served each and every day of it and much more. It is a matter that hopefully will never have to be mentioned again in this court, but if you breach this community corrections order do not think that necessarily if you breach the community corrections order that the time that you have served will take care of any further punishment.
28Had you pleaded not guilty to the offences as a global proposition I would have imposed a total sentence of 16 months with a minimum term of ten months.
29Is there any other order required?
30MS MANDIE: There is the registration.
31HIS HONOUR: There is registration, and there is one other matter. For the summary offence of harbouring, I find that charge proven and discharged. The registration follows. What happens here is that because of the nature of the offending you have to be placed on the sex offenders register. There is nothing that I can say about that, but in my view it is important that the authorities know where you are, what you are doing, how you are complying with appropriate behaviours, but the obligations on you are onerous and should you not meet them then there are serious consequences.
32You will find when it is explained to you that the obligations on you include a whole range of information that must be provided to the police and updated and updated and updated. Every single internet identity you might have, every single mobile phone number that you ever get, every internet identity if it is an email or the like. Every place that you are, every car that you have anything to do with ultimately, any job that you have. It goes on and on and it is onerous, and in your case it is for life.
33I will sign that document. What has to happen here is I sign a document,
Mr Skiles, that effectively says that I have given you a document. You sign a document that effectively says you have got it, but none of that is as important as the fact of what is in the document and that is a matter for you to carefully analyse, get help with, because you are going to be released now, and if you are you have got to register now. Your requirements are to immediately get yourself signed up on the register, so you must get to the police station and go through that process. Do you understand that?34OFFENDER: Yes.
35HIS HONOUR: Thank you. Is someone going to take him home, by the way, if he is released?
36MR KENNY: There is, but he hasn't left home yet, Your Honour, unfortunately, we're working that out. Mr Skiles might get a train to Ballarat and meet his father there.
37HIS HONOUR: Yes. He is currently on summons for other matters so the corrections folk will deal with it. You will have to go back downstairs.
38MR KENNY: Yes.
39HIS HONOUR: This is certainly not one of the cases where I would do anything other than say he is going downstairs for the corrections people to work it out.
40MR KENNY: Yes.
41HIS HONOUR: Thank you. While documents are being produced,
Mr Skiles, and not in any formal sense part of the sentence, but you will be released, whenever that is. You have not been out of custody for two years, one year and seven months, when you were an 18-year old. You must get yourself to somewhere stable soon, without distraction, without alcohol, without cannabis. If you head in that direction in the next short while because "why not, you're out" then you will find yourself back, and what is the point? So you must apply yourself as best you can. I would prefer that there was someone here to take you directly but I cannot control that. There will be documents produced shortly and I will read them all out.42There are documents that are being produced, Mr Skiles, and you will have to sign them all, but let me run through some of the conditions that apply to them. I think the judicial monitoring will be four months down the track. It will be 8 July, the judicial monitoring. You can attend from Horsham court or Stawell or whatever it is, or the Office of Corrections, wherever you are attending, and I will be in the court probably in Geelong but you have to be there at 9.30.
43I am just going to read to you some important information, Mr Skiles, for each of the community corrections orders that run at the same time. These are the conditions that apply to everyone on a community corrections order. Are you able to concentrate or is there something else you need?
44OFFENDER: All right.
45HIS HONOUR: Because the first of these is critical to you. You must not commit an offence for which you can be imprisoned during the time that the order is in force. Every offence you can think of is punishable by imprisonment, so you must not commit an offence for which you could be imprisoned. So do not commit any offence in the next 12 months. If you do you will breach this order. But do not commit any more offences, full stop.
46You must comply with any obligation or requirement under the sentencing regulations and that will be they will need to be able to identify you and take a photograph of you and various things. Do you understand that? So cooperate with that.
47The next things I am going to outline to you are all about cooperation. You must report to and receive visits from the Office of Corrections, you must report to the community corrections centre at Horsham, the address is here, within two clear working days of the order starting. So you have got Monday and Tuesday to get that sorted. Do not miss out. You must let the community corrections officer know within two clear working days if you change your address or your job, so you must make it clear where you are living. You must not leave Victoria without getting permission and you must obey all lawful instructions and directions. They are the conditions that apply to everyone.
48In addition, you must be under the supervision of the community corrections officers for 12 months. They will require you to attend, report. Do not miss. Any misses, it is not like youth supervision where they will perhaps have a bit more of a lenient approach. You must participate in programs and courses that address factors relating to your offending. That will be the sex offenders program. It will be in Melbourne for a start, that will be for sure, if not for the whole lot. Go to it all; you need to.
49The other conditions relate to you must undergo treatment and assessment for mental health problems. Go to your GP, get a GP, get your mental health plan and go and see whoever they say, whether it be in Horsham or Stawell or wherever it is. You have got to undertake judicial monitoring, so I want to know how it is going, and if it is not going well do not doubt that I will not have the same merciful approach that has been shown here. So I do not want any breaches, I do not want any indication you are using drugs, I do not want any indication that you are hard to track down. Any of that will see trouble for you on the horizon. Thank you.
50Mr Kenny, there are documents you have to take down for Mr Skiles to sign. We are just producing the last of those now, I think, together with the sex offenders documentation which he must take most of it with him, not all.
51I have signed those community corrections orders and there will be copies available for those that need them. I have also received back from Mr Skiles the acknowledgment that he has been provided with the notification of his reporting obligations and the notification of his reporting period. He signed that; that being the case my associate will sign it and forward it to the Chief Commissioner. Is there anything further required?
52MS MANDIE: No, Your Honour.
53HIS HONOUR: Thank you, Ms Mandie, and Mr Kenny in particular for staying around for as long as it took. I am sorry it has taken as long as it has. I will be in the same trouble as I think some others will be.
54MR KENNY: Your Honour, just on a totally unrelated note and before Your Honour leaves the Bench can I just say that Mr Skiles is grateful to Your Honour for the expeditious listings of these trials.
55HIS HONOUR: Thank you.
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