Director of Public Prosecutions v Smith

[2017] VCC 423

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA Revised
(Not) Restricted
Suitable for Publication

AT LATROBE VALLEY
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 17-00223

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

MATTHEW ANTHONY SMITH

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE SMALLWOOD
WHERE HELD:	Latrobe Valley
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	11 April 2017
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Smith
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2017] VCC 423

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:
Catchwords:
Legislation Cited:
Cases Cited:
Sentence:

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr T. Triandos
For the Accused	Ms N. Karapanagiotidis

Pages 1 - 4

 

 

HIS HONOUR:

1Matthew Anthony Smith, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of intentionally causing injury.  That crime carries a maximum penalty of ten years' imprisonment.

2When interviewed by police, you effectively denied the offending but I accept that your plea has been made at a reasonably early opportunity and indeed was settled at a first committal mention.  There were then endeavours to have the matter, as I understand it, dealt with summarily.  The magistrate took the view that it was inappropriate and it is a view that I would say that I share.

3Insofar as your plea of guilty is concerned, you clearly get the utilitarian benefit of it and I take into account the delay.  You have been on remand in relation to other matters since June of last year and I also take that into account.  The situation may have been able to be dealt with better but they are certainly matters which go to a reduction of the sentence that might otherwise have been imposed.

4You are 31 years of age and at an age where some people are able to turn a lifestyle such as yours around.  You have what appear or sound to be serious matters pending so the sentence I impose may in some respects be a little academic but of course I do not take them into account as I understand they are contested.  There is nothing much I can do about that.

5Your prior convictions are concerning.  You have received back in 2011 a sentence of four years and six months with a non-parole period of two years and eight months.  In the end as I understand it, you served that entire sentence and when the judge sentenced you then back in April of 2011, you had been on remand at that point for 451 days.  You were treated then as having no prior convictions but for my purposes, on 28 September 2010 you were given a month imprisonment for assault in company which was simply the gratuitous attacking of a person.

6I accept that you have had a long battle with alcohol and drugs though it seems drugs have little to do with this.  You did have other offending that is mainly to do with dishonesty and what appear to be drug-related matters.

7The circumstances of the offending are that on 24 October 2015, you were at the Capital Nightclub in Wonthaggi for the birthday party of a friend.  You were accompanied by other people including what might have been described as your partner.  That birthday party concluded around 1 am on the Sunday morning and you left then in the company of those other people.  You all walked from the Capital Nightclub on a footpath across an open block to White Road.  The 18-year-old victim and his friend were standing on White Road waiting for a prearranged lift. 

8Unprovoked, you approached him and punched him to the jaw.  There was no exchange between the two of you before the punch and he did not even see it coming.  He collapsed on the ground, his friend went to his aid, you were grabbed apparently by Mr Pert who was present with you and led from the scene.  A short time later, the victim was picked up by his friend and later in the afternoon of that day grew concerned due to the pain in his jaw, went to the hospital and was established that his jaw was broken in several places and required surgery.  He was transferred to Dandenong.

9On 27 October 2015, he underwent surgery to repair the damage to his jaw.  That required the fixation of titanium plates and screws to the fractured portions of his jaw and the removal of two of his wisdom teeth.  I am told from the Bar table - and there is no material to the contrary - that so far as you can recover from injuries like that, he has done so.

10As I said, when interviewed by the police you effectively denied the offending.  As I said, I take into account delay and as you are on remand for other matters, I do not need to go through the other aspects of the chronology.  There is a victim impact statement filed which simply talks about how this boy was violently assaulted by someone he did not even know and had had no previous contact with.

11The offending is serious.  It calls for the application of general and specific deterrence, denunciation and appropriate punishment.  I think it can be fairly described as cowardly, gratuitous, serious violence and in my view, public protection must play a part in this if that is the way you are going to behave in public places.

12In any event, looking at matters personal to you, I already indicated some of the things that your counsel has pointed out.  You do have an occupation; upon leaving school after Year 10, you did an apprenticeship as a pastry chef and were qualified by the age of 21.  You apparently were in a relationship at around that time and lost a baby and that has had a deleterious effect on you.  You were brought up in circumstances where your natural father was apparently very violent to your mother and you witnessed that.  Your mother had a further partner who died of cancer when you were 14 and I accept that that had a disturbing effect upon you as well. 

13The battle with alcohol and drugs though they are not that relevant to this charge - if relevant at all - has been a long one and the prospects of your rehabilitation are really up to you.  I daresay that the instructions you have given about changing your life around had been done or had been given on numerous occasions in the past. 

14You will undergo the sentence I impose in protection and I take that into account.  I also accept that you have been on remand for that extended period of time in what has effectively been a lockdown situation at the gaols.  It is from my view very regrettable if that situation continues to exist but hopefully as a sentenced prisoner that will not affect you.

15You have endeavoured to do courses within the prison; I accept that, and as I have said, the prospects of your rehabilitation have really just got to be up to you.  The risk of you reoffending on any view, looking at this history and the repetitive nature of it, has got to be high.  In any event, you must be sentenced for what you have done not what you have done in the past and not for what might occur to you in the future.  But as I have said, it is a serious example of intentionally causing injury.  Now that the definition of serious injury has been changed, I think the courts are going to receive more of these matters and incrementally of course, the penalties imposed for this crime must increase.  I simply say, as I have said, that this is a serious example in my view of intentionally causing injury.

16Accordingly, on the charge of intentionally causing injury, you are sentenced to be imprisoned for a period of 27 months.  I fix a minimum period of 18 months before becoming eligible for parole.

17So that you understand the benefit of you having pleaded guilty, pursuant to s.6AAA, but for your plea of guilty I would have sentenced you to be imprisoned for a period of 40 months with a minimum term of 30 months.

18There are no other orders?

19COUNSEL:  No.

20HIS HONOUR:  No, all right.  Yes, you can take him now, thank you.

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