Director of Public Prosecutions v Snowden

[2023] VCC 978

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

  Revised

  Not Restricted

          Suitable for Publication

AT MELBOURNE

CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 22-01674

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

KELLY SNOWDEN

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE MOGLIA
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	8 June 2023
DATE OF SENTENCE:	15 June 2023
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Snowden
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2023] VCC 978

REASONS FOR SENTENCE

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Subject:Criminal Law – Sentence – guilty plea.

Catchwords:              Sentencing – false imprisonment – perjury – possessing a drug of dependence – commit an indictable offence while on bail – minor role - relevant criminal history – reasonable prospects of rehabilitation -  utilitarian value of plea.

Legislation Cited:      Crimes Act 1958 (Vic); Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic)

Cases Cited:Verdins v R (2007) 16 VR 269; Brown (aka Davis) v The Queen [2020] VSCA 60; Worboyes v The Queen [2021] VSCA 169.

Sentence:Total effective sentence: 119 days imprisonment reckoned as already served in combination with Community Corrections Order for 12 months with conviction; 6AAA: 10 months imprisonment; disposal orders as sought.

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	N.  Hutton	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	M.  Greener	Ms M.  Bowler Bowler & Co.

HIS HONOUR:

1Kelly Snowden, you have pleaded guilty to false imprisonment, perjury, possessing methamphetamine and committing an indictable offence while on bail, all occurring on 20-21 June 2021.

Summary of offending

2The agreed basis for your guilty pleas is set out in the summary of prosecution opening dated 26 April 2023.

3In summary, during June 2021, acquaintances of yours were involved in an attempt to buy $2,000 worth of methamphetamine.  A dispute arose between them about whether one of them, Mr Mavroudis-Rigbye, had stolen the money rather than use it to buy the drugs.

4Consequently, on 20 June 2021, Mr Rigbye was being detained by others, including your then partner Tod Angwin, in the garden shed in the back yard of your home in Raquel Close, Carrum Downs.

5On that day, your first involvement in helping to detain Mr Rigbye was when you entered the shed with Mr Angwin at about 1.54 am.  He was at that stage sending messages about hurting Mr Rigbye, not that it is suggested that you played a role in this message or hurting him.  Over the next 19 hours, you went in and out of the shed at least six times, including to take in food.  At times, others were seen to enter or exit the shed holding weapons such as a baseball bat and an air rifle.  In the end, you helped others search for Mr Rigbye at about 9.50 pm after he had fled (Charge 1, false imprisonment).

6It was not alleged that you were the principal offender or that you were responsible for any injuries caused to Mr Rigbye.

7The next day, 21 June 2021, you were home when police attended.  You made a statement to them about events at the house, signed it and thereby acknowledged that its contents were true.  In it you said there was only one occasion when you went to the shed and saw someone sitting in the chair, but you did not really look at him and you had no knowledge that he was being detained.  This was false, and you knew it (Charge 2, perjury).

8It was not suggested, however, that your knowingly false statement led to any waste of police time or any detrimental effect on anyone else.  It was, I find, of no real consequence other than to avoid detection of your own involvement during the incident and to avoid any questions about it that you would rather not have had to answer.

9While police were at your home that day, they found in your handbag a small quantity of methamphetamine.  It is not alleged that you possessed it for any purpose related to trafficking (Charge 3, possessing a drug).

10At the time of these offences, you were on bail for an unrelated summary prosecution (summary charge, offending whilst on bail).

11There is no victim impact statement from Mr Rigbye.  Nevertheless, I have had regard to the obvious fear and anxiety he would have experienced arising from your conduct in the context of what others were doing while detaining him in the circumstances I have described.

Procedural history

12After your arrest on 21 June 2021, police interviewed you.  You co-operated and answered questions.  You said you had been living at the Raquel Close address with your partner, Mr Angwin, who has also been charged with offending similar to this, and you had been living there for a few months.  You said you had no involvement in the 'kidnapping', as you called it, and only saw Mr Rigbye sitting on a chair in the shed when you went in there to get a 'smoke'.  You said you only glanced in the shed and never went in.  You also told police that you had given your partner food, which you assumed was given to the man in the chair.  In light of the CCTV footage police obtained, your account was a mixture of untruths and minimisation of your actual involvement and knowledge.

13You were released pending further investigations and then arrested again on 14 July 2021 when police, having reviewed CCTV footage that revealed your true involvement, could show that you had lied in your account.

14This was your first time in custody.

15You were sentenced on 27 October 2021 for breaching a 2017 CCO to 14 days' imprisonment, which you served.

16You then remained in custody until granted bail in this matter on 24 November 2021 with reasonably onerous conditions, requiring you to report to police three days a week and to maintain a curfew each night.  You are not said to have breached these obligations over the last 18 months.

17You were committed for trial and pleaded not guilty on 12 September 2022 following a contested hearing involving the victim being cross-examined about this traumatic incident.

18You pleaded guilty in this court on 21 March this year, well before trial but not at an early stage such that it is said to evidence any real contrition.  Your plea has assisted in reducing the backlog of trials due to the pandemic.

19Your plea shows you accept responsibility for your offending and are willing to facilitate the course of justice.  It benefits the community by avoiding the cost and inconvenience of a trial, including the need for witnesses to give evidence again, at least on your part.  I will impose a more lenient sentence upon you because of this.

20Police seek a disposal order for the drug they seized and other related items, which you do not oppose.

Personal circumstances

21You were born and raised in Melbourne.  You completed Year 10 at high school and have since worked as a fencer and in catering but are now on benefits while working casually in construction.  You have three children, aged 16, 18 and 23, who no longer live with you.

22At the time of this offending, you were living with Mr Angwin, who was violent towards you, and the relationship ended when you were remanded.

23You were using ice during that time.  While you now say you have given it away without any help from others, I have not received any material that supports this assertion.  I hope for your sake it is true, but I do not make any finding about this either way.  I will make an order requiring your involvement in drug treatment, and this will either support your abstinence or help you to achieve it under threat of returning to prison.

24You have a limited criminal history, which began in 2009 when you were 29 years old, for dishonesty offences and failing to comply with court orders.  Your next and most recent case was in 2017, when you were 36, for similar and failing to answer your bail.  The breach of that order resulted in 14 days' gaol, as I have said.

25Your priors are relevant, particularly for dishonesty.

26Your time in remand fell in the middle of the COVID pandemic.  Prison life at that time was full of restrictions, including for contact visits, so I find it was more difficult for you than it should have been.  I attach greater weight to the time you have served in those circumstances.

Sentencing issues

27The maximum penalties are for –

(a)false imprisonment – 10 years;

(b)perjury – 15 years;

(c)possessing a small quantity of methamphetamine – one year; and

(d)committing an indictable offence on bail – three months.

28As I said to Ms Russell, with whom you should have been sentenced but for your inability to attend court on the day of your plea hearing, detaining someone in a garden shed with a group of people standing over them, one of whom at least had a firearm, is cruel and literally uncivilised.  It is the conduct of people who have forgotten something fundamental about our community – that people should be treated with dignity, even those who have wronged us.  To lie about it to police just makes it all worse.

29The maximum penalties I have just outlined are just one indicator of how far beneath the minimum standard of conduct – a standard required of us all – that your conduct with the others fell.  It is shameful.

30Your counsel, Ms Greener, correctly pointed out your lesser role when compared to Mr Angwin, for example.  This puts your part in the offending into perspective.  You played a relatively minor but not insubstantial role in the events of that day.

31In order to deter others from engaging in similar conduct and to punish you appropriately, I will impose a term for imprisonment as well as making other orders for your ongoing supervision.

32Your criminal history is relevant, and I have been provided no material to demonstrate much about your rehabilitation.  You have not, however, been charged with further offending since or for breaching your bail.  In that context, I find that your prospects are reasonable but somewhat guarded, and so I will make an order that supervises and ensures your progress as much as possible.

33I have had regard to your time in custody in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic and the burdens it placed on you.  I will moderate your sentence accordingly.[1]

[1]Brown (aka Davis) v The Queen [2020] VSCA 60, [48].

34Your counsel submitted that, in all the circumstances, a term of imprisonment combined with a community correction order would satisfy all the sentencing requirements.  The prosecutor conceded this would be appropriate.  Having considered all the circumstances, I agree.

35I have requested and received an assessment from Corrections Victoria, which I will mark as Exhibit A, that you are suitable for such an order.  I note that you recently sustained an injury to your arm that has required treatment, and I am not proposing to impose community work hours on you, so your injury should not prevent your engagement with this order.

36I sentence you as follows:

(a)On Charge 1, false imprisonment – 119 days combined with a CCO;

(b)On Charge 2, perjury – 30 days (concurrent) combined with a CCO;

(c)On Charge 3, possessing a drug – convicted and discharged;

(d)On the summary charge, offending on bail – convicted and discharged.

37The aggregate CCO is with conviction and will last for 12 months.  The conditions over and above the mandatory ones are that you undergo:

(a)supervision;

(b)assessment and treatment for drug abuse, including testing;

(c)assessment and treatment for your mental health;

(d)that you do not associate with any accused persons in this case, namely, Symon Anthony Munson, Peter Criggie, Lauren Nicholls and Toby Bales; and

(e)that you engage in programs as directed.

38The total effective sentence is 119 days' imprisonment with a CCO with conviction for one year.

39I declare that you have served the 119 days, and I direct that that be reckoned as a period already served under this sentence.

40In accordance with s6AAA of the Sentencing Act 1991, but for your plea of guilty I would have imposed 10 months.

Ancillary orders

41As to the methamphetamine seized, I am satisfied that it relates to Charge 3, and I make the disposal order as sought, unopposed as it is.

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