Director of Public Prosecutions v Sommer
[2018] VCC 979
•17 July 2017
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL DIVISION
Case No.17-00155
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| EDWIN SOMMER |
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JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE GUCCIARDO | |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne | |
DATE OF HEARING: | ||
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 17 July 2017 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Sommer | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2018] VCC 979 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Catchwords:
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Crown | Mr A. McKenry | |
| For the Accused | Mr R. De Kretser |
HIS HONOUR:
1 Edwin Sommer, you pleaded guilty to fifteen charges, thirteen of which were indecent acts committed with a child under the age of 16, and two of which were charges of sexual penetration of a child under 16, Charges 8 and 15. These charges span the period 1993 to 2001. Charges 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11 and 13 are composite charges, while Charge 15 is a representative charge.
2 The prosecution summary of this offending upon the plea was contained in a document which was read out and tendered and exhibited and is retained on the court file. For purposes of this sentence this summary of that document will suffice in relation to the background.
3 You were between 45 and 52 years of age at the time of these offences and you are now 68 years of age. There are six victims in this case and for reasons of anonymity and privacy considerations I shall refer to them in this sentence by letter.
4
The first to whom I shall refer as R was between eight and 15 years old at the time of the offences. She is now 32. The second to whom I shall refer as
W was 10 years old and is now 33 years old. The third to whim I shall refer as T was between eight and 15 years old at the time of the offences and is now
32 years of age. The fourth to whom I shall refer to as M was 10 years old and is now 30 years of age. The fifth to whom I shall refer to as B was 13 years of age at the time of the offending, she is now 31 years old. And the sixth to whom I shall refer to as E was 12 and is now 31 years old.
5 In 1978 you were in a de facto relationship and both you and your partner were friendly with another couple. You lived close by and mixed socially for many years. R was their daughter whom you had known since her birth. She had a sister also. You had two sons and the four children who were around the same age often played together at social gatherings in each other's homes. The two families spent much time together. R's mother was a friend of T's and M's mother. T and M were sisters. T and M's parents also socialised with your family and R's family and the three families would hold frequent parties and gatherings.
6 In 1988 you separated from your partner and she moved away from your place with your sons. You remained in the family home. Your sons visited you on weekends and on these occasions the children from the other families I have mentioned would come to your place to visit your sons, in particular R, T and M. You also stayed at R's home from time to time socialising with her parents. You were treated by both the parents of these children and the children themselves like an uncle. The parents trusted you with their children who would visit you even when your sons were not with you, sometimes staying overnight. The link and association became even stronger when R's father passed away and you supported her mother emotionally as well as financially, also buying gifts for R and her sister.
7 When they visited you at your home you allowed R and T to drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes, smoke cannabis. At times R and T's sisters joined them as well as W, the second complainant who is a cousin of R and her sister, as well as R's school friends which included B and E, the fifth and sixth complainants.
8 As to the offending, Charge 1 is a standalone charge and relates to the year 1993. R and W were at your home, they were playing computer games in a darkened room, they were about eight and ten years old. First you rubbed your erect penis against R's back through your pants, an uncharged act. Then you did that to W against her back. She moved away quickly from you. The prosecution's first charge relates to this act.
9 There were uncharged acts of a similar nature alleged against you by T, the third victim, who recalls playing computer games at your home with R and M and your sons. When you did it to her she ran outside. On many occasions over months you would press your hand against her groin and would cup her vagina in your hand and moan before T ran away. These two were uncharged acts. I shall say something more about these uncharged acts later.
10 Charge 2 is a composite charge between the year 1995 when they were age 10, 10 and 8 respectively. R, T and M were at your home when you showed them a pornographic video. You rubbed your penis through your pants and against a chair while they watched. This was an uncharged act. You showed the girls that your penis was erect and rubbed it against M's back. You asked T to touch your penis and she did so. You then exposed it and masturbated in their presence close to T's face. This was Charge 2. You again asked T to touch it which she did while you continued to masturbate. T felt scared and disgusted and yelled at you.
11 The third charge arose during the year 1996. T who was now 11 years old was at your home when you put on a pornographic video and you masturbated in front of her. Charge 3. You asked her how it made her feel. T was scared as she was alone with you. You took her to Southland Shopping Centre where you purchased a set of headphones for her whilst driving her home.
12 Charges 4 and 10 are composite charges. During the year 1997, sisters T and M then about 10 and 12 years old were at your house while their mother was at work. You gave T cannabis to smoke and set up a bed for yourself in the lounge room. You lay on the floor and masturbated your exposed penis. You asked T and M to masturbate you which they did. You ejaculated while M was masturbating you. They were picked by their mother the next morning.
13 Charge 5 and 6 are composite charges. Between 1 January 1997 and 31 July 1998 you picked up T who was about 12 years old having arranged for her to stay the night at your home. You gave her wine and drove her to an adult sex shop where you purchased pornographic videos and a latex outfit. T drank wine and smoked cannabis with you. When you asked to see her breasts she took off her top and you touched her breasts. You then masturbated through your pants in front of her. You encouraged her to touch your penis over your clothing which she did. You then touched her vagina over her clothing for about a minute. Charge 5.
14 After more alcohol and cannabis was consumed you then showed T pornographic magazines and video. You began masturbating yourself in T's presence. You asked her to touch her own breasts and vagina. She did so and you instructed her how to masturbate herself. She asked you to stop and you then asked her to masturbate you which she did until you ejaculated. There were many occasions of this behaviour between you and T over approximately the next ten years. On occasions you gave her money for letting you touch her.
15 Charge 7 was committed between 1 January and 31 December 1998. T was about 13 years old and stayed overnight at your home. You brought in a vibrator and handed it to her. After explaining to her how it worked you turned it on to vibrate. T then held it against her vagina whilst you watched, directing her as you masturbated your penis. You then rubbed your fingers round her vagina while you continued to masturbate yourself and then inserted your fingers into her vagina. This is the charge of sexual penetration. T then masturbated herself and you contemporaneously until you ejaculated.
16 Charge 9 relates to a night between 1 January and 31 December 1999 when T was 14 years old and at your home. You laid down on the kitchen floor with an erect penis and T knelt beside you and put her mouth on your exposed penis, kissing it at your request quickly, and then left.
17 Charges 11, 12 and 13 are composite charges. On a night between January and December 1998, R, B and E then about 13, 13, and 12 years old respectively were at your home after they had been to a football match. You showed them a pornographic video then you masturbated your exposed penis in their presence. You asked R and B to crawl on their hands and knees in their underwear and they did so. You then got R and B to masturbate you and did so in turns until you ejaculated.
18 Charge 14 was committed in 1999. R, then 14 years old, was at your home. She removed her bra and you touched her breasts.
19 Charge 15 is a charge of sexual penetration and is a representative charge. On an occasion between January 1999 and December 2001, R who was 14 or 15 years old was at her own home when you went there. Her mother was out. She was in school uniform. You moved her underpants to the side, licked her vagina and inserted your tongue into her vagina. When she became scared of someone coming in, she asked you to stop which you did.
20 After her father passed away, R went on a holiday to Queensland and you also attended and continued to engage in sexual activity with her. After this holiday you went to a party at your former de facto's home with R, her mother and others. During the evening R was on a mattress in the shed with others. When you arrived in the shed the others left. You were intoxicated. You kissed her on the lips, touched her vagina, licked her vagina and inserted your tongue into her vagina. This was interrupted by the arrival of your ex-partner and R's mother.
21 In 2008 R and T were travelling through Europe when they told each other of what you had done to them when children. They sent you emails to confront you about their abuse and when returning home they informed their families in 2009. R commenced counselling in 2009, ultimately she reported the abuse to police in 2012. The other five victims followed.
22 In April 2015 police came to your residence. You were arrested and you were interviewed. You admitted some of the offending, specifically Charges 9 and 14, the kissing the exposed penis by T and the touching of R's breasts. You said M had masturbated you once, you denied that B had masturbated you but admitted masturbating in her presence together with R and E. You could not recall playing pornographic videos to the victims.
23 Victim impact statements were received from R, T and M, the latter two are sisters. T, the third victim is 32 years old. She wrote of the treatment by you as sexual and mental abuse. She was grateful of having been spared the ordeal of a trial in court. She described you as a close and trusted family friend in a very tight knit family unit of friends. She began recounting this abuse at age 23, so this process has been long and arduous. Your oldest son is one of her closest friends. The parents in this group were like aunts and uncles and the children like cousins. Her parents struggled themselves with drug addictions and she was held in foster care when she and her sister M were physically and mentally abused. Her mother seized back custody of her and when she needed the most support from her friends, this was when you began your predatory conduct. In my view to have exploited this vulnerability of the parent as well as that of the children involved is indicating of the depth of moral culpability which attaches to your behaviour.
24 Before your exposure to the girls, you had started making inappropriate comments and sexually suggestive remarks, you used pornography regularly, and the performance of sexual acts she says continued for many years in her case until aged 22 approximately. This was a relationship in which she felt you were a friend trusted with her thoughts and feelings but which invariably you would subvert to your own purposes. She had had as she writes, an abusive relationship with drugs and alcohol ever since you introduced them to her in the context of this conduct. This behaviour has impacted on her self-esteem, her self-image, her regard for her body, feeling worthless, used and disgust. She has experienced shame, depression and has struggled in her life needing counselling for a very long period. It took her two years to write her statement. She is hopeful as is the court, that recognising who is truly responsible for these experiences will enable her to overcome and gain some strength. Much sadness coming from a reflection of the missed opportunities but this process had provided her with some new understanding.
25 I take this profound impact upon her into account. As with each of the victim impact statements, these reflections appear to me to be dignified and reflective. The court processes, in particular a sentence, can never provide comfort or what is usually vaguely termed closure, but it can in some senses aid in the social rehabilitation of victims who have been damaged and profoundly traumatised by criminal conduct. This can be achieved by clear eyed recognition of what was actually done, what actually happened, what was done to them and what they have suffered.
26 T's sister M also made a victim impact statement. In that statement she outlines impacts of the offending which have been in her words, "Devastating and far reaching into every aspect of life and every part of herself as a young child, adolescent and adult." She has felt her life diminished by this offending by flashbacks and feelings of worthlessness. Her significant relationships with her mother and sister have been damaged by the dark secret they carried which cast a shadow over them which led her to distance herself and in fact live independently from a very tender age. She has endured many of life challenges alone, anxious and fearful, distrustful and ashamed. This involvement has taken a huge toll on her.
27 The victim impact statement of R is the most complete and insightful account of the effects of childhood abuse which I have heard in many years in the law. Such victim impact statements often endeavour to précis or summarise in concise and constrained ways what is in truth many years of struggle at various stages of life and profound psychological and personal introspection. Somehow R has been able to do this difficult task without reservation and this document is remarkable. I would not be able to do it justice by a summary. Some of the insights into the impact of the offending are illuminating. The most powerful being the disconnection or dissociation from her feelings, her body as a human coping mechanism.
28 These activities took place at a delicate time in each of these victims' lives leading to anxiety, depression, self-neglect and resentment. Revisiting these events for each of them has been painful reclaiming any sense of self-worth, confidence and happiness in one's struggle. I did not receive other victim impact statements from the other three victims but I can reasonably infer that many of the themes that run through the statements of those who did make them, and many of the traumatic impacts of sexual abuse which the court sees regularly expressed, are present in their lives and in the past history of growing up as abused young girls. I take these statements and this impact into account.
29 I can have little doubt that this course of conduct on your part spanning as it does many years, and involving six young girls, is of the highest moral and criminal culpability making them very serious offences. The gravity of your conduct can be confirmed when one considers how you went about this criminality. First there is the breathtaking breach of trust not just of children who considered you their friend, mentor and almost family, but of their parents, often at vulnerable moments in their own lives. Such a breach runs counter to every aspect that makes the ideas at the basis of family and friendship valuable and undermines the very foundational structures of a civilised community. Children are entitled to be protected and cherished by the adults around them whether parents or in loco parentis. This breach was not brief, it was years in its completion and involved six young girls, two of them sisters.
30 The uncharged acts and composite charges present a more detailed and accurate background in context of your offending. I should make clear that I use the uncharged acts for this purpose only, that is to understand the nature of your offending and treatment of these children but do not specifically punish you separately for them as they are not subject to distinct charges.
31 However these acts are examples of your course of conduct which course of conduct aggravates your offending. Your use of instruments of grooming and calculating corruption like alcohol, cannabis, gifts, cigarettes, pornography and money, aggravates your conduct because these tools were used for the purpose of creating an atmosphere of compliance by rewards, lowered inhibitions, exploited heightened curiosity, and gave these children a freedom to which they were not accustomed, an atmosphere of licentiousness which was to your advantage. You created excitement at the prospect and reality of the prohibited, illicit behaviour leading to sexual transgression. This you did contumaciously to entice the young and vulnerable into secret and corrupt conduct that ensured their silence and complicity, guilt, shame and embarrassment which you secured by their lack of power and susceptibility to manipulation, combining fear and confusion, all designed to satisfy your sexual desires.
32 This is abhorrent and revolting behaviour to any right thinking member of our community. These were innocent young girls compelled by your behaviour to share the burden of an unbearable secret as well as the violation of their bodily integrity, their safety and their innocence. Some of the behaviour was degrading and humiliating such as asking a child to masturbate in your presence, masturbate with a vibrator, crawl on the floor on hands and knees and other aspects. All this indicates in my view high moral culpability.
33 I take your plea into account. It was entered at an early opportunity prior to a contested committal hearing. This plea will attract a discount on your sentence according to law. The plea has utilitarian value in having avoided criminal trial in this matter, it's expensive inconvenience and above all has avoided the trauma of the need of the victims to give evidence. In the context of such offending it is an indicator of remorse and regret. I accept that perhaps the passage of time and the involvement of the criminal justice system has brought about acceptance of responsibility and a willingness to facilitate the course of justice, but more importantly remorse for your actions. Assessing the level of remorse is always difficult. I accept the plea is a positive indicator. I also accept that during your interview you made admissions in relation to two counts, that is 9 and 14, which went beyond the allegations made and you should be given additional credit for that in accordance with the authorities on this subject.
34 I acknowledge also and it should be noted that it appears that your offending did not involve penile penetration and that the indictment does not involve such allegations.
35
I take into account delay which has been experienced in this matter. In this context I accept that the period which elapsed between your interview in
April 2015 and the determination in 2017 is of some significance. You were not charged until May 2016. Statements in this investigations were taken up to January 2015 but thereafter because of the nature of these matters, advice was sought from the OPP which took time. None of these delays were due to you from interview to sentence in which time you entered a plea at the earliest opportunity and I will take this delay into account because understandably such time causes anxiety and uncertainty.
36 Further submissions were made as to the overall delay. In my view apart from acknowledging the fact that at aged 68 you come to confronting incarceration for the first time, this fact and the 16 years that have elapsed since the last offence, or longer if one goes back to the first offence, is inherent in the nature of your offending and directly related to it. While it may be noted that the victims did not complain of these events until many years later, it is your conduct towards them which primarily caused this passage of time. The delay mentioned earlier on should ameliorate the sentence. This latter aspect of delay has no such impact in my view except to note your age and the impact reclusion will have on you at your age, which does carry with it some amelioration.
37 The aspect of your age in my view impacts primarily upon specific deterrence and more generally by the application of those principles which ask the court to take into account and moderate the burden of imprisonment because of age and moderate the impact of imprisonment as it potentially exacerbates mental and physical ailments, or as are otherwise referred to, Verdins 5 and 6 on the plea.
38 This submission was strengthened by the opinion of Dr Cunningham who wrote a report for the court dated 23 May 2017. He opines that you would be at risk in a custodial setting because of your history of social impairment, lack of social insight and limited ability to adopt to behaviour, new risks and new environments. I shall return to this report in a moment.
39
I should also note that you have no specific health issues currently. I take your background and history into account. You have no previous convictions, subsequent convictions or pending matters. You were born in Hastings, the youngest of three children. Your father, a World War II and Korean veteran suffered post-traumatic stress disorder and was a chronic and violent alcoholic who regularly beat your mother and brother. Both your siblings suffer from mental health issues. You were bullied at primary school and when aged 13 your father sexually abused you by way of digital penetration for a number of years. Similarly your siblings were also assaulted sexually. You were expelled from high school at Year 9, you started an apprenticeship as a chef. In 1965 as a
16 year old you stabbed your father while protecting your mother. When he died a few days later you were charged with his murder but you were acquitted at trial.
40 Aged 18 you left home and settled overseas in London by age 21. After six or seven years you returned to Australia and started work as a draftsman. You have a long and consistent work history which is to your credit in engineering and in the energy industry in Melbourne, Geelong, Western Australia and other places. You began a relationship with your de facto partner aged 30 in around 1978. You have two sons now aged in their 30s. In 1988 when you were 40 years old you separated. The offending commenced in 1993 to the year 2001.
41 I accept that your own sexual abuse as a child is a matter to be accorded some weight as a trauma factually linked to your own sexual offending which would tend to moderate the application of general deterrence in that it may be that such trauma is likely to be the foundation of your social and emotional immaturity, as well as an inability to comprehend the consequences of your social actions. This is the conclusion drawn by psychologist Melinda Metaxas in a report of 16 April 2017.
42 I accept that such abuse in your own background is of some relevance in the endeavour to understand your state of mind at the time of the offending. In the courts' experience such connection is sometimes present in those who come before the court charged with sexual offences upon children. Whether one can say that the offending is "a result" of the consequent social immaturity, your own sexual trauma, naivety, inability to understand consequences of actions and inability to appreciate boundaries and resist sexual urges is more problematic. Even if one accepts your own sexual trauma in childhood as the genesis of your social difficulties, I have difficulties accepting that according to Ms Metaxas, your conduct was an attempt at ingratiating yourself to perpetuate accepting and loving relationships as opposed to grooming manipulation for sexual purposes. I reject such conclusions.
43 While I will give weight to your own abuse in the evaluation of just punishment, it remains difficult to greatly ameliorate or moderating punishment because of some asserted causative link to this matter. I will give it the full weight which such childhood trauma deserves as such traumas do not diminish with the passage of time. This so called causative aspect was I note, not relied on upon you plea on your behalf.
44 Mr Aaron Cunningham provided the court with a report, your family background and history in it. You have not seen one of your sons he noted for some nine years because of these matters. You are a recluse on a rural property. You consider yourself an alcoholic but have abstained since 2004 after a home invasion. You have used cannabis throughout most of your adult life. You told him you could not restrain your sexual feelings but he found you did not have a clear understanding of the emotional consequences to the victims. He opines that you present with an underlying autism spectrum disorder based on your social difficulties, inability to work with others, several obsessional behaviours. You continue to overestimate the role the victims played in your behaviour and have limited insight into the consequences of your behaviour. I have mentioned the difficulties he identifies in relation to reclusion which I will take into account.
45 Melinda Metaxas, a psychologist, provided also a report. You were referred to her by your GP in July of last year and you have attended nine sessions. She also identified social and emotional delays in your development with the emotional and social maturity of a teenager. It is noteworthy that you appear emotionally dissociated from your own past history traumas and she diagnosed a post-traumatic stress disorder. However you have a composite IQ of 102 and she speculated as to the presence of autism spectrum disorder herself.
46 Before some psycho-education it appears you are unable to independently connect your actions to impact on your victims which brought about some new realisation which appeared to present genuine remorse while confused with feelings you have been betrayed by close friends. Without doubt future treatment is required to focus on consequential thinking and identifying risky social situations. She opines you are likely to be of a similar social and emotional maturity as your victims with whom you perceived a relationship.
47 I take these two opinions into account in moderating specific deterrence. You are likely to be not a high risk of re-offending because of your age and this background and mental condition. It should be noted that no other limbs of Verdins was relied upon in the plea, but I do consider that because of the opinions I have summarised above, some moderation should be applied to general deterrence.
48 Nevertheless general deterrence must be a primary factor in this sentence. Those who similarly minded in situations where children are available to them socially and in a relationship of friendship and trust, must be deterred from abuse, particularly sexual abuse. The community rightly looks to denounce your conduct and impose just punishment. You may labour under psychological difficulties, however when the police was transporting you to the station, you told them,
"I was wondering when you were going to come and talk to me, I know I shouldn't have touched those girls. What I did was bad, a complete fuck up, they were friends. I abused that, I shouldn't have touched them."
49 I accept that while you are a recluse in effect you maintain contact with your former de facto and one of your sons, and these act as a positive factor in your future. I take into account the principle of totality, particularly in order to avoid a crushing sentence upon a man of your age. I will order that you undertake forensic procedure for the taking of a DNA sample for placing on the database. This was not objected to.
50 As of the third charge and following, I declare that I will sentence you as a serious sexual offender. No disproportionate sentence is sought but I must bear in mind the policy of this legislation aimed at community protection. I need say little about your prospects of rehabilitation, I have already spoken about your unlikely risk of re-offending.
51 However a number of counts should in my sentence be concurrent as really arising out of one incident that is largely concurrent, such as 4 and 10, 7 and 8 as well as 11, 12, and 13.
52 You have spent 54 days by way of pre-sentence detention excluding today. This will be noted in the records of the court.
53 The sentence enlivens the provisions of the Sexual Offender Registration which give rise to a number of obligations upon release. The applicable period for this registration is for life.
54 On Count 1 of indecent assault you are convicted and sentenced to 6 months' imprisonment.
55 On Count 2 on indecent assault, you are convicted and sentenced to 12 month's imprisonment.
56 On Count 3 of indecent assault you are convicted and sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment.
57 On Charge 4 of indecent assault you are convicted and sentenced to 2 years' imprisonment.
58 On Charge 5 you are convicted and sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment.
59 On Charge 6 of indecent assault you are convicted and sentenced to 4 years' imprisonment.
60 On Charge 7 of indecent assault you are convicted and sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment.
61 On Charge 8 of sexual penetration you are convicted and sentenced to 4 years' imprisonment.
62 On Charge 9 of indecent assault you are convicted and sentenced to 2 years' imprisonment.
63 On Charge 10 of indecent assault you are convicted and sentenced to 2 years' imprisonment.
64 On Charges 11, 12 and 13 of indecent assault you are convicted and sentenced to 2 years' imprisonment on each.
65 On Charge 14 of indecent assault you are convicted and sentenced to 9 months' imprisonment.
66 On Charge 15 of sexual penetration, a representative count, you are convicted and sentenced to 5 years' imprisonment.
67 I order some cumulation. In relation to each offence as separate and distinct events, or composite in recognition of each victim, the base sentence will be Count 15. I order this cumulation. Two months on Charge 1, four months on Charge 2, two months on Charge 3, four months on Charge 4, three months on Charge 5, fifteen months on Charge 6, five months on Charge 7, eighteen months on Charge 8, three months on Charges 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, one month on Charge 14 and fifteen months on Charge 15. Making a total effective sentence of 10 years. I order a non-parole period of six and a half years.
68 But for your plea I would have sentenced you to 12 years with a non-parole period of 8 years.
69 I have signed the orders in relation to the obtaining of a biological sample.
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HIS HONOUR: Mr Sommer, I should tell you that if you are approached in relation to obtaining such a sample by way of a scraping of the mouth, which is not painful, under the supervision of an authorised member of the police force. If you do not consent at the time then that authorised officer can use reasonable force to enable the forensic procedure to take blood from you. Do you understand? Are there any other ancillary orders?
MR McKENRY: No there's no other ancillary orders sought Your Honour. Can I clarify. Your Honour indicated there were a number of accumulations. Did Your Honour indicate there was an accumulation for Charge 15, the base sentence?
HIS HONOUR: Sorry you're correct about that. Yes just give me a moment and I'll do that calculation again. I'll just stand down for a moment, I've misread my notes.
(Short adjournment.)
My apologies I was doing a series of numbers and I've confused my reading of those numbers. The end result is the same. The sentences which I recited are the same except for Charge 15 which has five years' imprisonment not four. The cumulation which I had intended to impose are on Charge 15 which is the base sentence are eighteen months on Charge 8, fifteen months on Charge 6, two months on Charge 1, four months on Charge 2, two months on Charge 3, four months on Charge 4 and three months on Charge 5. And then three months on each of Charges 10, 11, 12 and 13. That on my calculation makes a total of 10 years.
MR McKENRY: Apologies Your Honour, for my assistance there were some charges Your Honour did not mention there, does that mean - - -
HIS HONOUR: No, these are the charges that I wish to cumulate. The others will be concurrent.
MR McKENRY: All right. Your Honour, I apologise, could I get Your Honour to go through the accumulation figures again for me.
HIS HONOUR: Yes I will.
MR McKENRY: Thank you.
HIS HONOUR: The base charge is five years.
MR McKENRY: Yes.
HIS HONOUR: On Charge 15. There is cumulation of 18 months on Charge 8, and there is cumulation of 15 months on Charge 6. There is then cumulation of two months on Charge 1, four months on Charge 2, two months on Charge 3, four months on Charge 4 and three months on Charge 5. And then three months on each of Charges 10, 11, 12 and 13.
MR McKENRY: Thank you Your Honour.
MR DE KRETSER: Thank you Your Honour.
HIS HONOUR: I think the maths is correct. Does anyone have a problem with any of those numbers?
MR DE KRETSER: I think I've got ten now Your Honour, ten years.
HIS HONOUR: To the persons in court, can I say that these numbers may not mean much to you or bring any particular comfort to your resolution as I have said during the sentence. The criminal law can only hope to deal with these matters by way of sentencing principles and the application of legal principles. But I thank you for your involvement in this matter and the way in which you have conducted yourselves in court, and I thank you. Yes thank you gentlemen, I'm going to adjourn, I have a trial starting this afternoon.
MR DE KRETSER: As Your Honour pleases.
MR McKENRY: As Your Honour pleases.
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