Director of Public Prosecutions v Taylor
[2023] VCC 429
•21 March 2023
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA AT BALLARAT CRIMINAL DIVISION | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
CR-22-02328
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| LOGAN LEWIS TAYLOR |
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JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE D. SEXTON | |
WHERE HELD: | Ballarat | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 14 March 2023 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 21 March 2023 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Taylor | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2023] VCC 429 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject: CRIMINAL LAW
Catchwords: Armed Robbery; Recklessly Causing Injury
Legislation Cited: Sentencing Act 1991 VIC
Cases Cited: Mills v R [1998] 4 VR 235; Director of Public Prosecutions v Dalgliesh (a pseudonym) [2017] HCA 41
Sentence: 1 Year and 10 Months Detainment in a Youth Justice Centre
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Director of Public Prosecutions | Mr R. Pirrie | Solicitor of the Office of Public Prosecutions |
| For the Accused | Mr J. Miller | Adrian Paull Criminal Lawyers |
HIS HONOUR:
Introduction
1Logan Lewis Taylor, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of armed robbery, which carries a maximum penalty of 25 years' imprisonment, and one charge of recklessly causing injury, which carries a maximum penalty of five years' imprisonment.
Circumstances of offending
2The circumstances of your offending were set out in the Summary of Prosecution Opening dated 6 March 2023, Exhibit 1 at your plea hearing. That document contains the factual basis for the offending for which you will now be sentenced.
3Your offending can be briefly summarised.
4Your offending took place on 19 June 2022, when you were aged 20. Your victim, who was eight years older than you at the time, was known to you prior to your offending. Due to a previous motorcycle accident, he has severely impaired functioning in his right arm.
5Throughout the day on 19 June 2022, you and your victim were exchanging messages via Snapchat with regard to the purchase of cannabis. There was some dispute between you regarding the price and quality of cannabis. Ultimately, you and your victim agreed that you would purchase an amount of cannabis from him, at a price of $2,100. You agreed to meet your victim at a property where he was then at in Blandford Street, Canadian, with a male friend.
6That evening, at approximately 9.30 pm, you messaged your victim, telling him that you were parked on Blandford Street, ready to make the cannabis transaction. The victim went out onto Blandford Street and saw you sitting in the driver's seat of your car, parked opposite his address. After retrieving a plastic bag containing cannabis from his own vehicle, the victim approached your car and stood by the driver's door where you were then seated, with the driver's window open. He placed the bag of cannabis on your lap before making small talk.
7According to your victim, you at one point said 'I'm keeping your shit', which he took to mean that you did not intend to pay for the cannabis. Your victim quickly took the bag of cannabis from your lap and ran back towards the Blandford Street property, yelling out for his male friend.
8He ran down the driveway of the property and reached the end of the driveway. However, the garage door was closed and he was unable to enter. He turned to face the street and saw you running towards him. You were carrying a machete in your right hand. Your victim did not initially see the weapon but, nevertheless, thought that you were going to attack him. He said 'I'm disabled bro, I can't even defend myself'.
9You then grabbed at the victim and brandished the machete that you were carrying. During the scuffle, your victim fell into the garden bed and dropped the bag of cannabis. Whilst he was lying on the ground in the garden bed, you swung at him with the machete, striking his left arm which he had raised to defend himself.
10You then grabbed the bag of cannabis from the ground and ran back towards your vehicle, with your victim pursuing you on foot. The victim's male friend, who had heard the commotion from inside the house, exited the garage and also ran after you.
11You made it to your car and, at some point, you dropped your Apple iPhone. As you made it to your car, your victim and his friend gained on you, and there was an altercation at the car, the specifics of which are not clear. As a result of the altercation, however, the front driver's side window of your car was damaged. You nevertheless managed to drive from the scene.
12You were ultimately arrested by police some days later at approximately 7.30 pm on 23 June 2022. You were cooperative with police, and ultimately confirmed that the mobile phone subsequently located in the garden bed was yours, and you voluntarily provided police access to the contents of that phone.
13As a result of being struck by the machete, your victim suffered a laceration to his left arm. He was driven by his friend to the Emergency Department of the Ballarat Base Hospital where he was admitted and underwent surgery to control arterial and veinous bleeding from the injury site.
Victim impact
14Your victim completed a Victim Impact Statement on 8 March 2023, outlining the impacts of your offending upon him. In that statement, your victim indicates that, as a result of your offending, he has suffered the breakdown of friendships. His anxiety has skyrocketed, he distrusts everyone, and only sleeps in a locked room. He has become a recluse from the public. He suffers from weakness in his left hand and index and middle finger. He reports being barely able to use a computer for work or leisure activities. He has ongoing hand therapy to strengthen his fingers and grip strength. He was unable to drive for three months, placing a burden on family and friends. He has become overwhelmed with the ongoing legal process as a result of your offending, and has suffered financially.
15Clearly your offending has had significant adverse consequences for your victim. He was, at the time, involved in the sale of illicit drugs, in this case cannabis, which, in the court's experience, can at times be considered a dangerous activity. Nevertheless, he in no way deserved the violent treatment meted out by you on this occasion.
16Victim Impact Statements are an important means through which victims of crime can meaningfully participate in the sentencing process, by informing the court of the often serious and far-reaching consequences of crimes upon them. In formulating an appropriate sentence in your case, I have taken into consideration the impact of your offending upon your victim.
Nature and gravity of your offending and your level of responsibility for it
17The gravity of your offending, particularly the armed robbery, is of course reflected in the relevant statutory maximum penalties to which I must have regard, 25 years' imprisonment and five years' imprisonment respectively.
18In particular with regard to the armed robbery, pursuant to the relevant provisions of the Sentencing Act, in the circumstances of your case where the victim has suffered injury as a direct result of the offence, it is a Category 2 offence, meaning that the court must impose a sentence of imprisonment which includes a Youth Justice Centre Order, unless one of the relevant exceptions apply. Sensibly, in my view, your counsel did not submit that any of the exceptions contained in s5(2H) of the Sentencing Act apply in your case.
19In my view, this must be seen as a serious and concerning example of the crime of armed robbery, and certainly at least an example of this crime sitting at the medium level of seriousness. Not only were you armed, you were armed with a bladed weapon, namely a machete, which is self-evidently dangerous. Yours was not a passive armed robbery. You did not just have the machete with you, you brandished it.
20Whilst I cannot be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the machete was in your vehicle in a premeditated sense with regards to the armed robbery, you made, it seems to me, a conscious and voluntary decision to remove this dangerous implement from your vehicle when you took pursuit of your victim. You pursued your retreating and vulnerable victim for the purposes of the armed robbery, again highlighting the gravity of this crime. Footage of at least part of your offending was played in court during your plea hearing. As I indicated at the time, that footage shows you to be engaging in a concerning degree of determined violence in connection with your offending, which aggravates your offending.
21Your victim was clearly vulnerable. Whether or not, as your counsel submitted, you did not hear him refer to him being disabled by virtue of his right arm injury, during the scuffle with your victim he fell into the garden bed and dropped the bag of cannabis. Whilst he was lying on the ground you swung at him with the machete, striking his left arm which he had raised to defend himself. This, in my view, represents very serious and concerning behaviour on your part, and aggravates overall the gravity of your offending.
22There is a need, of course, not to doubly punish you with regard to your use of the machete and contact with your victim in relation to the armed robbery, given the separate charge of recklessly causing injury. However, in a global sense, your violent conduct with regard to your victim clearly aggravated overall the seriousness of your offending. The significant consequences for your victim, the details of which I have already referred to, also are relevant with regards to an assessment as to the gravity of your conduct.
23In terms of your moral culpability and level of responsibility for your offending, your counsel did not submit that your moral culpability was in any way reduced by way of any mental impairment principles. Likewise, psychologist, Jeffrey Cummins, in his report dated 7 March 2023, Exhibit B at your plea hearing, did not make any connection between your offending and any psychological impairment operating at the time. When discussing your offending with Mr Cummins, there was, in my view, a degree to which you were shifting responsibility to your victim, indicating that he was pressuring you to sell drugs. You refer to feeling a bit overwhelmed when he took the cannabis back from you and, in the heat of the moment, took the machete from your vehicle and chased him. Even if I were to accept the veracity of your account, it in no way diminishes your level of responsibility for this serious and violent offending, which I regard as being high.
Personal circumstances
24The details of your personal history were set out in some detail in the report of Mr Cummins, which was supplemented in oral submissions by Mr Miller, who appeared on your behalf at the plea hearing.
25You are 20 years of age, and soon to celebrate your 21st birthday on 3 April 2023. You fall to be sentenced as a young man and youthful offender with a complete absence of any prior criminal history, a matter obviously standing to your credit.
26You are clearly a young man who retains the love and support of both family and friends, as evidenced by the many people who attended your plea hearing and indeed have attended your sentencing hearing today in support of you. This support is very much a matter tending towards a favourable assessment with regard to your prospects of rehabilitation.
27Both of your parents were in court for your plea hearing and are in court today for sentencing. Up to the date of sentencing, you have been living with your parents and your 18 year old sister.
28You attended and completed primary school in the Ballarat area before attending at St Patrick's College in Ballarat, completing and passing Year 9. You then attended, for a period of Year 10, at Damascus College before attending the CEDA College in Ballarat where, ultimately, you were undertaking Year 12 VCAL. In July of Year 12 you were involved in a car accident as a backseat passenger where the driver hit a tree at 100 kilometres per hour. You suffered significant injuries requiring hospitalisation and surgeries. You reported to Mr Cummins that as a result of being involved in this accident you lost all of your friendship group and dropped out of sport which was, it seems, the centrepiece of your endeavours at CEDA College.
29After making a physical recovery from your injuries, you then obtained intermittent seasonal work as a wool handler and as a sheep shearer, an occupation you indicated as being current as at the date of your plea hearing. You indicated to Mr Cummins that at the time of your offending you were not working due to an injury.
30You reported to Mr Cummins that shortly after the motor vehicle accident when you were aged 18, you became a daily smoker of cannabis. You stated to Mr Cummins:
'I used to be a sociable person. I lost so many friends because of the car accident. Since then I've been feeling sort of embarrassed and I've just wanted to disappear. I haven't any hobbies. When I'm not working and I'm at home I just smoke dope and hide.'[1]
[1]Psychological Report by Jeffrey Cummins dated 13 March 2023, at [20]
.
31You reported to Mr Cummins that your cannabis use escalated further during the COVID-19 pandemic period. In terms of any specialist interventions with regard to your cannabis problem, you reported to Mr Cummins that shortly after being arrested and charged in relation to your offending, you attended upon psychologist, Andrew Toohey, in Ballarat for a number of consultations due to then feeling severely depressed. You were, it seems, placed in a detox facility for a week. However, upon returning home you fairly quickly returned to daily cannabis consumption, which you have apparently continued up to the date of sentencing.
32According to Mr Cummins, you present as being immature and naïve. You have been dependent on cannabis since the motor vehicle accident at the age of 18. According to Mr Cummins, you presented as feeling genuinely guilty, remorseful, shocked and overwhelmed concerning your offending, and your associated legal situation. With relatively limited insight into your offending behaviour, Mr Cummins assessed your risk of committing a further offence of violence as moderate. Mr Cummins formed the view that you have been suffering from a Major Depressive Disorder of moderate severity and associated with features of traumatisation – which was triggered as a result of your involvement in the motor vehicle accident when you were 18. According to Mr Cummins, at the date of his assessment the Major Depressive Disorder had not been diagnosed and you were therefore untreated.
Sentencing factors
33The Sentencing Act requires me to have regard to various factors, principles and purposes in formulating an appropriate sentence in your case. I have already referred to the relevant maximum penalties, the nature and gravity of your offending, and your level of responsibility for it, and your previous character.
34Your matter resolved to a plea of guilty at the committal mention stage on 8 December 2022. In those circumstances, I accept that your plea was entered at the earliest possible opportunity. You should therefore be given the full advantage of the utilitarian benefit of your plea which, in my view, is reflective of your acceptance of responsibility and your willingness to facilitate the course of justice. Of course, the utilitarian benefit of your plea of guilty is very much enhanced by virtue of it being entered in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic with its unprecedented challenges to the administration of criminal justice in this State. In particular, the court is continuing to experience unprecedented delays, and your plea of guilty in this context very much enhances the sentencing discount applicable.
35Whilst psychologist, Mr Cummins, refers to your relatively limited insight into your offending behaviour, he also refers to you apologising at interview with regard to your offending behaviour, and that you presented at the interview as being remorseful. Likewise, the character reference from your great aunt, Dawn Ellis, dated 20 October 2022, Exhibit C at your plea hearing, refers to you being regretful of your behaviour and being well-aware of the seriousness of what has happened.
36In these circumstances, I am prepared to make a further mitigatory allowance for your remorse, which decreases the need for any penalty to reflect the sentencing purpose of specific deterrence, and contributes to a relatively favourable finding with regard to your prospects of rehabilitation.
37Your youth remains a most significant factor with regard to sentencing. You fall to be sentenced as a 20 year old young man, with no prior findings of guilt or convictions.
38As is now well-known and accepted, your youth, particularly as a first time offender, should be a primary consideration for a sentencing court. Rehabilitation is usually far more important than general deterrence, and you should not be sent to an adult prison if such a disposition can be avoided.[2] Whilst, in my view, you engaged in what could be described as very adult offending, the simple fact remains that you fall to be sentenced as a young and, in my view, impressionable young man.
[2]Mills v R [1998] 4 VR 235 at [24].
39Whilst you must be appropriately punished for your serious offending and, through the penalty imposed, I must denounce your conduct, protect the community and send a message to other like-minded offenders that such serious conduct will attract substantial penalties, in my view, to the extent appropriate, I must suitably facilitate your rehabilitation. Indeed, the community will best be protected, in my view, through your meaningful rehabilitation.
40In the opinion of Mr Cummins, you suffer from a Major Depressive Disorder of moderate severity. You reported to Mr Cummins that you were feeling frightened and overwhelmed about the prospect of being incarcerated. According to Mr Cummins, your mental health is likely to deteriorate the longer the time you spend in custody. In my view, therefore, there is scope for a further moderation of penalty by virtue of principles 5 and 6 of Verdins with regard to mental impairment and its impact on sentencing.
41Whilst not submitting that any of the exceptions contained in s5(2H) of the Sentencing Act applied in your case, your counsel submitted essentially that a Youth Justice Centre Order was the appropriate disposition given your youth and vulnerability, and submitted that an appropriate assessment should take place.
42An assessment was subsequently undertaken by the Department of Justice and Community Safety, Youth Justice, Grampians Regional Office, and a report from Advanced Case Manager, Kayla Ringin, dated 17 March 2023, has been provided to the court. Whilst your narrative to Ms Ringin with regard to your offending differs somewhat from the Summary of Prosecution Opening, overall I am satisfied that the report is consistent with the other materials now before me. It seems that you engaged appropriately with Youth Justice for the purposes of the assessment, were appropriately remorseful with regard to your offending, and presented with a willingness to participate in programs and receive support from services within the Youth Justice setting.
43Ms Ringin made appropriate enquiries with your family and, it seems, has been satisfied that you have a prosocial support network around you. I note in particular that, according to your mother, there are farmers in the region who have shown their support regarding your situation and have offered work to you upon your release from custody.
44According to your mother in contact with Ms Ringin, you have extended familial support. Your family and friends apparently helped you pre-emptively to celebrate your 21st birthday last week in recognition of your pending sentence. You have clearly accepted that you will be the subject of a sentence involving your confinement as evidenced by your no doubt sad visit to your terminally ill paternal grandmother on 16 March 2023 to say farewell to her. I accept that you have strong family support, an extremely positive matter with regards to you prospects of rehabilitation.
45Pursuant to s32(1) of the Sentencing Act, if I find that a sentence involving your confinement is justified, I may make a Youth Justice Centre Order if I have received a pre-sentence report and I believe there are reasonable prospects for your rehabilitation, or if I believe that you are particularly impressionable, immature or likely to be subjected to undesirable influences in an adult prison.
46According to Ms Ringin, following the Youth Justice assessment, you have been found suitable for a Youth Justice Centre Order pursuant to both limbs of s32. Having carefully considered the contents of Ms Ringin’s report, where you have been found suitable for a Youth Justice Centre Order, I am satisfied that there are reasonable prospects for your rehabilitation in all the circumstances. I am also satisfied that you are particularly impressionable, immature or likely to be subjected to undesirable influences in an adult prison, given all of the circumstances of your case, and in particular the assessments of psychologist, Mr Cummins, and of Youth Justice in your case.
Sentence
47Notwithstanding your youth and absence of prior criminal history, in my view, the seriousness of your offending leaves me no alternative but to impose a penalty which involves your confinement. For the reasons I have outlined, it is my intention to impose a Youth Justice Centre Order in your case. There is, in my view, a need to reflect the distinct criminality with regard to the two charges on the indictment through separate penalties. However, given the presumption of concurrency contained in s33 of the Sentencing Act with regard to a Youth Justice Centre Order, the sentences I am about to impose will be served concurrently.
48In formulating an appropriate sentence in your case, I have taken into consideration all of the matters to which I have referred. I have also considered the issue of current sentencing practices, and have been assisted by the comparable cases provided by the prosecution, noting of course that sentences of other courts are not binding precedents but are merely historical statements of what has happened in the past, and current sentencing practices represent just one of the relevant sentencing factors to be considered.[3]
[3]Director of Public Prosecutions v Dalgliesh (a pseudonym) [2017] HCA 41 at [83].
49Mr Taylor, would you please stand.
50On Charge 1 on the indictment, armed robbery, you are convicted and ordered to be detained in a Youth Justice Centre for a period of 22 months.
51On Charge 2, causing injury recklessly, you are convicted and ordered to be detained in a Youth Justice Centre for a period of nine months.
52I order that these sentences run concurrently or together, resulting in a Youth Justice Centre Order for a period of 22 months.
53There is no pre-sentence detention in this matter and accordingly I make no declaration in that regard.
54Pursuant to s6AAA of the Sentencing Act I declare that had you pleaded not guilty but been found guilty I would have imposed a total effective sentence of three years and three months in a Youth Justice Centre Order.
55Mr Taylor, take a seat please. Mr Pirrie, are there any ancillary orders? I couldn't see any.
56MR PIRRIE: No, Your Honour.
57HIS HONOUR: No other orders that I need to make?
58MR PIRRIE: No, Your Honour.
59HIS HONOUR: Any ambiguities or issues with regards to the sentence?
60MRPIRRIE: No.
61HIS HONOUR: Mr Miller?
62MR MILLER: Nothing, Your Honour, no.
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