Director of Public Prosecutions v Taylor

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

AT MELBOURNE

CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

Revised

Not Restricted

Suitable for Publication

CR 20-01328

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

ASHLEY TAYLOR

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JUDGE:	HER HONOUR DEPUTY CHIEF JUDGE M. SEXTON
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	12^th – 25^th July (Trial), 9 & 14 December (Plea)
DATE OF SENTENCE:	16 December 2022
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Taylor
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2022] VCC 2313

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:Criminal Law
Catchwords: Sexual Assault of a child under 16
Legislation Cited: Crimes Act 1958 (Vic) – Judicial Proceedings Act 1958 (Vic)– Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic)
Cases Cited: R v Clarkson (2011) 32 VR 361 – Adamson v R [2015] VSCA 194 – Bugmy v The Queen [2013] HCA 37 – HMcL v R (2000) 174 ALR 1
Sentence:TES: Imprisonment of 5 years 2 months minimum of 2 years 9 months to be served before becoming eligible for parole. Sex Offender registration for life. Sentenced as a serious sex offender.
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APPEARANCES:

Counsel

Solicitors

For the Director of Public Prosecutions

Mr D. Gray (trial and plea)

Ms M. Struthers (sentence)

OPP

For the Accused

Mr A. Hands

Rainer Martini and Associates

HER HONOUR:

At the outset, I remind those listening that publication of anything likely to identify the complainant in a sexual offences case is prohibited by an Act of Parliament.[1] In my published remarks, pseudonyms will be used for the name of the complainant and the names of her family members and initials for the family members of the offender.
[1] Section 4 Judicial Proceedings Reports Act
Ashley Taylor, on 25 July 2022 you were found guilty by a jury of five charges of sexual assault of a child under the age of 16.[2] This offence carries a maximum term of 10 years' imprisonment[3] for each charge.
[2] Indictment No: L11890597.1
[3] Section 49(D)(2), Crimes Act
The offending
In August 2018, you met Cyndi McKnight[4], the complainant's mother, on an online dating application and thereafter commenced a relationship. In December 2018 or January 2019, you moved into the house occupied by Ms McKnight and her three children: a boy aged about 10; Breanna[5], the complainant, aged 6; and a girl aged about 4. You were in that relationship with the complainant's mother at the time of the offending.
[4] A pseudonym
[5] A pseudonym
You and Ms McKnight occupied the master bedroom; Breanna and her sister shared a room and their brother had his own room.
By their verdicts of guilty, the jury accepted beyond reasonable doubt the evidence that between 1 January and 9 September 2019, you committed the first four offences over three separate incidents in Breanna's bedroom and that in August or September 2019, you committed the fifth offence in the bedroom you shared with her mother.
Before describing the offending, I note that in her evidence Breanna referred to her ‘bottom’ or ‘front bottom’ being touched in each instance, and in both her VARE and in the Special Hearing, Breanna indicated on the ‘body map’[6] the front of the body in the genital region when asked to show where she had been touched. In the VARE, she also pointed to the same area on a (non-anatomical) doll she was holding. Breanna's mother gave evidence that when Breanna referred to front bottom she meant vagina.
[6] An outline drawing of the front and back of a person. The original used at the Special Hearing being unavailable
By their verdicts, the jury accepted that Breanna was saying that it was her vagina that was touched by you.
In the first incident, you entered Breanna's bedroom at night while she was lying awake in bed, knelt next to her bed and touched her vagina with your fingers under her underwear. That is the subject of Charge 1.
In the second incident, on a different date you again entered Breanna's bedroom at night and touched her vagina under her underwear. That is the subject of Charge 2.
In the third incident, you entered Breanna's bedroom at night and, as on the previous two occasions, touched her vagina under her underwear. On this occasion, however, you proceeded to push your finger hard against her vagina. You asked Breanna, 'Does this feel good?', and Breanna replied, 'No', because, as she said in her evidence, ‘it hurt'. That is the subject of Charge 3.
You then removed Breanna's pyjama pants and underwear and moved her body so that only her back was on the bed with her legs resting on your shoulders. It was in this position that you put your head down between her legs and, as she described it, touched her vagina with your beard. She described being touched on her “front bottom in the middle”[7]. That is the subject of Charge 4.
[7] VARE dated 29 October 2019 Answer 39
All of these incidents occurred between January and September 2019.
On a date between 29 August and 3 September 2019 Breanna stayed home from school because she was sick. In the early afternoon, Ms McKnight entered the master bedroom where you were resting in bed and joined you under the covers. Breanna followed her mother and also got into the bed. After a time Ms McKnight left the room. Breanna stayed in bed as she was feeling tired and unwell; you remained in the bed with her. It was while Ms McKnight was out of the room that you put your hand down the complainant's pants and under her underwear and touched her vagina using your fingers in a circular motion. Feeling uncomfortable, Breanna told you to stop; you ignored her and continued to rub her vagina with your fingers. That is the subject of Charge 5.
About a week after the last incident, Breanna spontaneously disclosed the offending to her mother when her sister asked their mother to scratch her bottom for her. After Ms McKnight said to both girls that only they were allowed to touch their own bottom, Breanna said that sometimes “Ash” touched her bottom.
Ms McKnight immediately confronted you about that allegation which you denied. You left the address the same night after Ms McKnight told you to leave. Police attended the house later that evening.
In your records of interview with police you denied all of the allegations. You pleaded not guilty at trial, as you were entitled to do. Your defence was that none of the events occurred. Your position remains that you did not commit any of the offences, and that you are now in gaol for something you did not do. As a result, there is no remorse expressed by you for the offending against Breanna.

Impact on the victim of the offending

There has been a severe impact on Breanna and on her mother as outlined in their victim impact statements[8]. As neither statement was read out in open court at the request of Ms McKnight, I will not refer to the detail of them. However, I do need to refer to some of what Breanna, now aged 10, has said in the hope that you may begin to understand the impact your offending has had.
[8] Exhibit B on the plea: Victim Impact Statements
What you did to Breanna keeps coming into her thoughts, distracting her at school, keeping her from sleeping and preventing her from enjoying certain games. Breanna is particularly scared of men with beards and is scared of you, despite knowing you are in gaol. Most tellingly, she worries about her future as an older child, and whether she will continue to be distracted at high school by these thoughts, and worries about her future as a mother and of such things happening again. This is a terrible burden for a 10 year old to carry. Through viewing the recordings of her evidence at the trial, it struck me that Breanna is an intelligent little girl, and it is hoped that with support, she will prove to be resilient.
As for Ms McKnight's Victim Impact Statement, I will only refer to what she perceives to be her failure to protect her children. I want to say directly to Ms McKnight the only guilty person here is Mr Taylor, as found by the jury. Mr Taylor is responsible for what happened, not you. I wish you, Breanna, and your family well for the future. Make use of the support that is available to you and your family when Breanna is ready.
Returning to you Mr Taylor, when it comes to children, it is presumed that they suffer harm from a sexual offence being committed against them. The harm can be long term and serious, and both physical and psychological[9] and include future harm.[10] Because Breanna is still only aged 10, it is impossible to know the potential future harm you have caused her. I take into account the significant harm caused to her as far as it is known at this time. I have taken the contents of both impact statements very much into account.
[9]R v Clarkson (2011) 32 VR 361, 368[26], 371 [33]
[10]Adamson v R [2015] VSCA 194, [56]

Assessment of the seriousness of the offending

The features that make your acts serious examples of the offence of sexual assault of a child under 16 are:
First, the gross betrayal of the trust that Breanna and her mother had in you as Ms McKnight's living partner;
Next, the difference in age of 28 years between you and Breanna;
Next, the exploitation by you of Breanna's vulnerability as a child when you sought her out in her bed during the night or when you were alone in bed with her by chance;
Next, the fact that the offending occurred in places in which she was entitled to feel safe - in her own home, in her own bed and in her mother's bed;
Next, the severe impact on Breanna and her mother; and
Lastly, while all sexual touching the child is serious offending, Charge 3 is made more serious by the pressure you put on her vagina, causing her pain and charge 5 is made more serious by your persistence in continuing despite Breanna asking you to stop.
Based on those factors and my own assessment of them I accept the prosecution submission that the offending overall is at the mid-range of seriousness for this type of offence, which I acknowledge can cover a variety of acts.
However, I must take into account the matters that have been submitted on your behalf in deciding the appropriate sentence.
Personal circumstances
The first of these matters is your personal circumstances.
You are now aged 37 years. You described your childhood in your typed personal history[11], which you affirmed as true at the plea hearing, and to medical and nursing staff at Eastern Health in February 2022[12], and to Mr Simmons, psychologist, who provided a report to the court.[13] If accepted, that history shows that you grew up in a household characterized by family violence, sexual abuse of you, your mother and your younger brother, and alcohol and drug misuse.
[11] Exhibit 1 on the plea
[12] Exhibit 4 on the plea
[13] Exhibit 3 on the plea
Summarising the detail as best I can, you were born into and grew up on circumstances of family violence, alcoholism, and disrupted schooling due to the many moves that your mother made, including interstate, fleeing from discovery by your father.
Your parents were both alcoholics, and you suggest your father also abused drugs. They met when they were both in a rehabilitation clinic. You were born in Frankston but your mother left your abusive father, when you were less than 2 years old, and while pregnant with your younger brother. You say that you have only met your father three times since, and what you described are significant and traumatic meetings.
Your mother’s subsequent relationships also involved family violence and alcohol abuse. You say that your first actual father figure was your mother’s third husband, F, with whom you lived until almost 10 years old. F had two older children from a previous marriage. You thought his daughter, 12-13 years older than you, was very nice to you, but realised when you were much older that the ‘secret fun time’ she had with you when you were aged about 4-5 years was sexual abuse. You told your mother after your realisation, but she did not believe you.
Your mother had previously borne a son with another man, but that half-brother spent limited time with you as a family. He sexually abused you when you were aged 6-7 and your younger brother, then aged 4-5 years, although you say that your abuse was not disclosed at the time. Shortly afterwards, your half-brother was sent to live with his father.
By the time you were 9 years old, the marriage of your mother and F ended, due to their alcoholic lifestyle. Apparently, F abused your mother in a number of ways, such that on occasion she slept with you in your bed. After the break up, your mother moved with you and your younger brother to a larger town in Queensland. You describe the adjustment involved in that move as cruel.
It was at the new school that you first experienced bullying. You say that up until then you were a good student, although you say no-one in the family was interested in your achievements. You began acting up at school and fighting was part of every day. Police and counsellors became involved and you were often suspended from school. It was at this time that you were apparently diagnosed with ADHD/Borderline Control Disorder and placed on medication that you say only seemed to make things worse. You began running away from home.
Around this time, when you must have been about 10 years old, your father re-entered your life and you spent some time with him. You say that he appropriated and abused the medication prescribed for your diagnosis. On one occasion that you were staying with him, he showed you guns, and drove you back to your mother, apparently committing crimes along the way. Although your mother wasn’t expecting your father to return with you, he stayed on and for a while things were relatively stable. It was the first time your younger brother had met his father.
However, you describe an extreme episode of family violence between your parents, ending with your mother in hospital, and your father in prison. You, your mother and younger brother moved again, back to a town close to where you had spent the years with F. You were still only 11 years old.
You describe your father finding you again, after a period in gaol, and things again became violent between your parents. This time, it caused a division in the family, with your younger brother wanting to be with his father, and you and your mother escaping to F’s house. That also ended in violence between your mother and F, and you and your mother fled to a friend’s house. There she met L, and commenced a relationship with him.
After a period of undertaking your schooling by correspondence, you returned to Grade 6 in a new school at the age of 12. You say you caused a lot of trouble at this school, and ultimately were expelled.
Unfortunately, the relationship between your mother and L was also a violent and alcoholic one. It culminated in you seriously assaulting L after he seriously assaulted your mother, resulting in the hospitalisation of both of them. For a period of time, you were in foster care, or staying with your grandmother. While in foster care, you learned that your younger brother was alleging that your father had abused him, and your brother returned to you and your mother.
At the age of 13, you were smoking marijuana, which you have continued to do daily until you went into custody after the verdicts in this trial. Sometimes you drank alcohol, although at that time, you say you did not like it. You were expelled from school again. Your mother reunited with L, until she heard that your father might find you again, and you, your mother and younger brother returned to Victoria, to live in a small town where your mother’s first husband, and your half-brother, lived.
You hated this, and there was fierce physical fighting between you and your half-brother, and eventually between you and your mother. You were returned to foster care, and were made a Ward of the State. You often ran away and lived on the streets, except for a settled happy period of time with an older couple as your foster parents. However, you were moved from there and back to the town where your mother was living, when L re-appeared, once again resulting in an extremely violent episode that you became involved in.
At the age of 15, you gave up on school education, and began working in the tobacco farm industry. You were a hard worker but had become accustomed to alcohol. You worked mostly for one particular farmer, who later paid for you to commence a TAFE course that would qualify you to work on the repair of the machinery used in tobacco farming. Unfortunately, for a number of reasons, you were unable to finish the course and began using drugs like speed, ecstasy and cocaine. You returned to the tobacco industry and worked on a number of farms over the next three years.
Then the tobacco industry was shut down. You say you had a bad bout of depression, but then decided to take up an apprenticeship as a chef at the age of 23. You were only in that position for three months, and apparently enjoying it, when in June 2008, you were the victim of a vicious random assault which left you with a severely broken jaw and damage to your teeth. This required surgery with the insertion of three plates and 12 screws. You report that you continue to need surgery, with the most recent operation in March 2022, and that the injury has never healed properly. You continue to suffer physically, and in the opinion of Mr Simmons, likely had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder at the time. You say this event broke you, and you descended into chronic depression, further abusing cannabis and alcohol. You apparently also suffered an opioid overdose due to a mistake in the painkillers supplied to you. You have also been hospitalised twice with septicaemia relating to this injury.
You commenced a relationship with a young woman who lived in country Victoria, and you were dividing your time between Melbourne, where you were working 2 – 3 jobs, and her home town. You were still consuming a lot of alcohol and cannabis. You had a son and daughter together, and you moved to her home town and found new employment, this time as a sawyer, until the relationship broke down. Until you were found guilty in this trial, you had been able to maintain some contact with your children.
It was after the breakdown of that relationship that you met Ms McKnight.
Summary of childhood disadvantage
Turning to a summary of your childhood disadvantage. Your education reflects your transient and disrupted childhood. You reported to Mr Simmons that you attended approximately 12 primary schools. During the periods of stability, you obtained good marks and entered competitions in which you won awards. Your behaviour and resorting to violence when harassed resulted in suspensions and expulsions. You attended two secondary schools but would leave frequently. You also attended the local TAFE where you apparently attempted to complete the Year 12 equivalent but left due to substance abuse, according to Mr Simmons’ report.
You have always been able to find employment in various industries and worked hard in them.
Throughout your childhood, you have witnessed the consumption of alcohol and drugs with family and friends, and when you were 13 years old you commenced smoking cannabis. You describe yourself as a chronic smoker and at the peak of your consumption you smoked 7 grams of cannabis a day. You report taking ecstasy and amphetamines and other drugs socially. Cannabis is your drug of choice.
In terms of your alcohol consumption, you report that you initially tried to avoid it as you did not want to be like your parents. However, you did begin to consume alcohol and at the peak of your consumption you were consuming two bottles of bourbon a day.
Mental Health
You report that you suffer from mental ill health, which led to a suicide attempt this year, the day before your case was first listed for trial. You attended Maroondah Hospital (Eastern Health) and were voluntarily admitted. The nursing and medical notes of that admission are Exhibit 3 on the plea. From those, it can be seen that you were ultimately diagnosed as having Borderline Personality Disorder with mixed cluster B traits and at that time also a Substance Use Disorder. As there was no expert evidence called on the plea, and as Mr Simmons said that in his opinion there was limited evidence of any antisocial personality traits at the time of assessing you - although he recorded that he had a letter from Eastern Health - that diagnosis from Eastern Health cannot be explained further in these sentencing remarks. However, I accept the diagnosis from Eastern Health.

You were prescribed medication on discharge after spending almost a week at Maroondah Hospital, and your doctor was given a verbal handover as to your ongoing care. I have no information of your treatment, medication or mental state before you went into custody in July this year. Since entering custody you have been placed on suicide watch three times while in custody.
Findings
I am satisfied on the material before me, you had a disrupted childhood full of alcohol-fuelled family violence, which negatively impacted on your schooling and your mental health, and that you are likely to have suffered two episodes of sexual abuse while very young.
As submitted on your behalf by your counsel, the case of Bugmy is authority for the proposition that “the experience of growing up in an environment surrounded by alcohol abuse and violence may leave its mark on a person throughout life”[14] that effects of profound deprivation do not diminish over time and are to be given full weight in the determination of the appropriate sentence in every case. However, as the High Court also said, a deprived background does not necessarily have the same relevance or weight for all of the purposes of punishment.[15] This is a decision for me as the sentencing judge.
[14] [2013] HCA 37, [43]
[15] Above, [44]
- Exposure to family violence
Research cited in The Bugmy Bar benchbook[16] shows that exposure to family violence can have a range of impacts on a child's behaviour, including increased aggression, lack of emotional control, destructive behaviours, depression and poor mental wellbeing, low self-esteem, low school attendance and bullying. The Bench book goes on to say that
“There is evidence of a link between exposure to family violence in childhood and intergenerational transmission of violence as well as drug and alcohol abuse. Children whose formative years are affected are vulnerable to developing long term mental health issues, which is itself a risk factor for both experiencing and perpetrating family violence.”
[16] Publicdefenders.nsw.gov.au
- Early exposure to alcohol and other drug use
Further, the Benchbook[17] describes that the direct effects of early exposure to alcohol and other drug use may include emotional and physical abuse, maltreatment, modelling of poor drinking and substance abusive behaviours, inadequate supervision and separation from parents due to incarceration and hospitalisation.
[17] Above
In his report Mr Simmons provided the opinion that your childhood would have left you vulnerable to substance abuse, in keeping with the research I just referred to. He also thought that your ADHD, which I mentioned in the written reasons, may have led you to use substances as a form of self-medication.
- Impacts of childhood sexual abuse
As to the impacts of childhood sexual abuse, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found that trauma may interrupt normal psychosocial development and affect biological, social and psychological development of a child. It is a substantial risk factor for the development of subsequent mental health problems, including major depression, increased risk of alcohol and drug dependence, aggressive behaviours and social anxiety.[18]
[18] Above
- Interrupted school attendance
Research also shows that the negative impacts of interrupted school attendance and suspension are varied and may include that diminished educational outcomes are a predictor for future contact with the criminal justice system.[19]
[19] Above
What I find from your childhood experiences, Mr Taylor, and from what the research and the law says about the potential effect of deprivation and social disadvantage as a child, is that you are likely to have been marked by those experiences. This does not provide an excuse for your criminal behaviour, but provides some explanation as to why at the age of 34 years, you committed sexual offences against a child, never having done so before.
After assessment of all the relevant factors, including your personal circumstances, I find that while your offending on all charges is serious, your moral culpability is slightly reduced because of the impact on you of your disadvantaged childhood.
Other sentencing factors
- Criminal history
I turn to other sentencing factors. I take into account that you have a criminal history but have never committed a sexual offence of any kind before, and so I consider that record to be effectively irrelevant.
- Prospect of rehabilitation
Next, as to your prospects of rehabilitation, Mr Simmons thought you would benefit from a longitudinal assessment about your offending and appropriate treatment thereafter. Using the tools of measurement available to him, Mr Simmons assessed you as being of average risk of reoffending relative to other adult male sex offenders.
While you have been in custody you have undertaken a number of courses. From the way you wrote your personal history I consider you to be intelligent, and have considerable written and language skills despite your disrupted education. That level of intelligence and your preparedness to do hard jobs in employment, will stand you in good stead on your release.
It is difficult to assess your prospects of rehabilitation, as your risk of reoffending in the same way would be reduced by undertaking treatment in custody, for which you would not be eligible while you deny the offending. Despite that, the sentence I will impose will provide the opportunity for you to maximise your chances of rehabilitation.
- Protection of the community
I must also consider protection of the community from you and attempt to assess the likelihood of your risk of reoffending in the same way. I consider that without treatment there is a risk of you committing sexual offences against a child of a person you are in a relationship with in future.
- Custody
I take into account that you have gone into custody for the first time and that you entered prison at a time when the pandemic was still a factor affecting prisoners and prison management. Further, you have lost contact with your former housemate and do not know where your belongings and car have ended up. Your only contact is with your mother with whom, despite everything, you still have a relationship, but contact is apparently not easily established with her because of the type of phone she has.
- Sex offender registration
As a result of my sentence today, you become a registerable sex offender. You will be required within seven days of your release from custody to report your personal details and begin a regime of annual reporting required by the Sex Offenders Registration Act and be otherwise subject to the Act for the rest of your life. Because you are appearing via video link, I do not require you to sign an acknowledgment of receiving the form advising you of your reporting obligations. That form will be provided to you through Corrections Victoria.
- Serious sexual offender
On being sentenced to imprisonment on the first two charges, you are to be sentenced thereafter on the remaining charges as a serious sexual offender. That means the protection of the community from you is the principal purpose for which sentence is imposed on those charges. In order to achieve this purpose I have the power to impose a sentence greater than is proportionate to your offences. However, the prosecution do not seek that, and I do not intend to do that, as I consider there is adequate protection for the community in the sentence I will impose without disproportionate sentences.
It is also necessary for the sentences I impose on Charges 3, 4 and 5 to be wholly cumulative unless I order otherwise, because of your status as a serious sex offender on those charges. Because of the factors that operate in your favour I have decided to order some concurrency. In saying that I have also had regard to the limits that the serious sex offender sentencing regime generally places on the application of the principle of totality.[20]
[20]HMcL v R (2000) 174 ALR 1, [76]: Gordon [2013] VSCA 343, [74]
- Standard sentence
As sexual assault of a child under 16 is a standard sentence offence, I must consider the standard sentence of 4 years' imprisonment for each charge amongst the other factors to take into account when deciding what the appropriate sentence is in your case.[21]
[21] Section 5(2)(ab) Sentencing Act
While the offending is objectively at the mid-range of seriousness, the sentences I will impose on each charge will be less than the standard sentence. Having identified and considered what I find to be the relevant factors in assessing the sentence on each charge, including my assessment as to the serious nature of the offending and your slightly reduced moral culpability, I have formed the conclusion that these sentences are appropriate.
- Denunciation and deterrence
The court must denounce your offending, and impose a sentence that is just in all the circumstances and that reflects the community's abhorrence of sexual offending particularly against children. Further, by my sentence I must seek to deter you and other men from sexual offending against children. I do not consider that your background mitigates these purposes of sentencing.
- Sentence
As I said at the last hearing, the only appropriate sentence is one of immediate imprisonment. Would you stand up, please, Mr Taylor?
You are convicted and sentenced as follows:
on Charge 1 of sexual assault of a child under 16 - 2 years 3 months' imprisonment;
on Charge 2 of sexual assault of a child under 16 - 2 years 3 months' imprisonment;
on Charge 3 of sexual assault of a child under 16 - 3 years 3 months' imprisonment;
on Charge 4 of sexual assault of a child under 16 - 2 years 3 months' imprisonment;
on Charge 5 of sexual assault of a child under 16 - 3 years' imprisonment.
The sentence of 3 years 3 months on Charge 3 is the base sentence. I direct that 6 months of the sentence imposed on Charges 1 and 2, 1 month of the sentence imposed on Charge 4, and 10 months of the sentence imposed on Charge 5 be served cumulatively on the sentence imposed on Charge 3 and on each other. That makes a total effective sentence of 5 years 2 months.
Because these are standard sentence offences I must fix a non-parole period of at least 60 per cent of that head sentence unless it is not in the interests of justice to do so. I find it is not in the interests of justice to set a non-parole period of at least 60 per cent because of the personal factors in your background, and I will set a slightly shorter non-parole period than 60% of the head sentence.
I therefore direct that you serve 2 years 9 months before becoming eligible for parole.
I declare that you have served 144 days in pre-sentence detention not including today. These will be deducted administratively from your sentence.
I declare that you have been sentenced on Charges 3, 4 and 5 as a serious sexual offender and that this be entered into the record of the court.
Are there any other orders required?
MS STRUTHERS: Only the SORA provisions, Your Honour. Is it - - -
HER HONOUR: Yes.
MS STRUTHERS: My understanding is it's reporting for life.
HER HONOUR: Yes, I have included that in my sentencing remarks.
Thank you.
MS STRUTHERS: Thank you, Your Honour.
HER HONOUR: And that will be noted on the record. Mr Taylor, thank you. You can take a seat again. Mr Hands, I will, as I said, provide the written reasons to you and if you wish to provide those to Mr Taylor you, of course, can do so.
MR HANDS: Yes, I will, Your Honour.
HER HONOUR: Thank you. All right. I apologise for the speed at which that was executed but it was necessary before we lost the link to the prison.
MR HANDS: Thank you very much, Your Honour.
HER HONOUR: If there is nothing - thank you. If there is nothing further then I thank everyone for their attendance once again.

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[2022] VCC 2313

16 December 2022