Director of Public Prosecutions v Taylor-Pring

[2019] VCC 753

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

AT BALLARAT
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 18-02279

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

ZAC TAYLOR-PRING

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE SACCARDO
WHERE HELD:	Ballarat
DATE OF HEARING:	20 May 2019
DATE OF SENTENCE:	24 May 2019
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Taylor-Pring
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2019] VCC 753

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:  Intentionally Cause Serious Injury; Theft

Sentence:Aggregate Sentence of 38 months with a non-parole period of 20 months and 145 days deemed as served; s. 6AAA declaration aggregate sentence of 54 months with 40 months non-parole period.

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr P. Triandos	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Mr A. Grant	Emma Turnbull Lawyers

HIS HONOUR:

1Zac Eric Taylor-Pring, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of intentionally causing injury, which carries a maximum period of imprisonment of ten years, and one charge of theft, which carries a maximum period of imprisonment of
10 years.

2The circumstances of your offending are set out in the prosecution opening and involved you and your co-offender following your victim in a car, getting out of the car, chasing your victim on the street as he tried to escape, knocking him to the ground, stabbing him in the back, and stealing a bag which contained his personal items. 

3It is clear that two wounds were inflicted upon your victim, one involving a puncture wound which operated to cause a small pneumothorax and lacerations to your victim's spleen, and the other involving a slicing-type wound approximately 15 centimetres in length.

4A victim impact statement has been tendered to the court, in which your victim describes the pain he experienced during the initial phase of his treatment and his recovery, and thereafter, the conditions from which he continues to experience, namely, loss of confidence, such that he is now reluctant to leave the security of his home.

5I am satisfied, having regard to the nature of the injuries sustained by your victim, which required management by the performance of an exploratory laparoscopy and a period of four days' hospitalisation, that your offending is appropriately described as falling within the upper range of the serious offending which is encountered in charges involving intentionally causing injury, given not only the circumstances in which your victim sustained his injuries but also your callous indifference to those injuries as you left your victim bleeding on the footpath.

6You have a significant prior history.  You have appeared in the Children's Court in respect of charges of various assaults in October 2011, December 2011 and October 2012, and offences involving dishonesty in September 2012 and February 2013.

7As an adult, you have been convicted of offences involving trafficking and use of cannabis, in respect of which you received a 12-month community corrections order in July 2015, aggravated burglary, theft of a motor vehicle, and theft, in respect of which you were originally sentenced in the Magistrates' Court to an aggregate term of imprisonment of 14 months.

8That sentence was altered on appeal which was heard on 30 October 2017, and the sentence was replaced by the imposition of a community corrections order, the duration of which was 24 months.  That order was made, as I said, on 31 October 2017, only eight weeks before this offending.

9In my opinion, given the statement which was no doubt made to you at the time of the imposition of your community corrections order as to the chance you were being given by the imposition of that order, the consequences to you if you breach that order by offending which exposed you to the risk of a sentence of imprisonment, that you chose to commit this offending within such a short period of time after the making of that order involves a very significant aggravation of the offending involved in each of these charges.

10Your history is as follows.  You were born on 19 February 1997. You were 20 at the time of this offending, and you are currently 22.  You grew up in a setting of a history of family violence, visited primarily by your father upon your mother.  I accept that as a vulnerable child, you witnessed frightening and violent situations in which your mother was the victim.

11You had a difficult childhood and school life.  You changed schools on a number of occasions due to the instability of your mother's accommodation.  In Year 7, you were expelled from two different schools because of your general misbehaviour.  You did not complete your Year 8.

12Within a short period of your leaving school, you commenced abusing drugs, initially in the form of cannabis and thereafter methamphetamine, and that behaviour became an on-and-off feature of your life.

13To your credit, you did complete your Years 9 and 10 when you returned to study at a TAFE college.  At the age of 16, you gained some experience in bricklaying and welding, and then commenced an apprenticeship as a roof tiler.  You were close to completing that apprenticeship at the time in which your employment was terminated due to a sentence associated with your prior offending.

14You are the father of three children, the first of which was born in 2017.  Your wife continues to support you and visit you each week with your children.

15It is put on your behalf that the offending in this instance occurred in circumstances in which you were abusing drugs in association with the downturn in your employment, and that whilst you have been in prison, awaiting sentence, you have completed a course designed to help you plan your future.  During that time, you have submitted yourself to urine samples both in May and February which have recorded negative for the content of drugs in your urine.

16I accept these positions and give them appropriate weight in the sentence which I will impose in this instance.

17A letter was provided to me by your sister.  She speaks of your dysfunctional childhood and positively as to your intention to change the pattern of your life.  She records that process as being instigated firstly by the birth of your children.  She says that whilst you have been in custody, you have had time to reflect upon your imprisonment, your life, and that has given you the opportunity to reflect about your future conduct.

18In sentencing you, I take into account your age and the comments repeatedly made by courts as to the effect which the presence of both immaturity and social disadvantage should have as mitigating factors in the sentence which I impose.

19As to the level of your social disadvantage, although there is no medical evidence tendered on your behalf as to the way that factor operates with respect to you, I am nevertheless satisfied that that factor does have a part to play in the analysis of the reasons for your offending.

20You come before me as a youthful offender, and I am satisfied, in these circumstances, that the issue of your rehabilitation should occupy a significant position in the sentencing factors which arise in this instance.  And that whilst my obligation to make a statement that deters people from this sort of behaviour generally, and also my obligation to impose appropriate punishment, have a part to play in the sentence, the relevance of those issues is somewhat diminished by your age and the issue that arises with respect to rehabilitation by reason of that age.

21It is clear, however, given your history and the timing between this offence and the imposition of your community corrections order, which this offending breached, that the need to make a statement which is clear to you that you will not be afforded any further chances should you reoffend is a very significant sentencing factor.

22In fixing the appropriate sentence in this instance, I give due weight to the role which the immaturity associated with your age should play in the sentencing process.

23But I do so noting that whilst you were just short of your 21st birthday at the time of these offences, you did possess sufficient maturity to ensure that you were not involved in any offending for some two years between 2015 and 2017, during which time you maintained a relatively stable employment as a roof tiler.  I also note that the community corrections order which had been imposed should have operated as a constant reminder to you of the potential consequences should you decide to reoffend.

24With respect to your prospects for rehabilitation, it is clear that you do have potential to be rehabilitated, particularly should you complete your apprenticeship and gain employment in the field for which you would then be qualified.

25Whilst I accept the position put on your behalf as to the potential for those prospects, I am nevertheless satisfied that I should approach that position with considerable caution, given the circumstances of your offending and the totality of your relevant criminal history.

26There is no issue that you entered a plea of guilty at the earliest possible stage.  I am satisfied that that plea should be accorded significant value. 

27In my opinion, the matters which would assume significant weight in the sentence which I impose involve firstly the seriousness of your offences, your culpability for the commission of those offences, and the effect of your offending upon your victim; secondly, my obligation to denounce your behaviour as being totally unacceptable, and the need to deter you from further similar offending, but the need to balance against those issues the weight that should be given to your youth and your history of social disadvantage and the interests of the community which are served by ensuring rehabilitation of relatively youthful offenders.

28You have been in custody for a period of 235 days.  Only 145 days of that period involves pre-sentence detention with respect to these charges. 

29In fixing your sentence, I do so giving due weight to the relevance of the total period during which you have been detained.  I am satisfied that both of these charges arise out of the one course of conduct, and that I should impose an aggregate sentence with respect to the two charges.  In doing so, I have given careful consideration to the behaviour involved in each of the charges and allocated appropriate weight to that behaviour.

30Taking into account all the factors to which I have referred, I am satisfied that
I should impose a sentence of imprisonment in this instance of 38 months.

31I will fix a minimum period during which you are to be detained for as a period of 20 months.

32I declare 145 days as the period which should be recorded as already served with respect to this sentence.

33In fixing that minimum sentence, I have done so taking into account the fact that this is the first significant sentence you will served, and balancing the weight to be given to all the matters to which I have referred in my sentencing comments.

34In particular, I have taken into account your youth, together with the importance of your rehabilitation and the prospects of that rehabilitation.  I have also taken into account the fact that upon your release, your prospect of rehabilitation will be advanced by reasons of a longer-than-usual period during which you are the subject of some supervision, as will the safety of the community.

35But for your plea of guilty, I would have imposed a sentence of imprisonment of 54 months, in respect of which I would have fixed a minimum of 40 months.

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