Director of Public Prosecutions v Tewksbury (a pseudonym)

[2016] VCC 1918

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

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

CHARLIE TEWKSBURY (a pseudonym)

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JUDGE:	HER HONOUR JUDGE GAYNOR
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	9 December 2016
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Tewksbury (a pseudonym)
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2016] VCC 1918

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:
Catchwords:
Legislation Cited:
Cases Cited:
Sentence:

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Ms I. Blackie
For the Accused	Ms V. Ash

Pages 1 - 18

 

 

HER HONOUR:

1Charlie Tewksbury[1], you have pleaded guilty before me to one charge of producing child pornography, four charges of committing an indecent act with a child under 16, two charges of incest, and one charge of possessing child pornography.

[1]Charlie Tewksbury is a pseudonym.

2The facts underlying your offending are as follows.  At the time of this offending you were living with your wife, Emily Merriman[2], who you married in 2011, and her two children, a son, Kai[3], and a daughter, Katie[4], who is the complainant in this offending.  During the course of your relationship you lived with your wife and her children in Maddingley.  Both you and your wife worked shift work as part of your employment, and were often not at home at the same time, and your wife also had a keen interest in horses that she owned and tended to on a daily basis at a different property to where you resided.

[2]Emily Merriman is a pseudonym.

[3] Kai is a pseudonym.

[4]Katie is a pseudonym.

3Police attended your address on 29 July 2015, executing a Commonwealth search warrant which had been issued on information that you were accessing child pornography via the internet.  At the house police discovered an iPhone and iPad owned by you on which child pornography the subject of Charge 8 was found, and which you admitted to possessing.  You were arrested and taken to the Bacchus Marsh Police Station for interview, and while being processed provided police with passcodes for applications on your iPhone.

4Once that phone was analysed, several video files showing you performing sexual acts with your stepdaughter were discovered.  Police reattended your house, where Katie confirmed this to police.  You were interviewed, charged, and bailed, and an intervention order taken out against you.

5The next day Katie made a statement via Video Audio Recorded Evidence (a VARE) in relation to this matter.  She said that during 2012 while the family were living at a different address, she was twelve and in Grade 6, and went through a phase where she would forget to change her underwear.  You found this out and would make her change in front of you, getting her to slowly undress, stopping at her bra and underwear, then would ask to kiss her "bum", "boobs", and if you could see her naked.  She said that during 2012, 2013 and 2014 you regularly pleaded and begged her to take part in sexual acts which included kissing her breasts, vagina, and buttocks, as well as asking to look at her private body parts.

6Charge 1, producing child pornography, relates to activities by you between 11 July 2012 and 1 February 2015. In that time you recorded several videos involving sexual acts with Katie which were located on your iPhone, and edited versions of them on your iPad.  They included:

(i) a video of you massaging her back, legs, and inner thighs;

(ii) a video of her vagina;

(iii) a video of you performing oral sex on Katie, these actions being the subject of Charge 3;

(iv) a video of you massaging her inner and outer thighs just below the vaginal and anal regions;

(v) a video of you massaging her inner thighs and pulling the buttock cheeks apart to expose the anus and vaginal regions;

(vi) a video of you using your fingers to feel and part the lips of Katie’s labia, which actions underlie Charge 6;

(vii) a video of Katie in the shower, with a focus on her vaginal area, which was filmed covertly from outside, lasting approximately 9 minutes; and

(viii) a video of Katie sitting naked in the bath, shaving her legs, which you recorded while standing outside the house and filming through the window. During the filming, which lasted about 5 minutes, you focused on her genital and breast areas.

7Police analysing material on your iPad found a PowerPoint-type presentation of images showing Katie's face at the start with wording similar to "14-year-old willing to share", which then continued to show pornographic images of Katie.  Another PowerPoint-type presentation was located on your iPad showing child pornography images which were set to music with writing on the screen indicating "fun times".  You also had an internet drop-box account which contained 110 child pornography videos, which underlies Charge 8, possession of child pornography, which you admitted at least one other person had access to, and which included the video of Katie naked in the bath.  Katie was not aware of any video recordings until after your arrest, and was aged between 12 and 14 when the videos were made.

8Charge 2, indecent act with a child under 16, occurred between 11 July and
31 December 2012.  During this time, when Katie was 12, you asked if you repeatedly asked her to look "down there", in the face of her persistent refusals, at one stage she beginning to cry.  You told her "It will be really quick, two seconds," and that it would be over and done with if she just agreed.  Katie was on the couch.  You asked her to spread her legs, and you took off her pants and kissed on the vagina "for about two seconds".  Katie then pulled up her pants, telling police she felt really uncomfortable and found this "disgusting".

9Charge 3, incest by a step-parent, occurred between 11 July and 31 December 2012.  Again, Katie was twelve and you were aged forty-two or forty-three.  You licked and inserted your tongue into her vagina.  You created a video of this episode lasting approximately seven minutes.  I have viewed the video.  It shows Katie, visibly distressed, lying on her back on a bed wearing her school windcheater, with you kneeling beside her.  You pulled down her trackpants and her underwear, which she initially attempts to hold onto. You then pull the underwear down, and Katie tries to cover her vagina with the windcheater, and tries to retreat, covering her mouth with her hand, and shaking her head. You then kiss her vaginal area, lift her legs, remove her underwear to her ankles, separate her legs, kiss the inside of her thighs, and lift her legs over your head so her calves are resting on your shoulders.  You then kiss her inner thighs, moving your head towards her vagina, then insert your tongue into Katie's vagina, before getting up from the bed and pulling up her underwear.  This incident was described by Katie in her VARE statement.

10Charge 4, indecent act with a child under 16 years, is a representative charge comprising two such acts between 11 July 2014 and 1 February 2015.  During this period Kaite was fourteen, you were forty-four.  On one occasion you took Katie to your former address, specifically her bedroom, where you pulled down her pants, closed the bedroom blinds, and turned on the flashlight of your phone.  You looked at her vagina for several minutes, using the flashlight, while Katie told you to stop, and touched her on the vagina with your fingers as you looked.  On another occasion when Katie was in your bedroom you asked to have a "look down there", to which she replied "No", your offering increasing sums of credit on her phone, ultimately $50, which you then paid, persuading her to cooperate and began looking at her vagina as she lay on the bed with her pants down and legs spread.  You touched her vagina with your fingers while you looked.

11Charge 5, indecent act with a child under 16, occurred between 11 July 2014 and 1 February 2015.  You had often asked to kiss Katie's breasts, and did so a number of times, either pulling her clothes and bra up or down, and would sometimes kiss both breasts and sometimes using more of your mouth and lips to kiss the nipple area.  Katie recalled an occasion when she was fourteen, and you being in her bedroom and refusing to leave until you were able to kiss her breasts.

12Charge 6, incest by step-parent, occurred between 11 July 2014 and
1 February 2015 when Katie was aged fourteen and you were forty-four.  You inserted your fingers into her vagina.  A video of approximately four minutes was located of you performing this act, showing a close-up of a girl's vagina and a man's right thumb and forefinger parting the lips.  During the video Katie can be heard crying, and you saying things such as:

"What's the matter Katie?  Is this really bad is it?  Katie?  Move your leg. Come on, put it down there.  Put it down.  Come on.  Remember the sooner it's done the sooner you can go back to doing what you want."

13I have viewed this video, in which Katie can be seen covering her face with a pillow and crying, during which you are saying:

"Do you want to know something katie? If you opened it a bit wider now we would be finished by now."

14     Katie can also be heard saying, through her crying, "Stop it," and your fingers and thumb are seen entering Katie's vaginal lips, parting the labia and holding them open.  At this point Katie can be heard crying hysterically.  In her VARE statement Katie described this incident, saying she felt very uncomfortable, and recalled crying at times.  This video footage also forms part of the charge of producing child pornography.

15Charge 7, indecent act with a child under 16 years, is a representative charge involving two occasions of offending between 1 January and 1 February 2015.  You kissed Katie on her naked buttocks a number of times over the years, regularly asking to do so, to which she would say "No,", saying she did not like it.  Katie recalled two specific occasions.  In January 2015, when she was fourteen and you were forty-four, the two of you were alone in her bedroom and you asked to kiss her on the buttock, although she said "No."  You continued to ask, saying it would only take two seconds, and she agreed so you would stop asking and to get you to leave the room.  You asked Katie to bend over the bed while she was wearing shorts.  She asked why you could not just do it while she was lying down, and you said "I don't know, just because," and encouraged Katie to "get it over and done with or we would be here a long time."  You then pulled down her underpants and shorts to her thigh area as she bent over, spread her buttock cheeks apart, and kissed her in the centre of the anus area.  You did this on a second occasion during the same month.  In the video footage located on your iPhone you can be seen kissing Katie's buttocks after massaging her.

16Charge 8, knowingly possess child pornography, relates to images and movies contained within your Apple iPad which were categorised into levels in accordance with the Australian National Victim Image Library/Child Exploitation Tracking System.  There were all of child exploitation material:

(i) 2048 images which fell under Category 1, no sexual activity;

(ii) 4 images which fell under Category 2, where there is a child but no penetration;

(iii) 43 images in Category 3, which involved an adult but no penetration;

(iv) 86 images showing penetration of either a child or an adult; and

(v) 6 images involving sadism or bestiality.

17There were:

(i) 44 movies which involved no sexual activity;

(ii) 19 movies involving children but without penetration;

(iii) 31 movies involving adults but without penetration; and

(iv) 41 movies involving children or adults where sexual penetration occurred.

18Movies contained within your Apple iPhone comprised:

(i) 5 movies where no sexual activity was involved;

(ii) 5 movies which featured adults but without penetration; and

(iii) 3 movies involving children or adults where penetration occurred.

19I make it clear that all the material I have described was sexual in nature.  The ages of the children in the images and movies ranged from babies and toddlers to late teens, and included child exploitation material of both males and females.

20In your record of interview in relation to the possession of child pornography you said that you downloaded it through a Russian website over a period of about 1 to 2 years, admitting that there were videos of girls and boys, that they were naked, and anywhere from babies in nappies to small children to 18-year-olds.  You said you commented on photographs on the site KIK, that people sent videos to your drop-box and you left them there.  You said were not a hundred per cent sure why you did this and denied you obtained any sexual gratification from it, saying that you were simply being inquisitive.  You said you put a file into your drop-box containing the video of Katie naked in the bath by accident, were not sure how you had done it, but admitted at least one other person had access to that drop-box.

21In relation to the 7-minute video of the incest charge that underlies Charge 3, you denied ever touching Katie's vagina with your lips or tongue.

22In relation to the 4-minute video underlying Charge 6, incest, you denied ever penetrating her.

23In relation to other videos located, which included massaging Katie bending over different couches, you said you did not know why you did it, and that "I don't feel like answering those questions."  You admitted taking the video of Katie in the bath, and overall, when asked about why you acted in this way towards Katie, you said "Curiosity, that's it."

24The maximum penalty for producing child pornography is 10 years' imprisonment.  The maximum penalty for indecent act with a child under 16 is 10 years' imprisonment.  The maximum penalty for incest is 25 years' imprisonment.  The maximum penalty for possessing child pornography is
5 years' imprisonment, which penalty was increased to 10 years for offences committed after 1 December 2015.

25You entered a plea of guilty at a final committal mention hearing which proceeded by way of a straight hand-up brief.

26I now turn to your personal circumstances.

27You were born in Wellington and you have a sister five years older than you, with whom you had a good relationship until this offending became known.  She lives in Queensland.  You had a difficult childhood.  You understand that after the birth of your sister your parents then had a child who was born with a blood disorder who lived for a year and a day.  Your mother then did not want any further children, but became unexpectedly pregnant with you, and apparently always told you you were never meant to have been born, and that she wished that you had not been.

28Your parents separated when you were five, and you were taken by your mother to live in Australia immediately upon the divorce.  She had accounting and later computer-programming skills and was readily able to find employment.  She was extremely violent to you, both physically and emotionally.  On arrival in Australia your mother settled in Housing Commission accommodation in Sydney, but moved around a great deal, and often sent you and your sister to live with your aunt in Melbourne for months at a time, which was the only stability you then experienced.  Your schooling was hugely interrupted.  You would often return from your aunt's home to a new house and a new school, therefore had difficulty making friends, and were often bullied.  

29When you were ten your father came from New Zealand to take over care of you because your mother said she had lost patience as you were often in fights at school and were classified as uncontrollable.  You were sent to a BoysTown accommodation where you lived from ages 12 to 15.  Your time there was marked by violence, both from teachers and other boys, and in particular you were regularly raped by a group of boys whilst you were there and in addition you formed an inappropriate sexual relationship with a 28-year-old female teacher.

30Eventually your father decided to return to New Zealand, and, as it was a requirement that any BoysTown resident must also have a parent resident in New South Wales, you were forced to leave.  Your mother had by then moved to Victoria and you joined her, and as BoysTown was run by the Salesian Catholic teaching order, it was organised that you attended their college in Chadstone.

31You dropped out during Year 10 and commenced a cabinetmaker apprenticeship, completing a year at Access Office Furniture in Oakleigh.  By this stage you were living in a boarding house, where you met a co-boarder whose family came from an outback town in Queensland, and you returned with him to his parents' farm, where you worked as a jackaroo for six months.  You then returned to Melbourne and worked for a newsagency for about a year.  After a chance visit to the Ashton Circus you were taken on after your application as a tent-hand.  You were required to obtain your licence.  You began driving trucks.  You remained with the circus for eight months, then returned to Melbourne after the circus closed to live with a cousin in Lilydale.

32She shared a flat with a female friend who worked as a prostitute.  Drugs were used at the flat, and you rang your father to get you out of the situation.  He arranged for you to go to Queenstown, New Zealand in 1989, and you stayed there until January 2007, during which time you worked for a debt collector, mainly in driving duties.  Your employer had significant links to several criminal bikie gangs and other criminal organisations.  You eventually became disturbed by what you saw and got out of the situation by returning to Australia.

33During those years you had formed a relationship of which a daughter was born.  You continued to have a relationship with her over the years.  She now has a child herself, but that relationship with her ended on the revelation of your offending against your stepdaughter.

34When you returned to Australia you lived with your cousin in Mount Waverley and obtained a job as a driver at Patrick's stevedoring company on the docks.  Thereafter you have continued to work on a continual basis as a truck driver, including regular interstate driving.

35You met your wife on the internet and the two of you lived in the two addresses in Maddingley that I have described until your arrest for this offending.  You were then bailed to live at a friend's house in Bacchus Marsh, but you have essentially filled in your time by working as much as you can, on several occasions driving from interstate to attend court hearings.  You have continued to make financial contributions to your former wife and her children.

36You received some counselling during this time after developing suicidal ideation, the emotional cost to you of your offending having been extremely high.  As I have said, your sister and your daughter refuse to have any relationship with you, and in addition you understand that your offending has been made known to criminal elements in New Zealand relating to your former employment, and you have received a number of identified threats to your safety via text message.

37Your counsel, in a very full plea, told me you hated yourself for what you had done, and on each occasion vowed you would not repeat your actions, but went on to do so.  The offending against your stepdaughter had apparently ceased some months prior to your arrest.

38Your counsel correctly submitted that in sentencing you I should take into account your early plea of guilty and your cooperation with police, which saved your stepdaughter both the stress and trauma of cross-examination and the community the time and expense of a trial.

39You have no drug or alcohol issues, although you occasionally use marijuana.

40You have two old prior convictions from 1989 for drunkenness, resisting arrest, theft of a motor car, and going equipped to steal; none of which, in my view, have relevance to the sentencing exercise before me.

41Defence counsel also referred me to several sentencing authorities from the Victorian Court of Criminal Appeal, beginning with the case of Stewart v R [2015] VSCA 368, where the Court approved a passage from the joint judgment of Redlich and Tate JJA in Marrah v The Queen [2014] VSCA 119, where at paragraphs [16]—[17] their Honours stated:

"Circumstances of deprivation, abuse and other social disadvantage occurring during an offender's formative years are more than matters of historical significance to the administration of justice."

The Court stated:

"The common experience of the law is that very frequently such disadvantage precedes the commission of crime, and often explains and contributes to an offender's criminal behaviour."

They went on to say:

"Though they do not provide an excuse for offending behaviour, they must be given due weight in the sentencing calculus.  That is not to say that an offender's social disadvantage has the same mitigatory relevance for all of the purposes of punishment.  It may so explain the offender's conduct that the offender's moral culpability may be substantially reduced, yet it will increase the importance of protecting the community from the offender.  It will not diminish the need for the sentence to vindicate the dignity of a victim and reflect the community's disapproval of the offending."

The Court went on to say:

"It will ordinarily be desirable that a sentencing judge make clear in the reasons for sentence the extent to which the offender's deprived circumstances have moderated the weight given to personal and general deterrence."

42At paragraph [26] of Stewart his Honour Maxwell P stated:

"Sentencing courts are obliged to take into account circumstances of hardship and deprivation, and routinely do so."

43Additionally I was referred to the case of R v AWF [2000] VSCA 172, where his Honour Chernov JA referred to expert psychological evidence in that case as to previous sexual abuse suffered by that appellant as a child and its effect or the part it played in his subsequent sexual abuse of his own stepchildren. At paragraph [29] his Honour referred to the psychologist Professor Ball's opinion that:

"[I]t was well known that, for complex reasons, 'there is an association between having been personally abused and the tendency to abuse'."

44The Court in that case held that the sentencing judge had failed to take into account that opinion, that is, the evidence given by Professor Ball on the plea, that:

"[I]t is common that early experiences of sexual abuse appeared to lead to a failure to develop appropriate inhibitions and led to offending conduct in later life."

45In the case of GEM v R [2010] VSCA 168 at paragraph [9] the Court of Appeal also also referred to the syndrome of sexual abuse victims then going on to abuse others, saying that the weight given to this factor would vary from case to case, but also stating that expert evidence would be critical as to the nexus in a particular case.

46Certainly I do take into account, in sentencing you, your very traumatic history, but note that no psychological material was tendered on the plea as to the effect this had on you, and in particular no material as how this then contributed to you going on to sexually abuse your own stepdaughter in the way described.  Your counsel did submit personal testimony given by you to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse which graphically outlined the abuse you suffered at BoysTown in Engadine, New South Wales.  You described how two boys aged about 14 or 15 secured your arms and legs and raped you orally and anally, threatened you, should you disclose the abuse, and then repeated the exercise about six more times in the following two years.  You described being initiated into sex by the older female teacher and the actions of a priest, a dormitory supervisor, who when boys were showering insisted on the doors being fully open, and would insist you cleaned your genitals properly to the point that you were "essentially masturbating in front of him".

47As I have said, I certainly accept that you were yourself seriously sexually abused as a child, as well as suffering considerable abuse and neglect at the hands of your mother.  I do take this material into account in determining the appropriate sentence upon you, but note again that no psychological material has been led on the plea in relation to its specific effect upon you and any part it may have played in the subsequent abuse of your stepdaughter.

48A victim impact statement from your former wife was tendered on the plea, which unsurprisingly described a grievous effect emotionally and financially.  She now suffers depression and anxiety for which she is prescribed medication, attends upon a psychologist, and wrote of her daughter's panic attacks and anxiety, noting that only recently had her daughter allowed her to take her to a doctor.  She has become socially isolated and feels unsafe, and it appears has suffered from phone contact by you where you have threatened to commit suicide, telling her it would be on her conscience if you did so.  The loss of the second income has resulted in hardship with house repayments.  She has had to get her son into employment to help with the mortgage, as well as take in boarders.

49It appears the only remaining support to you now is your father, who occasionally telephones you from New Zealand.  It also appears that you are likely to face deportation to New Zealand as a result of this offending as you do not have Australian citizenship.  It is clear (see the case of Guden v R [2010] VSCA 196) that this is a matter that a sentencing court should take into account both in terms of impact it will have during your offending and the impact on your release. At paragraph [27] the Court stated:

"As the Crown properly conceded on this appeal, the fact that an offender will serve his/her term of imprisonment in expectation of being deported following release may well mean that the burden of imprisonment will be greater for that person than for someone who faces no such risk."

50The prosecution correctly, in my view, submitted this was case involving a gross breach of trust.  It submitted that your plea of guilty was made in the face of a strong Crown case, given that the offending contained in Charges 1, 3, 6, 7 and 8 were evidenced by images on your phone, rendering a plea of not guilty, it was submitted, hopeless in the circumstances.

51The prosecution submitted that deportation was of lesser hardship in your case, as you were not being separated from family, given that you had family in New Zealand, , and given that you had lived in New Zealand for a substantial period of time, and it was not a third-world country.  Most importantly, the prosecutor referred to the decision of DPP v Dalgliesh (a pseudonym) [2016] VSCA 148 where the Court of Criminal Appeal, in discussing the sentences imposed for mid-range incest, urged sentencing courts (paragraph [131]) to:

"by increments, increase the sentences for mid-range incest offences, so that the range of sentences is uplifted and substantially expanded."

52The Court in that case said that such sentences had been inappropriately compressed by sentences for worst category offending (see paragraph [130]), and that the sentencing practice which had developed was:

"not a proportionate response to the objective gravity of the offence, nor does it sufficiently reflect the moral culpability of the offender. Sentences for incest offences of mid-range seriousness must be adjusted upwards."

53It was the prosecution submission that your offending did fall in the mid-range of offending of this kind, it being offending which had spanned several years and which was carried out in the face of distress, and also involved filming by you without the knowledge of your stepdaughter, which the prosecution submitted showed an additional lack of respect.

54I do accept the defence submission that the cessation of this offending is a relevant matter that I must take into account, but do not accept his submission that your offending was at the lower end of the scale of incest both in number and form.  In my view this was protracted offending, and, having viewed the filmed material, I accept it was indeed done in the face of distress and with the assertion by you in the process of parental authority, which of course amounted in the circumstances to an abuse of that authority.

55In sentencing you of course I do take into account your plea of guilty, as I have stated, and the fact that it was entered at an early stage, notwithstanding it was also entered in the face of overwhelming evidence against you.  I accept, as I have stated also, that you had a very difficult childhood and endured serious sexual abuse, although I can draw no conclusions as to its effect on your subsequent offending.  I do note, however, that many, many years elpased before you engaged in this behaviour.  I accept that you have been a hardworking and productive member of the community, that you have no prior relevant history, but also note this is not uncommon in cases of this kind.

56I regard, as I have said, this offending as protracted and serious, and accept the prosecution submission that your filming of it and the retention of that film, and its production into a format of the kind described are aggravating features in this case; that is, that you then turned this sexually exploitative material of your stepdaughter into a PowerPoint presentation and saved it, no doubt for your later gratification, as an aggravating feature in this offending. 

57Your moral culpability, in my view, despite the mitigatory factors, is high.  Further, this was a very serious breach of trust, involving also, as was evident in the footage, use of parental authority to achieve your ends.  Indeed, the filming was a further layer of exploitation on your behalf. 

58The pornography you possessed was extensive and contained material extending to the grossest and most exploitative kind, involving babies, infants and toddlers, although that did not comprise a majority of it.  Nevertheless, the extent and quality of this material is such that this particular offending does in my view deserve a stern response.

59In sentencing I also take into account your distress at the likelihood of deportation, and accept that it will make any sentence I impose a more onerous exercise for you than for other prisoners.  However, at the end of the day I do regard this offending as most serious offending, and regard the filming of it, and retention and formatting of that filming, as aggravating, and I am satisfied this offending comprises mid-range examples of the crime of incest; a crime which, as was also noted in Dalgliesh, inevitably ends in significant harm to its victims.  It was described by their Honours at paragraph [5] as an inherent crime of violence, always involving physical subordination, even where there are no overt features of physical abuse, with long-term harm to the victim.

60There was no question but that I should deal with you by way of sentence of imprisonment to be immediately served, and taking into account both the mitigatory and aggravating features that I have outlined in this case, I therefore sentence you as follows.  Could you stand up please, sir.

61Charge 1, you are sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment.

62Charge 2, you are sentenced to ten months' imprisonment.

63Charge 3, you are sentenced to two years' imprisonment.

64Charge 4, you are sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment.

65Charge 5, you are sentenced to six months' imprisonment.

66Charge 6, you are sentenced to two years' imprisonment.

67Charge 7, you are sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment.

68Charge 8, you are sentenced to eight months' imprisonment.

69The base sentence will be the sentence imposed on Charge 6, two years.

70I order that two months of the sentence imposed on Charge 1, two months of the sentence imposed on Charge 2, eight months of the sentence imposed on Charge 3, four months of the sentence imposed on Charge 4, two months of the sentence imposed on Charge 5, four months of the sentence imposed on Charge 7, and two months of the sentence imposed on Charge 8 be served cumulatively to the sentence imposed on Charge 6 and to each other, giving a total effective sentence of four years.  I order that you serve a minimum term of two years and ten months before becoming eligible for parole.

71Pursuant to s.6AAA, I declare that had you not pleaded guilty I would have sentenced you to a term of imprisonment of five years, and I would have ordered that you serve a minimum term of three years and six months.

72Thank you.  Is there anything else?  You can have a seat please, sir.  Is there anything else that I need to - - -

73MS BLACKIE:  There's a disposal order sought, Your Honour.

74HER HONOUR:  Yes.

75MS BLACKIE:  In relation to the phone and the iPad.  If I can hand those up now.

76HER HONOUR:  I think I've got them here.

77MS BLACKIE:  Oh, great, thank you.

78HER HONOUR:  The date today is the - -

79COUNSEL:  Ninth.

80HER HONOUR:  All right, I think that's everything.  How long is it, the sex offender registry?

81MS BLACKIE:  It's for life, Your Honour.

82HER HONOUR:  You are placed on the sex offenders register for life.  Those materials will be handed to you and your counsel will explain your obligations under the register.  I'll return to you, Ms Ash, the report to the Royal Commission.

83MS ASH:  Thank you, Your Honour.

84HER HONOUR:   All done?  Thank you.  You can take Mr Tewksbury down, thank you.  Yes, thank you.

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