Director of Public Prosecutions v Treadgold

[2018] VCC 1000

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

AT LATROBE VALLEY
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR-17-01410

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

MARC TREADGOLD

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE SMALLWOOD
WHERE HELD:	Latrobe Valley
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	2 July 2018
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Treadgold
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2018] VCC 1000

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	Mr M. Moore	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Mr J. Sutton	Kurnai Legal

HIS HONOUR: 

1Marc Treadgold, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of criminal damage on an indictment and two summary matters, one of trespass and one of threatening words.  The criminal damage charge carries a maximum penalty of ten years' imprisonment and the two summary matters obviously could have been dealt with within that jurisdiction. 

2You pleaded guilty at a reasonably early opportunity.  The matter was originally listed for a trial.  It became clear to all concerned that you had a quite strong defence to certain aspects of it.  Common sense prevailed and the matter was satisfactorily resolved to all parties.  Accordingly you get the benefit of the plea of guilty particularly in the utilitarian sense.  You do have a significant criminal history and that is admitted.  You in fact have been sentenced by me on a number of occasions and we have gotten to the point, Mr Treadgold, where we know each other quite well.  It is going to have to stop, all right?  All right.

3That being so, you fall to be sentenced for what you did.  You are as I say well known to me and you have appeared before me in Koori Court.  We have had quite lengthy discussions between the two of us about your background, about the difficulties that you faced during your life.  You are an aboriginal man.  Your father had a stroke.  You were always embarrassed about the way you looked after him.  From that time on - that is, your mid-teens - were involved in alcohol abuse and substance abuse.  It is clear from a report of Dr Walton provided some years ago in relation to you that despite all the difficulties, you remain a fairly warm and likeable person which is unusual for someone in your circumstances. 

4I am well aware of the decision in Bugmy and other such matters.  I do not think there is any need in this particular situation to go through all the details.  What I think I will do is I will annex to the sentencing remarks my reasons for sentence from February of 2015.  Those reasons for sentence outline the various difficulties that you have had over the years. 

5The situation is that when you are at liberty, you abuse substances, you abuse alcohol and you can become extremely violent in somewhat unprovoked circumstances on occasion.  You have post-traumatic stress disorder and a number of other neurological difficulties that I do not think I have to go into again at this particular point. 

6When you were younger, you went to Wulgunggo Ngalu Learning Place and did reasonably well.  I think the last time I sentenced you it was hoped that you would be able to go back to Wulgunggo Ngalu and get some assistance in terms of you being released into the community with some sort of backup.  That failed and I have dealt with that CCO already.  You have the support still of your mother and again I think there is no need to go through all that.

7The prospects of your rehabilitation as I said to you before, Marc, are very much up to you.  I still have the real fear that if you do not get your alcohol under control, you will kill somebody.  If and when that occurs, you will not be being sentenced by me, it will be someone with the red robes on and the only person who can fix that is you. 

8The situation of this offending was that you were living at premises in Moe as I recall - anyway, living in premises in Latrobe Valley.  You went to the house, you were clearly in an unfit state.  You asked to - if a Mr Hamilton was home.  The complainant in the matter said no and told you if you came back, she would call the police.  At 7 am in the morning, you returned to the house and again asked if Mr Hamilton was home.  You were told he was not and you accused Ms King of lying to you.  You opened the security screen door and kicked in the front door, causing damage to the doorjamb.  You said that you wanted to retrieve a pair of your shoes.  You went into the house to look for your shoes but you did so without authority.

9As you entered the house while the front door was open, you said, "Is James here, I'm going to fucking kill him because he's lying to me."  At that point in time, you had no reason to believe that he was there.  That gives rise to the summary matter of use threatening words. 

10You went into the house apparently looking for Mr Hamilton but you were basically ranting and raving, as described by Ms King, looking for your pair of shoes.  Neither Mr Hamilton nor the shoes were there and you eventually left.  She phoned Traralgon police station and reported the incident. 

11You spent a significant time on remand because initially the charges involved an aggravated burglary which in my view would have been doomed to failure.  You failed to appear before me last time.  I suspect deeply that you have got other matters pending elsewhere or soon will have and I issued a warrant.  You were apprehended last week and you now come before me to be sentenced.

12The offending could easily have been dealt with in the Magistrates' Court but I can understand why it was not.  In all these circumstances, the simplest way of dealing with it is to sentence you to the time served which indicated before is probably too much for what you actually ultimately pleaded to of 189 days, and I direct that 189 days be reckoned as having been served under this sentence. 

13Pursuant to s.6AAA, I say that but for your plea of guilty, you would have been sentenced to be imprisoned for a period of nine months.

14There is no other orders I have to make?  PSD of 189, it would have to go back on - is he on remand for anything else or?

15MR SUTTON:  Your Honour, he's presently now in custody in relation to some matters in the Magistrates' Court.

16HIS HONOUR:  Yes, when - that's from Friday, is it?

17MR SUTTON:  Yes, from Friday.

18HIS HONOUR:  All right, well, I'll just make the order, make the declaration, you can go downstairs and see what you can do for him.

19MR SUTTON:  Yes, Your Honour.  Your Honour, I think he may have been on a Corrections order as I understand ‑ ‑ ‑

20HIS HONOUR:  No, I've dealt with that.  What happened - just so it's on transcript, when the matter resolved very sensibly if I might say so on that particular day, Ms Theodorakis was here and she had instructions on the CCO.  I simply confirmed the order.  So as I recollect, it's now just gone.

21MR SUTTON:  Thank you, Your Honour.

22HIS HONOUR:  Don't have to worry about that.  All right, thanks for that.  Yes, thanks, Mr Sutton.

23All right, it's up to you, my friend.  All right?  You know what's going to happen if you don't get your head together.  All right, you can take him now, thank you.

24MR SUTTON:  Your Honour pleases.

25MR MOORE:  Your Honour pleases.

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