Director of Public Prosecutions v Tregenza
[2014] VCC 565
•7 March 2014
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
AT GEELONG AND MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL DIVISION
Case No. CR-13-00539
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| JASON TREGENZA |
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JUDGE: | Sexton | |
WHERE HELD: | Geelong and Melbourne | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 3-7,10-14,17-18, 21 February, 3 March 2014 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 7 March 2014 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | ||
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2014] VCC 565 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the DPP | Mr P. Bourke for the trial and plea Ms A. Harrold for sentence | OPP |
| For the Accused | Mr J. Toal for the trial and plea Mr R. Backwell for sentence | Michael Brugman |
HER HONOUR:
1 Jason Tregenza, on the 18th of February 2014, a jury found you guilty of intentionally causing serious injury. This is a serious offence with a maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment.
2 This crime arises out of an incident that took place on 30 October 2011 in the vicinity of a house in Breakwater, a suburb of Geelong. There, a man called Douglas Farquhar was severely assaulted by three people. You maintain that you were not involved. By their verdict, the jury were satisfied that you were one of that trio.
3 You have a son named Matthew, and a daughter named Emily with your former partner, Christine Picone. Ms Picone was also found guilty by the jury of this charge and her plea will proceed on another date.
4 In October 2011, Mr Farquhar was in an on and off relationship with a Ms Lincoln, with whom he had a daughter some 14 to 15 years earlier. That daughter, Chanelle, was friendly with your daughter, Emily, and spent time with your family, including on 30 October when you all had dinner together, following your son’s return from overseas.
5 Ms Picone and Ms Lincoln had been friends for some years but Ms Picone did not like Mr Farquhar. Leading up to 30 October, Ms Picone had posted material about Mr Farquhar on her Facebook page. He was not happy about this and a dispute arose between them.
6 On 30 October, Ms Picone was walking Chanelle home to Ms Lincoln’s house with your daughter Emily, when she learned that Mr Farquhar was present at the house. She then telephoned your son Matthew, and as the jury have found, made a plan for him to come to Ms Lincoln’s house to severely assault Mr Farquhar. You were either with Matthew, or, and as the jury have found, you joined the plan after hearing of it somehow, and you and Matthew arrived at Ms Lincoln’s house, but stayed out of sight.
7 Ms Picone convinced Ms Lincoln to have Mr Farquhar come out to the driveway at the front of the house, and after he did, she asked him to come further down the driveway towards the road.
8 You and your son suddenly appeared, and I am satisfied that Ms Picone said “Get him Gonzo”, which was calling you to act in accordance with the plan, using your nickname.
9 You and your son, with Ms Picone following, chased Mr Farquhar down the driveway, through the backyard of Ms Lincoln’s house, over the side fence, and cornered him between a garage and a gate in the next door property.
10 There the three of you, acting together, immediately began assaulting Mr Farquhar, by punching, kicking and stomping on his head, continuing when he fell to the ground, and using items found in the garage as weapons, including a crow bar, and a vacuum cleaner. These are all features of the offence which make it more serious.
11 Eventually, you pulled Ms Picone away from Mr Farquhar, causing the assault to end, which is a factor in your favour. You all then left the scene.
12 A neighbour rang 000, and after police attended, Mr Farquhar was taken to hospital by ambulance and pla ced into an induced coma. He received fractures on both sides of his nose, a fracture to the right eye socket, a fracture of the jawbone, a fracture of the bone just above the teeth, broken teeth, nerve damage to teeth and concussion. He also suffered multiple small abrasions to his arms and a large laceration down to the bone on his shin, with bruising and abrasions to both thighs.
13 The facts in this case are almost sickening. You got involved in a fight at the request of your former partner, which had nothing to do with you, and for which there was no justification. There was nothing threatening said or done by Mr Farquhar before the three of you launched the unprovoked attack. There is nothing to suggest that your involvement was as a result of an outburst of anger, which would at least provide an explanation for your behaviour.
14 I am satisfied that the decision to be part of the plan, and the carrying out of that plan to seriously injure a man you had never met was a coldblooded one. You must have understood the probable consequences of your actions. I do accept that the plan was made only a short time before it was put into effect.
15 Mr Farquhar provided a Victim Impact statement. He has suffered considerably as a result of the actions of the three of you. Apart from his physical injuries, from which he still suffers unbearable headaches, with the metal plates inserted into his face sometimes aching too, he has also suffered psychologically and emotionally. He feels his personality has changed, he has lost confidence and he has severe anxiety, with nightmares and panic attacks. Mr Farquhar has resumed his relationship with his wife, and he has a 5 year old son who he feels unable to take to and from school because of his anxiety and self consciousness. He says that he has moved interstate because of his fear, and that nothing bad that has happened to him in the past, including being in prison, compares to the assault. He thought he was going to die.
16 I take these effects on him very much into account in deciding the appropriate sentence.
17 Turning to your background, I have been told something of your personal history. You will turn 40 later this month, and were aged 37 at the time of the offence. You grew up in Corio with your parents and an older brother and two older sisters. Most, if not all, of your family have been in court to support you. Within a short time of leaving school, you completed an exhaust technician’s course, and you stayed 9 years with the same employer. You then set up your own business, South Geelong Exhausts, which through your hard work has grown into a very successful business. An extra person has just been employed to assist your partner in running the business while you complete your prison term.
18 You and Ms Picone met 25 years ago, and began living together when aged 18 years. You separated about 4 years ago, but you have maintained close contact with your two children, seeing them daily when you picked up your son to take him to Gordon TAFE, and setting aside Sundays to spend with your daughter. There is a large family network on both sides of the family to take care of the children while both parents are in prison. This is a sad example of the ripple effect on a family caused by the criminal acts of members of that family.
19 Your counsel described you as an intellectually and emotionally sound and healthy man. I am told that you received facial or skull fractures in 2008 when you were thrown out of the back of a utility. You have permanently lost your senses of smell and taste as a result, but have otherwise fully recovered. The seriousness of the facial fractures suffered by Mr Farquhar should not be lost on you.
20 You have admitted a criminal record which includes wilful damage in 1992 for which you were convicted and received a community based order; recklessly causing injury in 2009, which was adjourned without conviction for a year on condition you attend anger management counselling; and contravening a family violence interim intervention order in 2011 for which you were convicted and fined $1000.
21 I accept that the 1992 offence is irrelevant for my sentence of you today, because it is more than 20 years ago, when you were about 18, and is not a violent offence. The last two are of relevance to my task of sentencing you today, as they involve violence, or threats of violence. Both arose out of arguments with Ms Picone about the children, with the 2011 matter involving physical contact by you, while the 2009 matter did not. I accept that other than this period from 2009 to 2011, including the assault on Mr Farquhar, you have not engaged in anti-social behaviour.
22 I have received a number of references from friends and associates[1] by whom you are highly regarded as a business owner, and as a family man. I accept that before your involvement in this matter your general reputation in the community was good. Only one reference refers to the crime for which you are to be sentenced, with the opinion that it was out of character and inconsistent with your reputation. If the other referees know of the offence you committed, it seems the good reputation you have with them continues, despite your involvement in savagely beating a man. If they did not know of the offence, then the value of their references is significantly reduced.
[1]Exhibit T1
23 You have made contributions to the community with your connection to the Corio Football Club, both as a player in the past, but more recently as a sponsor through your business, and in organising and attending fundraising efforts.
24 As you have a successful business to return to after you have served you sentence of imprisonment, and you have strong family support, your prospects of rehabilitation are reasonable. You have now been before a court on three occasions in respect of threatened or actual violence. These have all occurred in your thirties, at a stage of life when you should have known better, especially when you had not committed any previous violent offences. Unfortunately, it seems that all your violent offending or threatened violence has been associated with Ms Picone with her either as victim or co-accused. That will be something you will have to work through.
25 It was submitted by your counsel that the risk of you re-offending was remote. On the basis of my findings, I find you to be a low-medium risk.
26 As well as those matters personal to you to which I have referred, I must also consider the principle of deterrence. That means, by my sentence of you, I must seek to deter other men from engaging in serious violence. Even though your criminal record shows only two relevant offences occurring in the same period of time as this offence, I find that my sentence must also seek to deter you from re-offending. I do accept that the very fact of going into prison for the first time at the age of almost 40 may of itself make you think twice before committing a violent offence again.
27 Your son Matthew pleaded guilty to a charge of recklessly causing serious injury and was dealt with in the Children’s Court. His sentence can have no bearing on yours, as he was dealt with for a different charge, after a plea of guilty, under a different sentencing regime and with no criminal record.
28 While Ms Picone was the instigator of the offending, I sentence you and will sentence Ms Picone on the basis that you are equally responsible for the commission of the crime, without attributing any particular role beyond what I have already outlined. As she has not yet been sentenced, there is no consideration to be given to the principle of parity between your sentences.
29 Application has been made for an intimate forensic sample to be taken from you and you have not objected to this. I am satisfied that it is in the interests of justice, having regard to the seriousness of the offence, that in all the circumstances, I order that an intimate forensic sample, namely saliva, be taken from you. The sample may be taken by a doctor or nurse or other authorised person. A saliva sample is taken by wiping a swab inside your mouth. Although you have not objected, if you change your mind, I must inform you that the police may use reasonable force to enable such a procedure to take place.
30 Your counsel conceded that this was a serious, severe and savage assault, and that a term of imprisonment was the only appropriate sentence. He submitted that I should take into account your prospects for rehabilitation, the unlikelihood of you re-offending, and the effect on you of your passage through the criminal justice system. I have considered these matters, and already referred to them. Stand up please, Mr Tregenza.
31 Weighing up all the matters, your sentence is as follows:
32 On the charge of intentionally causing serious injury, you are convicted and sentenced to 7 years’ imprisonment.
33 I direct that you serve a minimum term of 5 years before becoming eligible for parole.
34 I declare that you have served 15 days in pre-sentence detention and these are to be deducted administratively from your sentence.
35 I have signed the forensic sample order.
36 Nothing further, Ms Harrold?
37 MS HARROLD: No, thank you, Your Honour.
38 HER HONOUR: Yes, Mr Backwell?
39 MR BACKWELL: No, Your Honour.
40 HER HONOUR: Yes, thank you, Mr Tregenza may be removed.
41 (Prisoner removed)
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