Director of Public Prosecutions v Tweddle

[2020] VCC 1949

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

 Revised

Not Restricted

 Suitable for Publication

AT LATROBE VALLEY

CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 19-01802

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

LACHLAN TWEDDLE

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE SMALLWOOD
WHERE HELD:	Latrobe Valley
DATE OF HEARING:	20 November 2019; 25 March 2020; 25 September 2020; 9 October 2020
DATE OF SENTENCE:	9 October 2020
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Tweddle
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2020] VCC 1949

REASONS FOR SENTENCE

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr R. Hammill	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Mr M. Ambrose	Miceal V. Ambrose & Associates

HIS HONOUR:

1Lachlan Tweddle, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of attempted armed robbery.  That crime that carries a maximum penalty of 20 years' imprisonment.  You were 19 at the time of the offending and are now 20. You pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and made admissions to police.  I have got some concerns about how much remorse you have over all this, but you certainly get the benefit of the doubt.  Clearly, there is utilitarian benefit to that plea of guilty, for which you get credit. 

2At the time of the offending, you had no prior convictions. There have been subsequent matters, and I do not think it would be fair for you to go into the details of those. 

3A summary of the offending is that on 3 May 2019, at approximately 7.22 pm, you parked your car near the Caltex petrol station in Trafalgar.  You got a wheel brace from the boot of the car and walked towards the petrol station.  After monitoring the customers for a while you went inside.  Mr Nalia was working at the petrol station, completing office work.  You were wearing a black beanie, covering the lower part of your face with holes cut for your eyes, a hoodie and blue pants and socks. 

4The victim stood up when you came inside, you pointed the wheel brace at him, and he thought it was a gun.  He immediately hit the emergency button, locked himself in the side office.  He took the view, understandably, that you were going to shoot him.  You did not take anything.  You tried to access the till; however, it was locked.

5He came out of the office once he heard a beeping sound, which indicated that you had left.  You were located because police found a green Marist schoolbag, in suspicious circumstances, with your name written on it.  Once that was found, it became clear who was involved, and you confessed.  Obviously, the offending is fairly naïve.  I accept that it was relatively unpremeditated. 

6But the fact of the matter is that you, Mr Tweddle, if you had been on the other end of that iron bar, might not have thought it was so superficial.  I regard the offending as serious. It calls for the application of general and specific deterrence, denunciation and appropriate punishment.  There is no victim impact statement before me.

7You, if I was going to incarcerate you, would have been sentenced to youth justice.  In all the circumstances, it is now something in the order of a year and a half after the event, and you have gone from 19 to almost 21; I see no point in doing that.  The matter has been delayed on a number of occasions, where you have endeavoured to achieve rehabilitation.  And I think it has reached a point where are having had you assessed you for community corrections order; that is what I will do.

8I make it clear that I read that assessment, as have counsel.  You are currently on a community corrections order in the Magistrates' Court and, as I understand it, are doing well with that. 

9Before I got into a short recapitulation of your history, I am going to indicate for these purposes, I have made it clear to you before these sentencing remarks, that were you to breach this community corrections order by offending of a violent nature, the consequences would be almost certainly very dramatic for you. 

10Your personal history is that you were born in Gippsland and grew up in Darnum.  You are one of two children.  Your mother is a registered psychiatric nurse, and your father is a truck driver.  Your mother has supported you in court before me on previous occasions, and I am well aware that there have been intervention orders and serious trouble between the two of you.

11In any event, you went to the local primary school and then Marist College in Warragul.  You left Marist College at 16 to be a boilermaker, you did that for a couple of years, you then left that employment and lived with an uncle.  You have had, since leaving school, a relatively good work history.

12Ultimately, you left that employment and you have worked at various farms in the district, drafting cattle, dehorning and similar activities.  You have not lived in the family home since you were 18 years of age and that seems to be somewhat problematic.  You were, for a period of time, living with a girlfriend. 

13I do not think I have to go through the forensic history of all the court appearances and the like.  It is a situation where up until then, you had very little in the way of, if any, a criminal history and things went pear-shaped from there. 

14The matter first came on before me in November 2019.  It became clear at that point that you were in fact released from a local psychiatric hospital to appear in court before me with, on the face of it, little support. 

15Insofar as your psychological and psychiatric history is concerned, you were diagnosed with ADHD with the age of 13.  You have been also diagnosed as having a borderline personality disorder with traits of antisocial behaviour, impulsivity and emotional dysregulation.  It seems clear that in the month or so leading up to this offending you had had a breakdown in a relationship and were using drugs, and your mental health was deteriorating. You have been admitted to Flynn Unit, as I have said, amid concerns about your ongoing mental health. 

16I have had you assessed, and you have been found to be acceptable.  The prospects of your rehabilitation are really up to you.  The risk of you reoffending will depend, I think, upon your compliance with medication and your compliance with the mental health regime that Corrections will endeavour to assist you with. 

17I have before me, the medical certificate and the discharge notice from, which clearly outline the difficulties that you have and what has been done to try and address them . 

18In the Corrections assessment, I was told, 'In discussions with Mr Tweddle in relation to the offending, Mr Tweddle describes his offending as "silly".  "He wouldn't recommend doing it", and it was a "bad idea"'.  This discussions appeared superficial and Mr Tweddle appeared to minimise his offending.  Given this and him registering as a medium risk of reoffending, the supervision condition is respectfully recommended.  I will be following that recommendation and there will be supervision.

19Also told in that report, as I had understood was going to happen but was never given any detail, is that you did attend a residential rehabilitation facility in April of this year, that you did find that beneficial.  I have no further information as to what that was all about or what transpired. 

20But in any event, I exercise, with a certain degree of mercy for one so young, I am going to give you that opportunity and it will be a community corrections order.  The order will be with conviction, it will incorporate the matters that are recommended by Corrections, being firstly, 200 work hours.  It will be the three years, if I have not already mentioned that, and it will have the further conditions of supervision, drug treatment and rehabilitation, alcohol treatment and rehabilitation and mental health treatment and rehabilitation.  This community corrections order is to run concurrently with any other community corrections order, which I understand to be the one operating from the Magistrates' Court. 

21I have been told - and I do not know whether this is still the case - that there is an element of judicial monitoring.  I hope that that is followed up. 

22In the normal course of events, I would also have judicial monitoring in the order that I am imposing, but the current circumstances in regard to COVID make that virtually unworkable.  And accordingly, I do not intend to do that. 

23All right, so they will be the conditions.  So, it will be with conviction, it will be for three years.  So, the reporting will be at Morwell.  And as I understand, the Magistrates' Court CCO is being transferred to Morwell as well.  All right, that will be the order.  I understand that your provisions now are that I can take his acceptance orally, it does not have to be signed under the new protocols.  So, do you agree to that order, Mr Tweddle?  I cannot hear, I am sorry.

24OFFENDER:  Yes, Your Honour.

25HIS HONOUR:  Yes, all right.  You clearly what I understand what I said before, if you mess this up?

26OFFENDER:  Yes, Your Honour.

27HIS HONOUR:  I think you did about 22 days last year at one stage, did you not?

28OFFENDER:  Yeah.

29HIS HONOUR:  Yes, you do not want to be doing that again because you will be in a lot more if you mess this up, all right?  All right.

30OFFENDER:  Yep, no worries, Your Honour.

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