Director of Public Prosecutions v Tzoumanis
[2018] VCC 554
•20 April 2018
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA AT MELBOURNE CRIMINAL DIVISION | Revised (Not) Restricted Suitable for Publication |
Case No. CR-17-00261
| IN THE MATTER OF an application under the Crimes (Mental Impairment and Unfitness to be Tried) Act 1997 DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| CHRISTOPHER TZOUMANIS |
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JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE C RYAN | |
WHERE HELD: | Shepparton | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 20 April 2018 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 20 April 2018 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Tzoumanis | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2018] VCC 554 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject: CRIMINAL LAW
Catchwords: Sentence – Stalking – Making a threat to kill – Not guilty by reason of mental impairment – Liable to supervision – Community Treatment Order – Non-custodial Supervision Order – Risk – Community Care Unit – Clozapine.
Legislation Cited: Crimes (Mental Impairment and Unfitness to be Tried) Act 1997
Sentence: Non-custodial Supervision Order nominal period of order five years with conditions.
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the DPP | Ms J. Carpenter | Office of Public Prosecutions |
| For the Accused | Ms S. Healey | Victoria Legal Aid |
HIS HONOUR:
1 Christopher Tzoumanis, on 21 August 2017, you were arraigned on Indictment C1711222 and pleaded not guilty to all charges. You were found not guilty of all offences by reason of mental impairment, based on the psychiatric reports of Dr Rita Zergiotis dated 18 August 2017 (Exhibit B) and Dr Danny Sullivan dated 2 June 2016 (Exhibit C) and the evidence of Dr Zergiotis that you were mentally impaired at the times relevant to the charges on the indictment because you suffered from schizophrenia. Contained on the indictment were four charges, being: Charge 1, stalking and Charges 2 to 4, making a threat to kill. Charge 1 was pleaded as having occurred between 1 January 2014 and
9 May 2016, whilst Charges 2 to 4 were pleaded as having occurred on 10 July 2015.
2 The facts which were relied upon to found the indictment can be simply stated. The complainant, the subject of Charge 1, was a young woman with whom you had been friends at school. In 2013 you became obsessed with her. You began to send her letters. The letters were demanding and evidenced delusional beliefs, they contained references to rape and stealing the complainant away. On four or five occasions for about an hour on each occasion you loitered in a reserve behind the complainant’s house. In the middle of 2014, you began knocking on the door to the complainant’s house, you would ask the complainant’s parents if you could see the complainant, saying that you would not leave unless you were permitted to do so. You left long letters addressed to the complainant and over a period of time the frequency of the letters left at the complainant’s home increased from monthly to fortnightly and then weekly. The letters contained symbols and references to witchcraft and Satan. Some of the letters asserted that everyone is going to die; that the complainant and her family only had a limited time to live; and that the complainant’s family would all die on 23 December 2015. Throughout 2014 and 2015 you often parked your car in the complainant’s street.
3 In the early hours of 10 July 2015, you left a backpack containing letters, envelopes, exercise books, paper, a silk sheet and a rope at the complainant’s family home. Contained within the backpack were documents that contained threats to kill the complainant and her mother and father. (Charges 2 to 4)
4 You were arrested on 11 July 2015 and were not fit for interview and were admitted to the Werribee Psychiatric Unit. When released from that unit, you continued to contact the complainant via Facebook using a false name. You also bailed up the complainant on a train and spoke to her about being Isis and yourself being Osiris. Your Facebook messages were extensive, often long and rambling. The contents of the documents revealed the machinations of a diseased mind.
5 After entering verdicts of not guilty to the offences by reason of mental impairment, I ordered that you be liable to supervision and further ordered a certificate under s47 of the Crimes (Mental Impairment and Unfitness to be Tried) Act 1997 (“the Act”) in respect to services available for you. Further, I ordered pursuant to s41 of the Act that a report be filed with the Court that was to be prepared by a registered medical practitioner in respect to your mental condition and in particular a diagnosis and prognosis of your condition, your response to treatment and therapy and a suggested treatment or plan for managing your condition. Your matter was adjourned until 19 October 2017 for these documents to be obtained and you were released on bail.
6
The matter did not proceed on 19 October 2017 owing to the unavailability of the s47 certificate and the report under s41 of the Act. Extensions of time were granted for the provision of these documents. The s47 certificate dated
30 November 2017 was received by the Court on or about that date. The s41 report dated 27 September 2017 was received by the Court on 14 November 2017 and an addendum to that report dated 21 November 2017 was received by the Court on or about that date.
7 The s41 certificate dated 30 November 2017 reads:
“There is currently no bed available at Thomas Embling Hospital, for Mr Tzoumanis to be placed in the custody of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health, through the making of a custodial supervision order or through a remand under s24(1)(b) of the Crimes (Mental Impairment and Unfit to be Tried) Act 1997.”
8 In the initial s41 report authored by Dr Lester, psychiatrist, dated 27 September 2017, reported that as at the date of his report you were compliant with your review appointments pursuant to the Community Treatment Order that you were then undergoing and further that you were compliant with your depot injection appointments. The Community Treatment Order to which Dr Lester referred was due to expire on 30 October 2017. Further, your connection with the organisation Orygen Youth Health Service had reached its two year maximum period of treatment which necessitated your psychiatric care to be transferred to your local area mental health service, being the Werribee Mercy Area Mental Health Service.
9 Dr Lester examined you on 5 September 2017 and opined:
“ There remains delusional strength beliefs in witchcraft in general and his victim and her mother being witches…. His insight in the index offences is that the victim forced him into behaving the way he did and into sending him mad.”
10 Ultimately Dr Lester opined that you presented:
“… with a low to medium risk of future violence to the general community. However, you present a medium to high risk of violence … to the victim and her family.”
11 Dr Lester recommended that you were not appropriate for a Non‑custodial Supervision Order.
12 In his subsequent report of 21 November 2017, Dr Lester, having received historical information about you from the Werribee Mercy Mental Health Service, maintained his opinion that:
“He presents with a high risk of future violence to the victim and her family, in particular of approach behaviours, threats, physical, verbal aggression, and potential serious aggression.”
13 Dr Lester recommended that you be remanded to the Thomas Embling Hospital for a period of six months and thereafter be admitted to the Werribee Mercy Area Mental Health Service Acute Unit with a view to transferring you to a secure unit bed when available. Dr Lester maintained his position that you be placed on a Custodial Supervision Order.
14 Your matter returned to Court on 13 December 2017 and Dr Singh, psychiatrist, from the South East Adult Mental Service, Saltwater Clinic, was called on your behalf as he was the doctor who was overseeing your care at the Werribee Mental Health Service. Dr Singh had little, if any, contact with you and relied upon information provided to him by others in order to report on your condition.
15 Dr Lester was called by the Crown and tendered each of his s41 reports dated 27 September 2017 and 21 November 2017 as Exhibit A. Dr Lester maintained his recommendation that a Custodial Supervision Order was the appropriate order in all the circumstances, both because of your then state of mental health together with your family history of psychiatric illness and his concern for your future suicidality.
16 The matter was adjourned to the following day, 14 December 2017, for submissions in respect to the appropriate order in your circumstances. Ultimately you were released on bail and the matter was adjourned to 6 March 2018 so that those representing you might obtain a report from Associate Professor Andrew Carroll, psychiatrist.
17 Professor Carroll’s report dated 24 February 2018 set out your psychiatric history and Professor Carroll opined that you had very poor insight into both your mental health needs and your legal predicament. He found it difficult to ascertain the extent of your then current violent ideation. Likewise, the extent to which you then demonstrated suicidal ideation was unclear and any homicidal ideation was difficult to assess.
18 As at the date of his report, you fell into a “high risk category” for violence, stalking-related violence and recurrence of stalking behaviour. However, this risk level was “eminently modifiable”.
19 Ultimately Professor Carroll opined that you were not currently an imminent risk of violence or stalking. He recommended that you be placed on a trial with the medication Clozapine as you only had partial response to the antipsychotics that you were then having administered. He recommended a Non‑custodial Supervision Order with strict conditions as appropriate in all the circumstances.
20 Having considered the report of Professor Carroll, I directed that Professor Carroll and Dr Lester confer for the purpose of considering what common ground could be settled upon between them and to isolate any differences that ultimately may remain unresolved between them.
21
On 3 April 2018, Dr Lester issued a further s41 report as a result of his conference with Professor Carroll. In that report Dr Lester noted that it was appropriate to place you on a Non‑custodial Supervision Order preferably with admission to an acute inpatient unit or a secure extended care unit (“SECU”). Further, once stabilised on the antipsychotic drug Clozapine, you could be transferred to a community care unit (“CCU”). Having had discussions with Dr Singh, there were no available SECU bed units. However, it was agreed that a referral to a CCU could be made and as at the date of your appearance on Friday, 6 April 2018, you were housed in a CCU and were being treated with the drug Clozapine. As well you were on a Community Treatment Order that commenced on or about the expiration date of the previous order being
30 October 2017.
22
In his report of 3 April 2018 Dr Lester noted your reluctance to be treated with Clozapine and to be held in a CCU. However, you were compliant with
Dr Lester’s recommendations as you were fearful of a custodial supervision order being made in your respect.
23 Ultimately Dr Lester opined:
“I believe that while he [Mr Tzoumanis] remains resident in the CCU it will be able to contain Mr Tzoumanis’ remaining significant risk of recurrent psychotic illness and associated violent behaviour and therefore am supportive of a Non‑custodial Supervision Order. However, due to his ongoing poor insight, refusal to accept a Clozapine trial and ongoing ambivalence to the CCU placement, I would recommend that a court review his Non‑custodial Supervision Order in six months’ time.”
24 In light of the developments in the respective opinions of Professor Carroll and Dr Lester and the strict conditions recommended by Dr Lester in the most recent s41 report and in conformity with Dr Lester’s recommendations on 6 April 2018 I released you on a Non‑custodial Supervision Order with the nominal period of five years with the following conditions:
(a)you be supervised by the authorised psychiatrist of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health or their delegate;
(b)you reside at a location known and approved by the authorised psychiatrist of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health or their delegate;
(c)you abide by the lawful directions of the authorised psychiatrist of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health or their delegate or their nominee;
(d)you comply with the testing, treatment and attend appointments as directed by the authorised psychiatrist of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health or their delegate or nominee;
(e)you abstain from the abuse of alcohol and from the use of illicit drugs; and
(f)you not leave the State of Victoria without the written permission of the authorised psychiatrist or the delegate of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health. This includes overseas travel, which must be approved by the authorised psychiatrist or their delegate of the Victorian Institute of Mental Health.
25 Mr Tzoumanis, I want to thank you for attending court this morning. I shall forward these revised reasons to each of the parties so that you will have a record of the reasons behind the imposing of the Non-custodial Supervision Order and it's conditions on 6 April this year. Does counsel have anything that they wish to say?
MS HEALY:No, Your Honour.
MS CARPENTER: No, thank you Your Honour.
HIS HONOUR: Thank you very much for your attendance. I'll break the connection to the court.
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