Director of Public Prosecutions v Vella

[2014] VCC 1697

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

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 13-02033

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

ROBERT VELLA

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE MAIDMENT
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	8 October 2014
DATE OF SENTENCE:	8 October 2014
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Vella
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2014] VCC 1697

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr P. Triandos	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused.	Mr D. Cronin

HIS HONOUR: 

1Robert Michael Vella, you have pleaded guilty to an indictment charging you with criminal damage and common assault, both offences occurring on 25 April of last year, and have also pleaded guilty to a related summary offence of breaching a Family Violence Protection Act intervention order at the same address at which you committed the other two offences.  You have also admitted a number of prior convictions and court appearances going back to 1997.

2The prosecution has tendered and relied upon a summary of prosecution opening which was read to the court this morning.  I am not going to repeat it.  It catalogues events of the afternoon and evening of 25 April of 2013 when you attended on two occasions upon the home of your former partner, the victim of your offences, in Deer Park.  She came home to find that you were asleep on the bed in the main bedroom and asked you to leave.  You complied on that occasion but on the same day at about 9 pm you returned.  When she refused to let you in, you caused criminal damage to the door and gained entry to the premises, where you then set about assaulting her, hitting her in the face with your hand and spitting in her face a number of times and pushing her to the floor and spitting in her face again in the presence of her young son, who felt the need to tell you to "get off his mum".

3You left the premises prior to police attending, but you were arrested on 2 May of this year.   You made a no comment record of interview.  However, after some process of negotiation you indicated a plea of guilty and, as I indicated to your counsel, I give you full credit for your plea of guilty to these matters.

4The maximum penalties for these offences are, for the criminal damage offence, ten years' imprisonment, for the common assault, five years' imprisonment, and for contravention of the family violence intervention order, two years' imprisonment.

5Your criminal record unfortunately includes a number of offences of breaching other intervention orders, for offences of violence and a number of other offences involving dishonesty and use of drugs.  You have had for a very substantial part of your life a significant substance problem.  You started using cannabis at an early age and gave that up only after you suffered from a drug-induced psychosis.  It seems though that your progress into other drugs has been a blight on your adult life.  These offences I have no doubt were fuelled by your ice habit.  I am quite sure that other offences that you have committed over the years have been fuelled by or caused or contributed to by your substance abuses of one kind or another.

6It is plain, reading the report of Bernard Healey, which is Exhibit 2 upon which your counsel relied, that unless and until you get a grip on yourself and deal with your drug problem and get on top of it permanently you are likely to re-offend.  Your prospects of rehabilitation would have to be guarded at best; more likely poor, as things stand at the present time.

7You have expressed genuine remorse for your conduct.   That is not uncommon for people who commit offences whilst influenced by ice and it is not uncommon for people who commit domestic violence to regret what they have done later.  You, unfortunately, seem to have indicated a propensity for domestic violence and if you persist with that in the future you will get some very significant sentences to serve.  However, you have been in custody since 2 May 2013.  Part of that time was serving a sentence for other matters, and you have for these matters served pre-sentence detention of 252 days.

8Looking at the criminality overall, including the other matters for which you served a term of imprisonment since 2 May of 2013 and these matters, it seems to me that that comes close to at least a sufficient sentence for your overall criminality.  I indicated to your counsel in the course of the plea hearing that was my preliminary view about the matter.   I was reluctant to impose upon the Community Corrections Service in this state the job of monitoring your further rehabilitation unless you were motivated to participate in a Community Corrections Order in a genuine way and to use the opportunity to try and tackle the deep-seated drug problems that you suffer from.  It seemed to me that it was a desirable course if you were so motivated, not just from your point of view but from the community's point of view in promoting your rehabilitation and hopefully providing you with the means to stay out of trouble in the future and to better protect the community by that means.  For that reason, I was persuaded that it was useful to obtain a Community Corrections Order assessment report.

9Your counsel has further indicated the efforts that you have made whilst you have been in custody to make good use of your time.  That would suggest that you have taken the steps that are available to you to rehabilitate yourself whilst you have been in custody and I am told that you are further motivated by the desire to present yourself as a parent who can actually provide some support and parental assistance and guidance to your young child with the victim of these offences.  If that is a genuine motivation also, the community will be the better served if you are able to use that present motivation to attack your drug problem in a meaningful way.

10You have had Community Corrections Orders in the past or the equivalent.  You have been in breach of some of those orders.   That, of course, was noted by the community corrections officer who reported upon you.  However, she has indicated that you are suitable for a Community Corrections Order with conditions of supervision, treatment and rehabilitation for drug abuse, and for offence-specific programs, anger management being one of those that may well be pursued.

11You have indicated a willingness to participate in a Community Corrections Order.  I do not propose to add the further punitive element to it of unpaid community work.  My proposal would be to impose a sentence or sentences which would have the effect of your being eligible for immediate release and for you to commence the Community Corrections Order upon your release. 
           There are a number of core conditions about which I have no doubt you have been told in the past.  One of the most important of those is that you stay out of trouble.  If you commit an offence during the period of the order, which will be for 12 months, an offence that is punishable by imprisonment, you will be in breach of the order.   You will be up for up to three months for the breach and you will also be subject to the possibility of being resentenced for these offences.  So you may end up having to do further time if you breach the order by committing further offences.  Of course, you would be up for any sentence that might be imposed for the offences that put you in breach as well.  You would also be in breach if you fail to comply with other conditions of the order, including directions for you to attend for supervision order appointments or appointments for one or more of the programs that you may be directed to undertake.

12As you would know, it is not always easy to comply with the terms of a Community Corrections Order.  There is not much point in my making it now if you are going to go out and breach it.  So are you going to do that, are you going to breach it, or are you going to obey the terms of the order?

13OFFENDER:  I'm going to comply with it.

14HIS HONOUR:  Yes, all right.  In all those circumstances I am prepared to accede to the submission of your counsel.  There is no doubt that these offences merit an immediate term of imprisonment and it would have been a longer term than that which I intend to impose, namely 250 days, had it not been for the fact you had already served some further time, nine months, for other offending and that you have been in custody since 2 May.  It would have been a substantially greater sentence than 250 days.  However, I think, coupled with the Community Corrections Order that I have indicated, I have in mind that the sentencing considerations of adequate punishment and denunciation, as well as individual deterrence and general deterrence, can be met.  Although your prospects of rehabilitation are not great, I think that this sentence has the capacity to facilitate your rehabilitation as far as the court reasonably can.  In those circumstances and with your consent I will proceed to pass sentence upon you.

15For the offence of criminal damage I convict you and sentence you to imprisonment for a period of one month.  For the offence of common law assault, I convict you and sentence you to imprisonment for a period of 252 days.   For the offence of breaching the intervention order I convict you and sentence you to imprisonment for a period of 252 days.  All of those sentences will be concurrent, making a total effective sentence of 252 days.  But for your pleas of guilty I would have sentenced you to imprisonment for a period of 24 months with a non-parole period of 15 months.

16MR CRONIN:  Your Honour, I had the opportunity to get instructions and Mr Vella would consent to the compensation order in the terms sought by the Crown.

17HIS HONOUR:  All right.  In that case I will make the compensation order in the terms of the draft with which I have been provided and I declare 252 days pre-sentence detention to be reckoned as time served on the sentence that I have just imposed.

18MR CRONIN:   As Your Honour pleases.

19HIS HONOUR:  Which means that you will be eligible for immediate release.

20OFFENDER:  Thank you, Your Honour.

21HIS HONOUR:  Just take a seat for a moment.

22MR TRIANDOS:  I'm not sure if Your Honour has mentioned the Community Corrections Order as part of that sentence yet.  My instructor reminded me, Your Honour.

23HIS HONOUR:  Subject to your consent and subject to your signing the necessary form, I order that for all of the offences I impose a Community Corrections Order for a period of 12 months, with conditions that you be under the supervision of the Community Corrections Department, that you be the subject of drug rehabilitation and management programs, and also that you participate in offence-related programs as directed by the regional director.  That order will be drawn up in just a moment and I will ask your counsel to go through it with you to ensure that you understand exactly what you are being asked to sign and that you understand what the conditions are of the order.  Mr Travers will also explain those, and once you have signed that, the order will be in place.  It will, of course, require you to attend upon the Keilor community corrections centre within two clear working days, so I would get on and do that as soon as you can if I were you.

24OFFENDER:  Keilor or Sunshine?

25HIS HONOUR:  Sunshine, is it?

26MR CRONIN:  I think it was Sunshine.  I think I probably misled Your Honour when I said Keilor, because that is where he lives.  Sunshine is the appropriate office.

27HIS HONOUR:  There is not one at Keilor, apparently.  All right, thank you.  You can take a seat again.

28(Order signed and acknowledged.)

29I imagine your client has probably got to go downstairs and be processed.

30MR CRONIN:  I think that's right, Your Honour, I think he'll be released from downstairs and then he can go from there.

31HIS HONOUR:  Thank you.

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