Director of Public Prosecutions v Walker

[2019] VCC 997

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

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR-15-02085

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

JOSEPH WALKER

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE GUCCIARDO
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	28 June 2019
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Walker
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2019] VCC 997

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:
Catchwords:
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Cases Cited:
Sentence:

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr J. Goetz
For the Accused For Wodonga Community Correctional Services	Mr J. Kantor Mr S. Brunec

HIS HONOUR:

1Joseph Walker, you come before the court having admitted contraventions of a 12 month community corrections order which I imposed to follow up on a period of imprisonment of 14 months of trafficking in a drug of dependence, methylamphetamine, committed between May and September 2014.

2Having been arrested and charged and remanded in September 2014 you were remanded on bail in April 2015, having served 210 days by way of pre-sentence detention, which I took into account and declared as having been so served.

3Supervision and treatment conditions were attached to the order.  You were released from gaol on the sentence of the court on 6 February 2017 and you commenced the order.  Having been charged with contravening the order in January 2018 I found the breach proved and extended the order by 12 months on the same terms with an added judicial monitoring condition.

4This commenced March 2018.  This extension was granted in order to attend to attempt to ensure that the rehabilitation offered by the order and its prospects would not be extinguished.  You were in effect given another chance to achieve some measure of stability and progress in your life.

5By April 2018, less than a month later, you have begun to fail to comply.  Over each of the succeeding months you failed to undergo treatment and rehabilitation including testing, fail to attend at supervision appointments, fail to perform upon community work.  These instances lasted the entire year.  By March 2019 a new charge and warrant for contravention was issued.  The order expired that March in that month.

6At the first listing a warrant issued for your arrest.  The matter has come before me for the termination and the second last report from Correction recommended that the order be formally cancelled and that you be re-sentenced on the original matters and I will follow that recommendation.

7When I extended the order in March 2018 you had recently been convicted and fined for use of methylamphetamine and negligently dealing with proceeds of crime.  It must have been clear to you that continuing to offend, to use drugs and not comply with the order, would lead you back to the court and much more significant consequences.  Your participation was minimal, particularly after the final judicial monitory hearing.  This is significant as during those hearings, accompanied by a partner and your child and your mother, you purported to portray to the court a man on the brink of reformation, supported by loved ones concerned for the fate of your child and committed to reform.

8The reality was unfortunately quite different.  The report dated 15 February 2019 included comments which indicated that you appear dismissive of wanting to make positive changes in your life, with a clear lack of appreciation of the responsibilities which were incumbent upon you.  Nothing of an organic or mental nature have been asserted in your case except your contumacious desire to keep using illicit drugs and live in that milieu despite the experience of prison and despite the obligations under the community corrections order, as well as the responsibility clearly arise out of familial relationships.

9Your realisation that continued use of drugs would be inconsistent with raising a child seemingly only had some impact on you when New South Wales family and community services became involved.  That relationship with the child's mother is now ended.  Your community work was unsatisfactory, having only completed some 82 hours out of 200.  When appointments were made for drug counselling you failed to attend.  On another four occasions you attended for a urine analysis and you returned positive results.

10Your ex-partner kindly wrote a brief note for the court in which she acknowledged your caring support for her and her daughter during he period of her studies at the beginning of the year.  Your mother also wrote a brief note which outlined her cancer treatment.  She says you provided her with emotional support.  Your father in his letter outlined your school and sporting history.  He describes you as a gentle, fun loving young man.  At night your father cried himself to sleep, thinking of your state and your fate.  He is an experienced paramedic of some 30 years and his inability to seemingly help you get your life on track is heartbreaking for him.  I am sure he has done his best.  I take these letters into account.

11You have criminal priors for the trafficking offence in question in 2015, at which time you were placed on a community-based order for an affray and intentionally cause injury, and earlier, for dangerous driving, for which you were imprisoned in 2014.  You have a number of priors for weapons offences, contravening conditions of bail and driving offences.  All of the priors now on the record suggests that any prospect of rehabilitation are tied to your future ability to abstain from drug use.  Whether you will be able to do so before committing more offences or a more catastrophic outcome is a matter only you can determine.  In the meantime I must determine an appropriate disposition for your breach with a view to the fact that you have served a period of reclusion already but which must now be taken into account.

12The circumstances of your offending are set out in some detail in my sentence of 5 July 2016.  I do take into account that the offences occurred in 2014, over some four months.  In the sentence I outlined also your circumstances and participation in wide ranging enterprise involving many others and the trafficking of ice in the Wangaratta area.  Your willing assistance, association and participation in this drug business was noted.  You were charged with trafficking simpliciter.  You were 21 years old at the time of the offences. You pleaded guilty at an early stage.  I took your youth into account at that point.  I accepted your plea was evidence of some remorse.  I declared 210 days of pre-sentence detention as served by the time of the sentence, some seven months.

13I made clear to you in no uncertain terms at the time of the extension of the community corrections order that failure to abide by the conditions would result in contravention and likely re-sentence upon the original charge and I exhorted you to make all reasonable efforts to comply.

14That having failed I have no option but to impose a penalty on the contravention and to re-sentence you on the trafficking.  This morning I received an updated report dated 25 June 2019 in which the writer of the report, Stephen Brunec, the case officer at the Wodonga Community Correctional Services, outlines having attended a cross border meeting which involved both Victoria and New South Wales police where it was disclosed that you, being the subject of a community correction order, have been charged in New South Wales for crimes you have allegedly committed during the operational period of this order, which are detailed thereunder.

15There are a number of those, including driving a motor vehicle with illicit drug present in the blood, further driving offences, unlawfully obtain goods, knowingly drive stolen conveyance.  Some of those have been dealt with.  Some of those are still to be dealt with and I make no conclusion as to those that are unresolved but to the extent of which these matters have been brought to my attention, this fortifies my decision in this matter.

16On the contravention you are convicted and sentenced to one month imprisonment.  On the trafficking offence you are convicted and sentenced to two and a half years' imprisonment, 30 months. The sentences are concurrent. I fix a non-parole period of 21 months.  I declare that you have served 452 days excluding today, which is about 14 months, by way of pre-sentence detention and detention after the original sentence, which should be deducted administratively by Correctional authorities.

17MR KANTOR:  If the court pleases.

18MR GOETZ:  May it please the court.

19HIS HONOUR:  Thank you.  Thank you, Mr Brunec.

20MR BRUNEC:  Thank you, Your Honour.

21HIS HONOUR:  Mr Walker can be removed.

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