Director of Public Prosecutions v Walker

[2025] ACTSC 36

SUPREME COURT OF THE AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY

Case Title:

DPP v Walker

Citation: 

[2025] ACTSC 36

Hearing Date: 

14 February 2025

Decision Date: 

14 February 2025

Before:

Christensen AJ

Decision: 

See [9]

Catchwords: 

CRIMINAL LAW – DRUG AND ALCOHOL SENTENCING LIST – Review – rehabilitation achieved – object of order achieved – early graduation from drug and alcohol treatment order – commitment to sobriety – fatherhood – horses – order amended

Legislation Cited: 

Crimes (Sentencing) Act 2005 (ACT) ss 80O, 80ZA,80ZH, 80ZA

Cases Cited: 

DPP v Walker (Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory, Refshauge AJ, 9 August 2023)

Parties: 

Director of Public Prosecutions ( Crown)

Jai Gerald Walker ( Offender)

Representation: 

Counsel

C Muthurajah ( DPP)

S Brown ( Offender)

Solicitors

ACT Director of Public Prosecutions  

Legal Aid ACT ( Offender)

File Number:

SCC 114 of 2023

CHRISTENSEN AJ:

Introduction

1․Jai Walker was sentenced in the Drug and Alcohol Sentencing List on 9 August 2023: DPP v Walker (Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory, Refshauge AJ, 9 August 2023) (DPP v Walker). 

2․He was sentenced for offending that occurred in late 2017 and early 2018.  The offending behaviour involved obtaining property by deception, with $100,000.00 dishonesty obtained from a victim in circumstances of a false promise of bitcoin currency. 

3․At the sentence hearing, his Honour Refshauge AJ observed that Mr Walker offended at a time when he was engaged in gambling, and he had an entrenched drug dependency. 

4․The total sentence imposed was one of two years and ten months imprisonment.  Mr Walker had spent 147 days in custody prior to the sentence order.  The term was suspended for the purposes of a drug and alcohol treatment order (treatment order).  The treatment and supervision part of the order was to be for a period of two years, followed by a good behaviour order that was to commence on 8 August 2025.

5․Mr Walker has progressed with his rehabilitation with steadfast commitment.  He has achieved his goals, and those of the Drug and Alcohol Sentencing List treatment team (treatment team) with respect to that rehabilitation.  As of February 2025, the treatment team have recommended that Mr Walker be graduated from the treatment and supervision part of the treatment order. 

6․This is a graduation that is six months earlier than originally ordered.  It is a credit to Mr Walker that he is graduating from the treatment order early.  It is to be hoped that this progress of rehabilitation brings some measure of comfort to the victim of his offending.  

7․Having regard to the position of the treatment team, I am satisfied pursuant to s 80ZH of the Crimes (Sentencing) Act 2005 (ACT) (Sentencing Act) that it is in the interests of justice to review the treatment order.  On Mr Walker’s behalf, it is sought that the order of 9 August 2023 be amended, such that Mr Walker will graduate to the next stage of the sentence of imprisonment suspended under the custodial part of the order.  The prosecution supports the application.

8․The Court agrees that such a progression is appropriate. Mr Walker has achieved the objects of the treatment order, provided by s 80O of the Sentencing Act:

80O Objects of drug and alcohol treatment orders

(1)The objects of making a treatment order in relation to an offender is to—

(a)facilitate the rehabilitation of the offender by providing a judicially supervised, therapeutically oriented and integrated treatment regime; and

(b)reduce the offender’s dependency on alcohol or a controlled drug; and

(c)reduce the health risks associated with the offender’s dependency on alcohol or controlled drugs; and

(d)assist the offender’s integration into the community; and

(e)promote community safety by reducing the level of criminal activity caused by alcohol or controlled drug dependence in offenders. 

Orders

9․For those reasons, the following orders are made:

(1)A review of the drug and alcohol treatment order made on 9 August 2023 is conducted pursuant to s 80ZH(1) of the Crimes (Sentencing) Act 2005 (ACT).

(2)Order 4 of the orders made on 9 August 2023 be amended to read as follows:

“The Treatment and Supervision Part of the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Order be from today, 8 August 2023 until 14 February 2025.”

(3)Order 6 of the orders made on 9 August 2023 be amended to read as follows:

“Under s 80ZA of the Crimes (Sentencing) Act 2005 (ACT), Jai Gerald Walker be required to sign an undertaking to comply with the offender’s Good Behaviour obligations under s 85 of the Crimes (Sentence Administration) Act 2005 (ACT) from the day after the end of the Treatment and Supervision Part of the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Order, 15 February 2025, until the end of the total sentence, 14 January 2026, with a probation condition that he accept supervision by the Commissioner of ACT Corrective Services or his delegate for the period of the undertaking or such lesser period as the person supervising him considers appropriate and obey all reasonable directions of the person supervising him including as to alcohol and drug testing, counselling and treatment. “

(4)

Remarks to participant on graduation

Jai, we now move to celebrate your graduation from the treatment and supervision part of your drug and alcohol treatment order.

It is an opportunity to celebrate the hard work you have done since August 2023, when your treatment order commenced.  It is an opportunity to honour what you have achieved in meeting the expectations of the treatment program, of the Court, and of the community.  It is also an opportunity for reflection as to the journey of rehabilitation that you have undertaken. 

This occasion, and your journey of rehabilitation, is one that has taken place on the lands, amongst the waterways and the sky of the Traditional Custodians of this Country.  I acknowledge this and thank the Custodians for caring for Country for thousands of generations.  I pay my respect to their Elders past and present. 

I also take this opportunity to express the Court’s gratitude to the members of the treatment team, the previous members and the present members.  And I thank all of those who have supported Jai in his rehabilitation.  Their commitment to their roles involves infinite patience, care, and support for the participants, and an occasion such as this reflects the significance of their valuable contributions. 

It is, however, ultimately an outcome that can only occur if a participant embraces the opportunity for a treatment order.  Jai is to also be thanked for embracing this opportunity. 

It has been my privilege to witness a part of your journey and engage with you in the time that I have sat as a judge in the Drug and Alcohol Sentencing List. 

To enable me to understand how far you have come, I have read the original sentence decision.  I have also read the reports that were before the Court at the time of your sentencing and records of conversations with McCallum CJ, Loukas-Karlsson J, and Refshauge and Hopkins AJJ in this Court over the course of your treatment order. 

Upon your release from custody, you engaged with a day rehabilitation program and successfully completed it without issue.  You then went on to complete the treatment order without accruing a single sanction point.  There was one occasion of lapse with alcohol, in a circumstance of significant life stressors.  You reflected on this use, and it reminded you that substance use does not help solve issues.  The lapse confirmed your commitment to sobriety. 

You have maintained this sobriety, which is a remarkable achievement given there were significant life stressors throughout the period of your treatment order, and in circumstances where you were exposed to substance use from an early age of only 14 years.  You were someone who you yourself described as having used “everything” in terms of substances.

Prior to the treatment order, you were also someone who had acquired a lengthy criminal history and spent repeated occasions in custody.  You were assessed as having a high risk of re-offending.

Nevertheless, even at that time, you were described by your committed partner as a “great father” who your children looked up to.  You were a successful business owner and hard worker. 

It is incredibly pleasing to see that you are that person again.  Recently, you have demonstrated your commitment to hard work again and you are engaging successfully in work as a mechanic.  You are doing honest work, providing for your family, and contributing positively to our community.  And, as I understand it, being a good carer to your many horses, dogs, and other farm animals. 

At the time of your initial sentence, his Honour Refshauge AJ remarked that your sentence order was “designed to protect the community … perhaps the best protection is the rehabilitation of Mr Walker which, if it can be achieved, is the surest means of accomplishing that”: DPP v Walker at 17.  His Honour further remarked, directly to you, that he looked forward “to the possibility that you can be a decent father, the kind of father you didn’t have, but the gift that you can give to your children so that they can go forward and have a life not looking over their shoulder, running around, telling people untruths, doing things that a sensible person….would recognise as shameful”: DPP v Walker at 23. 

Jai – I am very pleased that his Honour’s hope was realised.  Only you can truly understand the challenges you have faced to reach the point that you have reached today.  It is point that you should be proud of, and one that is hoped means a brighter future for yourself, your partner, and your children. 

Well done.  We wish you well for the future and look forward to seeing the positive contributions you will make to our community. 

I certify that the preceding nine [9] numbered paragraphs are a true copy of the Reasons for Judgment of her Honour Acting Justice Christensen

Associate:

Date:        14 February 2025