Director of Public Prosecutions v Williams

[2013] VCC 2006

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

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 13-01760

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

JASON WILLIAMS

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE SMALLWOOD
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	2 December 2013
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Williams
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2013] VCC 2006

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:
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Cases Cited:
Sentence:

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Accused	Ms J.Prior
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr P.O'Halloran

HIS HONOUR: 

1Jason Troy Williams, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of armed robbery and two uplifted charges, they being a fail to give name and address and fail to appear.  On the fail to give name and address you are convicted and discharged.  The charge of armed robbery carries a maximum penalty of 25 years imprisonment, of fail to appear 12 months imprisonment. 

2You pleaded guilty at an early opportunity and must get the utilitarian benefit of that plea.  There must be a discount for entering such a plea which is recognisable to the accused. 

3You are 35 years of age and I have got no doubt, though you tell the psychologist you are not, institutionalised.  You have a significant prior history which your counsel has taken me through very helpfully.  You have been in court on many occasions and have received many prison sentences.  It is of interest to note that this is your first ever appearance in a court of higher jurisdiction and that gives some comfort.  However, there is a persistency to the offending which as I have indicated I think smacks of institutionalisation and your background. 

4You have previously been on suspended sentences and community corrections order, or community based orders, and have been unable to complete them.  And on at least one previous occasion you have been unable to complete parole.  Obviously I have to sentence on the basis that you will do the whole sentence and there is nothing much that can be done about that. 

5The summary of the offending is that on 15 May 2013 you and two associates were drinking alcohol outside the Gatwick Hotel in St Kilda, which is well known to me.  At approximately 12.30 am on 16 May, whilst still outside, the victim arrived home with a friend.  He stopped briefly outside whilst his friend spoke to an associate of yours before they went inside the Gatwick.  You then followed them in.  Once inside the friend stopped to look for her mobile phone and her handbag and the victim crouched down next to her to assist.  You were holding a small, electrical test light which I have seen and is something in the order of a small screwdriver. 

6You approached him from behind and pushed him over onto the floor.  You said "Give me the money" before stabbing at him just in front of his left ear with the implement.  He said that that caused him pain.  He emptied the contents of his pockets onto the floor at which point you struck him again.  You picked up his small, black coin purse containing a Walkman cable and a USB stick from the floor. 

7At that point the night manager of the Gatwick heard the offending and approached to intervene.  She yelled at you to leave the victim alone, at which point you picked up his mobile phone and handed it back to him saying "You owe me your money".  You then left via the front door becoming come back at about 1.40 am when you were again asked to leave. 

8Your instructions to your counsel are that this threat was for you getting money back that had been handed over for a drug deal.  The comment that you made at the end and the way in which this unfolded would suggest that there was certainly known contact between and I have no real reason to doubt that it was a form of unlawful debt collection. 

9The offence itself, I think has to be regarded at the lower end of armed robbery and it is a crime which has a very wide range of circumstances in which it can occur.  It was un-premiditated, it was clearly amateurish, you were clearly intoxicated at the time and I must take into account the milieu in which all this took place.  It usually does not help anybody by going into great detail about the background of all this but it was a very stupid and violent act for a very, very tiny return.

10Armed robbery in itself has to be regarded as a serious crime and calls for the application of general and specific deterrence, as well as denunciation and of course there must be an appropriate punishment.  There is no victim impact statement.  Unfortunately some fortnight or so prior to this you had been at the Ringwood Magistrates' Court where you had been placed on a community corrections order with the hope that you could attend Wangala Ngalu, which I will refer to again in the moment. 

11That corrections order has been breached and you will be dealt with on 12 December for that breach, as well as a breach of a six month suspended sentence.  There is nothing I can do about that other than to take it into account by way of totality. 

12Tendered on your behalf was a report from Mr Warren Simmons, a psychologist, and Ms Carla Lechner, clinical psychologist.  Yours is the situation that has been referred to in recent times in the decision of Bugmy, which is what most criminal lawyers have known for a long time.  You were brought up as a young Aboriginal person in Western Australia.  You were subjected to violence to a very significant degree and became a ward before you were ten.  You were subjected to sexual violence and you, by the age of 12, were drinking alcohol.  You have the distressingly so common background of there being multiple partners, multiple violence and incarceration from an early age. 

13You have said to Mr Simmons that your "childhood was plagued with violence and alcohol".  You clearly have a deep anger at your being taken from your mother when you were very young and that is very much understandable.  On one of the reports you have eight children.  You have three younger children who you are endeavouring to have contact with and have some connection with. 

14Unfortunately the dispositions in the past which have been hopefully addressed, all this rehabilitation have all failed. You have had a few jobs over the years but yourself estimate that you have been unemployed for about 95 per cent of the time.  You told Ms Lechner that you switched to Ice in the mid-1990's.  It is noteworthy that the longest period you have stayed out of gaol was 18 months from around 2010 and during that period of time you had stable accommodation and employment.  Those two factors speak for themselves.

15You have symptoms of a post-traumatic stress disorder though that has not been formally diagnosed, and I accept that you have underlying problems with major depression. Bearing in mind your background that is hardly surprising.  Rather than have you sit there while I go through all that history as to when you were young, I will direct that the two reports remain on the court file, that anyone with a genuine interest can look at what I have taken into account in terms of sentencing you.

16In simple terms, Mr Simmons said that in your background, "Plagued by violence and alcohol and there was certainly history of emotional, mental and physical abuse, as well as sexual abuse".  Like I said, that sort of treatment when you are young does not go away in five minutes.  You participated in Koori Court and engaged with the elders.  You indicated that you are determined to turn your life around and that you are wanting to do that by yourself.  You clearly, at the present time, have a level of conflict with members of your family and I accept that your determination to do this by yourself is a genuine one. 

17It is pointed out to you that you cannot just get to a situation where you walk out of gaol with nowhere to go.  You have got to put in the time to have a plan for when you are released.  You are well aware of the potentiality of not getting parole on a situation such as this.  It would be remiss of me not to give you that opportunity. 

18You have said through your counsel you want a straight sentence.  Well as indicated to her, I cannot remember ever doing that as a Judge and I think you might not feel quite that way in a number of months' time.  In any event, I direct as I said that the reports remain on the court file.   I take into account that the sentence will be done in protection. 

19The prospects of your rehabilitation I think are really up to you.  The risk of you re-offending has to be regarded in all of this as high.  I think that your determination to do it all by yourself might be a bit fanciful.  However it comes about, when your time is up you have just got to get assistance and contact people who can give you a hand for accommodation and employment.  The concern is, as you heard discussed very openly at the table, that someone in your circumstances, when they fall upon hard times and have no supports, the temptation is massive to revert to alcohol and drugs.  And in this sort of situation the Gatwick always beckons.

20However, I find that you were doing your best during Koori Court talking to the elders and that you showed appropriate respect and that all goes well for you.  If you are serious about rehabilitating yourself, and I think you are, you certainly can do it.  Only time will tell and that is a matter very much in your hands. 

21Taking all those matters into account, and bearing in mind the objective lower scale of the armed robbery, on the charge of armed robbery you are sentenced to be imprisoned for a period of 15 months and I direct that you serve a minimum term of ten months before becoming eligible for parole.  On the charge of escape, one month concurrent.  I direct that 129 days be reckoned as having been served under that sentence.  What is going on with that?

22MS PRIOR:  I think it's fail to appear on bail, Your Honour rather than escape.

23HIS HONOUR:  What did I say?

24MS PRIOR:  Escape. 

25HIS HONOUR:  Sorry, you do not need escape on your form.  Sorry Mr Williams, we will change that to fail to appear; it is a much less offence.  Sorry about that.  All right, so it is a month concurrent.  That all make sense? 

26MR O'HALLORAN;  Is Your Honour minded to give a s.6AAA indication? 

27HIS HONOUR:  Twenty-two with 15 so it has saved him, well, seven months probably.  Does that make sense, Ms Prior? 

28MS PRIOR:  Thank you, Your Honour.

29HIS HONOUR:  All right.  Good luck, Mr Williams. 

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