Director of Public Prosecutions v Williams
[2013] VCC 1413
•22 August 2013
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised (Not) Restricted Suitable for Publication |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL DIVISION
Case No. CR-13-00894
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| MICHAEL WILLIAMS |
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JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE CARMODY | |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne | |
DATE OF HEARING: | ||
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 22 August 2013 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Williams | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2019] VCC 1413 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Catchwords: Armed Robbery, knife, planning, young offender, sentence – 2 years detention youth justice centre
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Crown | Ms J.B. Warren | |
| For the Accused | Ms S. Pratt |
HIS HONOUR:
1 Michael Williams, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of armed robbery. The Parliament has set a maximum period of 25 years imprisonment for that offence. Your victim in this case is Kristy Gillies. She has given evidence on this plea by reading out her previously prepared victim impact statement. I will turn to the circumstances of your offence.
2 The background to your offence on 15 February 2013 is that you had financial pressures from an extended family member over the purchase of a motorcar. As you say in your record of interview, that is not an excuse or even a reason for your offence. You had seen a police show on television where you have adopted some of the preparation and planning for this offence. In the week prior to the offence, you have gone to Club X, the Club X store in Bell Street. In essence, you have "cased the joint", or selected your target for an armed robbery. That may not be a proper reflection of what happened. You may have been to the Club X shop in the week before and then got the bright idea later and put the two things together. Whichever way it is, you knew your “soft target”.
3 On the day of the offence, you had organised the clothes for your disguise and carried them to the area by a tram trip to Bell Street from where you lived. Once you had changed into your - I am calling them your work clothes, or your disguise, you have watched the ClubX store from a bus stop over the road in Bell Street. You tell the police you were watching the comings and goings from the store and trying to get – I am using the word "courage" up to commit the crime. You did that for some 45 minutes. That same period of time gave you a chance to change your mind and quit your idea. You did not take that course.
4 You then approached the store near closing time of about 1 am and produced the steak knife you had taken there and robbed the only worker there at the time. The violence in your offence is the threat of the use of the knife, held by you and shown to the victim so she would think you would do whatever you had to do if you did not get what you wanted. The shop assistant, Ms Gillies, complied with your demands for money and synthetic cannabis and you left the store quickly. In essence, it was all over relatively quickly in time.
5 You hid the orange bag with the money and cannabis type substance in it and changed back into your street clothes. You were intercepted by police in the area and cooperated with them fully. You showed them where you had hidden the proceeds of your crime, your robbery equipment. In the record of interview, you told police the full story of committing your crime. The effect of your admissions and frankness could not have been achieved by a police investigation. You fully cooperated with the police. The learned prosecutor has fairly and appropriately conceded that was the case.
6 Your personal circumstances. You are now 20 years old. At the time of this offence, you had just turned 20. This is not your first court appearance or brush with the criminal justice system. You admitted an appearance for breach of CBO at the Heidelberg Magistrates' Court on 14 November 2012 and fined without conviction for previous matters of theft of motorcar and other dishonesty and driving charges. This appearance, as I say, arose from a Community-based Order which was imposed on you at the La Trobe Valley Children's Court on 15 August 2011 for property and driving offences referred to earlier. You had one earlier appearance at the Children's Court in La Trobe Valley on 20 August 2008, where you were placed on probation for criminal damage and also possession of a controlled weapon and other dishonesty offences.
7 You are now before the court on a fourth occasion. Your previous three court appearances never resulted in a conviction. That is some indication of the level of your criminality in the past. On this occasion, you have made a big leap up in the level of criminality from your previous court hearings.
8 You are the oldest of three children. You have a mother and father who have both had problems with drug abuse in the past. The effect of this on your upbringing is that you had a transient lifestyle due to your parents moving about. Your education has been grossly interrupted because of that. You left formal education at Year 7 or Year 8. Your are functionally illiterate. That is a handicap for you, but hopefully you will make or take up an opportunity to repair some of that problem in your next disposition from court.
9 You have proven a willingness to work in the past. You have worked as a tyre fitter, trailer maker, and even started a motor mechanic's apprenticeship. I take that to be an indicator that you are prepared to work if given a chance. You could not complete the apprenticeship because your father returned to the family home, and that has caused a dislocation in the family. In Mr Billic's report he states you have a protective disposition towards your mother and brother and sister, and you left that family home when your father returned recently in Bundoora. As I understand it you in effect blame your father for the drug abuse difficulties of your mother, and then the dislocation that causes to family life in general. At the present you are unemployed.
10 Whilst it has been clear to you that you will be incarcerated for this offence, you have kept the conditions of your bail since February of 2013 for the most part, but most importantly you have not reoffended. This indicates some hope for rehabilitation in this case.
11 What has happened since February 2013.
12 You were arrested, as I have said, while still sweating from the get-away run. You firstly cooperated with police in showing them the proceeds of your crime, the weapon and the disguise clothes. You completed your cooperation with a fully frank record of interview, as I have mentioned, about your planning and the background of the offence. At all times your intention to plead guilty to this case has been clear. Your approach to the Youth Justice direction whilst on bail has not been perfect. You have run a bit hot and cold in your compliance to do with counselling and attempts to get employment. Nevertheless, as I have said, you have not reoffended in circumstances where someone in your position could have given up all hope and just let it all go.
13 The medical evidence in your case.
14 The report of Chris Wilson, psychologist, dated 23 November 2008 was tendered on your behalf. Although approximately five years old, that is the report, she, Ms Wilson, was of the opinion that when you were 15 years old that you fitted into the mild intellectually disabled range of intellectual ability. At that time she recommended a modified education program for you. As I understand the history, you left school shortly after that.
15 Michael Billic, also a psychologist, has examined you for the purposes of this plea; this court proceeding. His report is dated 10 August 2013. He noted that you have a history of alcohol and cannabis abuse since adolescence. He assessed your full-scale intelligence quotient at 62, again mild intellectual disability range. Billic notes that you are embarrassed and ashamed for your offending. I accept that that is correct in your case. You told the police as much in your frank record of interview. This shows you have some understanding of and empathy for your victim, Ms Gillies, in this case.
16 Mr Billic was of the opinion you exhibited paranoid schizoid symptoms, patterns. He states you may suffer from depression and you do suffer from substance misuse. You can change the substance misuse part of your problems, and only you can change that.
17 I now refer to the victim impact. As you know Ms Kristy Gillies read her victim impact statement in court. She had also written you a letter, which became part of Exhibit B in this proceeding. I have read the letter and noted the sentiments that she expressed directly to you. This offence has clearly had a significant impact on Ms Gillies. She is now unemployed and in receipt of counselling and dealing with WorkCover issues arising out of this event. The psychological impact of an armed robbery on a person would be an obvious expectation. The depth of that impact would vary from person to person. In the case of your victim, Ms Gillies, the impact has been severe due in part to previous unrelated matters that have happened to her. When I say unrelated, they are unrelated to you. Having said that, it is clear from the victim impact statement and the letter to you that your victim, Ms Gillies, has found it within herself to show you some forgiveness in the sense that she wants you to turn your life around. As she says, this is the cross-roads for you.
18 Sentencing considerations.
19 The basic purpose for which a court may impose a sentence of imprisonment is just punishment, deterrence, both specific and general, rehabilitation, denunciation of your actions and the protection of the community. In sentencing you, I must have regard to a range of factors such as the seriousness of your offence, your culpability for it and your personal circumstances and those of your victim, Ms Gillies. I am required to balance the interests of the community in denouncing your criminal conduct and with the interests of the community in seeking to ensure as far as possible as an offender you are rehabilitated and reintegrated into society.
20 Armed robbery is a crime of violence and dishonesty. It strikes at the very heart of social cohesion. In simple terms, you act on your need for money by using force or threat of force to take money belonging to someone else. This offence calls for deterrence and is the main or dominant purpose for sentencing in such offences. In general deterrence it is to send a clear message that society will not tolerate this offending and that incarceration of offenders such as you is a result.
21 In terms of specific deterrence, that is how it relates to you, you need to understand that this offence is not to be tolerated. I observed you when Ms Gillies gave her evidence here and you were moved, and I thought shaken, by what she had to say. I accept you have understood that from the time of your record of interview to now, that is you understood the effect on her, there is some hope that you have understood the gravity of your offence and its impact on Ms Gillies and on its own will deter you in the future from offending like this again, as long as you think how it is going to affect someone else.
22 You have pleaded guilty at an early stage in the proceedings. The plea was indicated at the committal mention proceedings. Your plea has a utilitarian value of allowing the orderly and effect administration of justice. There is a certainty of outcome and a resolution of the substantive issues raised by your offending. Your plea allows for the preservation of court and police resources to deal with other matters. Your plea indicates public confidence in the legal process set up to protect the community. You have, by your plea, relieved the victim, Ms Gillies, from giving evidence against you in a trial setting. It facilitates some closure for her about your offending. Your plea also is clear acknowledgment by you that you accept responsibility for your criminal behaviour in this case. Your plea also recognises you are willing to facilitate the course of justice in the community yourself.
23 I also accept your plea of guilty to this charge indicates and demonstrates your remorse. In your interview with a psychologist, Mr Billic, you acknowledged your victim did not deserve to be treated this way. You indicated an understanding of the psychological impact of the crime on her. I accept you have demonstrated remorse for your criminal activity on this occasion.
24 You are a young offender. You were just 20 at the time of this offending. Whilst you had prior Children's Court appearances and one in the Magistrates' Court for theft and other related cases, you had never been incarcerated for those offences. In fact, as I said, you had never been convicted. The court has to take into account whether or not you are a reasonable prospect for rehabilitation. I also have to be mindful of whether you are particularly impressionable, immature and likely to be subjected to the undesirable influences in adult prison.
25 The balance of considerations is between the prospect for rehabilitation of a young offender such as yourself and the just punishment for an offender for a violent and gratuitous crime against a person while she was just attending to her work duties. Whilst Ms Gillies might be prepared to see some merciful disposition in your favour, the law requires a proper weighing of all sentencing considerations for this offence.
26 The prosecutor urged that considerations of general and specific deterrence are paramount in this case. The prevalence of armed robberies on what are known as soft targets calls for a term of imprisonment. The prosecutor submitted that you have been dealt with for prior offences in the nature of dishonesty. This, it was submitted, raised considerations of specific deterrence in your case, as you have offended in dishonesty type cases. The prosecution submitted that a term of imprisonment between three and four years was an appropriate total sentence for you, that was to be served in an adult prison. The minimum submitted, was before you being eligible for parole, was between 18 months and two and a half years. As I say, those submissions were about adult imprisonment.
27 I accept that you are young and very impressionable. You have a mild intellectual disability and are young. You have a disrupted and non-directive family background. My impression was you were, as I have said before, protective of your mother and siblings in respect to your father's drug abuse and the consequences that flow from his drug abuse. Both of your parents, though, have been in court to support you. You live with your second cousin, Mr Hewitt, who submitted a reference in support of you. As I said before, you have pleaded guilty at the earliest possible time.
28 I have formed the view that adult imprisonment would be a very harsh disposition on such an impressionable and immature person such as yourself. All of these factors point to the prospect of rehabilitation for you. The best chance of rehabilitation for someone in your position is to serve your penalty in a Youth Justice Centre. Your rehabilitation is directly linked to your control of cannabis and alcohol use. Both of these things are only up to you. The community is best served if you take up this opportunity to turn your life around and take up the mentoring, training and direction given to you in a Youth Justice Centre.
29 I note in the report of the Department of Human Services to do with your bail, that in the past you have shown not a full cooperative approach. You have to be more mature than that and get over it, because I want you to understand that if you show that sort of attitude and do not comply and take up the best opportunities you can in a Youth Justice Centre, they just transfer you, and there is only one place they transfer you to. Adult prison.
30 You have been assessed as being suitable for a Youth Justice Centre order. I sentence you as follows. Would you mind standing?
31 In respect of Charge 1, a charge of armed robbery, you are convicted and sentenced to be detained in a Youth Justice Centre for two years. The total effective sentence is two years' detention in a Youth Justice Centre. I have signed the disposal order, the restitution order the retention of forensic sample order as requested and agreed to by your counsel.
32 I order that, pursuant to s.6AAA of the Sentencing Act, but for your plea, the total effective sentence would have been a sentence of three years' imprisonment with two years' non-parole period all to be served in an adult prison.
33 Thank you, you may be seated.
34 Does that cover everything, Madam Prosecutor?
35 MS WARREN: Yes, Your Honour.
36 HIS HONOUR: Ms Pratt, does that cover everything?
37 MS PRATT: Yes, it does, Your Honour.
38 HIS HONOUR: Yes. Mr Williams, do your best here. It will not be easy but you are up to it. Thanks.
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