Director of Public Prosecutions v XQ

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF VICTORIA

Not Restricted

AT MELBOURNE

CRIMINAL DIVISION

S ECR 2023 0232

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS	Prosecution
v
XQ	Accused

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JUDGE:	Elliott J
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATES OF HEARING:	19, 20 March 2025
DATE OF REASONS FOR SENTENCE:	11 April 2025
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	Director of Public Prosecutions v XQ
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2025] VSC 188

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CRIMINAL LAW – Sentence – Murder – Plea of guilty – Young offender – Autism spectrum disorder – Induced delusional disorder – Nature and gravity of offending – Impact on victims – Moral culpability – Delay – Impact of imprisonment – Prospects of rehabilitation – Current sentencing practices – Sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment – Non-parole period of 10 years – Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 (Vic), s 471 – Crimes Act 1958 (Vic), s 3 – Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic), ss 3, 5, 5B, 6AAA, 18.

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the prosecution	D Porceddu	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the accused	A Brennan with D Thomas	Victoria Legal Aid

HIS HONOUR:

A. Introduction

XQ,[1] you pleaded guilty on 5 August 2024 to the murder of your mother on 5 April 2023.
[1]A pseudonym has been used to ensure compliance with the Children, Youth and Families Act2005 (Vic), s 534(1).
Murder is the most serious of crimes. The maximum penalty is life imprisonment.[2] Although it attracts a standard sentence of 25 years for adults, given your age this factor does not apply.[3] However, the weight to be afforded to your age must be viewed in light of the nature and gravity of your offending.
[2]Crimes Act 1958 (Vic), s 3(1).
[3]Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic), s 5B(1)(a); Chey v The King [2022] VSCA 262, [41] (Priest and T Forrest JJA and Kidd AJA). Murder is also a category 1 offence, but the relevant provisions of the Sentencing Act in that regard do not apply either: ibid, s 3(1) (definition of “category 1 offence”).

B. The offending and surrounding circumstances

The circumstances of your offending are truly extraordinary. To understand them properly, it is necessary to briefly refer to events over the 6 or so months that preceded your mother’s death.
You and a friend (“GR”) shared a strong interest in military history and paraphernalia. In around October 2022, you (then only 14 years old) and GR (who turned 14 that month) both decided to plan for something you referred to as “Operation Continuity”. This involved taking steps toward the ultimate objective of establishing an army to rid Australia of communism and to restore Christian values to society. Over time, you sought to recruit others to what you referred to as the “Anti-Communist Front”.
Not only was your plan grandiose, but it included very sinister objectives that included killing “communists”. You purchased 2 machetes as part of your preparation, but your mother intercepted them. You also collected various other items in pursuit of your plan, including camouflage clothing, ration packs and a tent.
Self-evidently, the prospects of actually carrying out such a plan were non-existent. As you have subsequently acknowledged, your belief that something of this nature could be implemented was delusional. However, in the months leading up to your mother’s death you not only believed achieving the objectives of Operation Continuity was possible, but you and GR were determined to put your plan in motion.
Operation Continuity and related matters were the subject of numerous text messages exchanged between you and GR over many months, as you discussed and took steps that you believed would facilitate its implementation. Suffice to say, ultimately you decided that Operation Continuity would be initiated by the both of you in early April 2023 (and possibly others, though no one else actually participated in any meaningful way).
Initially, you and GR intended to stay at the home of a mutual friend (“Friend 1”) for a sleepover. The plan was to steal Friend 1’s father’s car during that stay and drive towards the Grampians region of Victoria, where you intended to blow up a bridge, create an army and take over Australia. Your original intention to initiate Operation Continuity in this way was thwarted when the sleepover was cancelled on 2 occasions. As a fallback position, it was agreed GR would stay overnight at your family home. This had been put in train to some extent on either 2 or 3 April 2023, but there was no evidence to establish that your mother gave her permission for the sleepover before the morning of 5 April 2023. Indeed, you have previously stated that it was not until that morning that you decided that GR should stay at your place that evening.[4]
[4]The prosecution submitted that the court should infer that your mother had agreed to the sleepover on either 3 or 4 April 2023. This submission was based upon an entry in her diary for 5 April 2023, which recorded that GR was to stay that night. It was submitted the only reasonable inference to draw was that this entry was made before 5 April 2023. Reliance was also placed upon text messages exchanged between you and GR on 3 April 2023. The prosecution also submitted the inference could be drawn from the evidence as a whole. In my view, none of the matters relied upon by the prosecution provides a proper basis for any such inference. The exchange of messages on 3 April 2023 was with respect to a sleepover on “Thursday”, whereas the sleepover was held on Wednesday, 5 April 2023. Further, there is no evidence that you or GR discussed before 5 April 2023 that a sleepover at your home had been agreed to. Further, I do not accept the submission that it is unlikely that your mother made an entry in her diary to this effect on 5 April 2023. The evidence is entirely consistent with an inference that a sleepover was agreed to during early morning on 5 April 2023, and that your mother made the entry in her diary around that time.
5 April 2023 was the final day of the school term. The following events all occurred on that day.
You and GR told Friend 1 that you were planning to steal a car that night and that you would come past his place to collect a bag that you had previously given to him for safekeeping. That bag contained items that had been collected by you and others over a period of several weeks for the purposes of Operation Continuity. It was arranged that Friend 1 would leave the bag outside his home amongst some bushes for you and GR to collect.
Although the exact time that this agreement was made is unclear,[5] you and GR agreed to steal your mother’s car that evening. You told another friend (“Friend 2”) that this had been decided because your mother was catching a train to a party and would be out from 10.00pm to around midnight or 1.00am. There was no evidence that your mother ever intended to go out that evening, nor any basis to suggest that you believed she was going out. Despite this, you said to Friend 2 that after your mother had gone out, you and GR planned to drive to Ararat.
[5]On 2 April 2023, you and GR decided at 3.47am that you would discuss the timing of the initiation later that day. The exchange of messages at that time indicated it was to occur that week, with GR urging you not to delay.
During the morning, you asked Friend 1 whether he would be coming with you and GR. Friend 1 told you both he could not come.
You gave another friend (“Friend 3”) a military uniform. You had previously told Friend 3 that you had formed a paramilitary group with some other school friends. Later that day, whilst Friend 3 was waiting outside the school gate, you told him that you and GR were going to start an operation with a name similar to “Operation Kill Communists”. You told Friend 3 to check the evening news and that you were going to try and take police cars from all around Victoria and possibly attack police stations. Although this was said, there was no evidence of any meaningful planning to take police cars or attack police stations; or for that matter, to blow up any bridges.[6]
[6]There were text messages between you and GR referring to an intention to obtain materials to create explosives to blow up a bridge, however this intention was barely embryonic and you had no real capacity or specific plan to carry out the destruction of any bridge.
After school, you left with GR and Friend 2 and walked to your family home. Once there, you used the gym facilities within your apartment complex. Friend 2 left at about 4.20pm after you hinted that he should leave.
At 5.30pm you received a message from Friend 1 stating that he would put the bag outside as soon as it got dark. You sent Friend 1 an image of you and GR wearing military clothing and hats. You and GR were holding unopened bottles of alcohol, and GR was also holding a combat-style knife. This was the same knife used later to attack your mother. In response to a query about when you were leaving, you told Friend 1 you intended to depart at about 10.30pm.
You and GR remained at your home that evening with your mother and your younger brother. The evening was uneventful, with your mother serving you dinner and ice-cream. After dinner your younger brother went to his bedroom.
Between 5.30pm and 10.52pm, various messages were sent by both you and GR to Friend 1, and by GR to another person, which touched upon matters related to Operation Continuity. It is unnecessary to provide the detail of most of those messages as none of them were relied upon as an aggravating circumstance.
One particular exchange relied on by the prosecution however was a message sent at 10.02pm by GR to Friend 1 which referred to your mother leaving home at that time. This was consistent with what had been stated earlier in the day.[7] GR was plainly lying, as at no time did your mother leave your home that night. At 10.03pm, this was asserted by GR as part of an exchange with Friend 1, in which GR instructed Friend 1 to put out the bag so it could be collected by you and GR.[8]
[7]See par 11 above.
[8]See par 10 above.
There was no evidence to suggest you were aware that this lie was told by GR. However, I accept the prosecution’s submission that you lied, along with GR, earlier in the day when you told Friend 2 that your mother was going out that night.[9] As your counsel ultimately appeared to accept, the degree of specificity of the details provided that morning, along with the implausibility of your mother leaving 3 young boys alone at home until the early hours of the morning, demonstrate a lie was told. This lie was formulated because of your motive to steal your mother’s car without her immediate detection or interference.[10]
[9]On the basis explained in R v Storey [1998] 1 VR 359, 369.6 (Winneke P, Brooking and Hayne JJA and Southwell AJA), cited with approval in R v Olbrich (1999) 199 CLR 270, 281 [27] (Gleeson CJ, Gaudron, Hayne and Callinan JJ).
[10]The prosecution did not submit it was an aggravating feature of the case that your mother was murdered so you could steal her car.
However, I reject the prosecution’s submission that the telling of this lie established you had a murderous intent with respect to your mother on the morning of 5 April 2023. Although very little turns on this in light of the concession made by counsel on your behalf that you had a murderous intent shortly before and at the time you attacked your mother,[11] I am not satisfied that you had that murderous intent while you were at school that day, including when you were telling the lie to Friend 2 about your mother’s likely movements. Although there can be no real doubt that you intended to take your mother’s car in a manner that would enable you to drive to Ararat without being stopped, I cannot be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that you actually intended to kill your mother or cause her really serious injury when you uttered the lie in the morning about her whereabouts later that evening.[12] Put simply, your plans on that day were adapting to changing circumstances and it is unclear whether, when you decided there was a need to incapacitate your mother so you could steal her car, this involved killing her.
[11]The prosecution accepted that the sentence imposed ought not be affected by any finding as to the specific timing of any agreement, there being no dispute that you and GR agreed sometime on 5 April 2023 to kill your mother that evening.
[12]In making this finding, I have considered the messages exchanged between you and GR which refer to killing your parents. However, it is not uncommon for teenagers to speak in such terms on occasion about their parents (or others) without having any intention to actually carry it out.
Returning to the events of the night of 5 April 2023, just before your brother went to bed he heard you and GR in the kitchen and the clattering of dishes. At around 10.30pm, he was in his bedroom upstairs and heard shouting coming from downstairs. Your brother heard your mother scream, “what are you doing, stop stop!” and “you’re killing me!”.
Your brother ran downstairs to check on your mother. He saw that your bedroom was empty. He knocked on your mother’s bedroom door and when you opened it, you told him to go away, and that nothing was the matter. You said that everything was okay. You stood in the doorway to obscure your brother’s view. However, he looked past you into the bedroom and saw your mother lying on the bed. He also saw “red splotches”, or bloodstains, all over the room. Your brother also saw GR standing next to your mother, holding 2 knives in his right hand. He thinks he heard GR say “run” or “hurry up”. Your brother ran downstairs and thinks he heard his mother call out after him to tell him to run. He believes you chased after him carrying an unknown object, but you stopped doing so once he got outside.
Your brother then hesitated, not knowing whether what he had seen was real. He speculated that he might have been the subject of some kind of test or game. He initially hung around outside the front of the house for a few minutes, unsure of what to do. For a short while, he could hear you and GR talking, but could not see you. He then saw you drive your mother’s car out of the garage of your home. It had blood smeared on the door. He heard a crash and realised what he had seen in your mother’s bedroom was real. He then ran to the local police station to report what he had seen. He was visibly upset when he arrived at 11.05pm.

C. Events after the offending

Operation Continuity might have been viewed as almost comical but for the tragic and horrific killing its initiation involved. You could not drive properly, and managed to have a number of accidents simply trying to get your mother’s car out of the garage. Having eventually managed to do so, you continued to drive with GR in the passenger seat and headed to Friend 1’s home to collect the bag containing equipment and other materials.
Both at the time that you were leaving your home and while you were driving to Friends 1’s home, you attracted the attention of others, many of whom reported what they had seen or heard to police.[13]
[13]Some photographs were sent by GR during the course of your journey. There is no need to determine at what time these photographs may have been taken, as the taking and sending of them was not relied upon by the prosecution as an aggravating circumstance.
After collecting the bag from a bush near Friend 1’s home, you and GR travelled to St Kilda. You dumped your mother’s car there and eventually made your way by foot to Southern Cross Station. At approximately 4.45am on 6 April 2023, you and GR boarded a train bound for a town northwest of Melbourne and approximately halfway to Ararat. Upon arrival just over 2 hours later, you both walked for a while and were observed by a number of witnesses. One of you indicated to a witness that you were camping somewhere nearby.
Just after 2.30pm that day, you and GR were arrested and cautioned. You were dressed in a camouflage-print shirt, shorts and boots. You also wore an army belt containing assorted items and you were carrying a backpack.
You were taken to a local police station and then transported to a Melbourne police station to be processed.
During an interview with police, you stated that there were “a few very complicated reasons” as to why you killed your mother. You told police that you had previously considered committing suicide at a school camp, but believed God had told you to stop. You also stated that you believed God had spoken to GR and that God had said, not specifically to kill your mother, but to do something that would require you to be out of the house. You said GR had sworn to you that this was the truth. You said you only knew what GR had told you and your interpretations of the “signs”.

D. Your circumstances

You were born in Melbourne on 12 January 2008. You were less than 15 years and 3 months old at the time of your offending and must be sentenced as a child offender.[14] You were diagnosed at an early age with autism spectrum disorder.
[14]Chey v The King [2022] VSCA 262, [42] (Priest and T Forrest JJA and Kidd AJA), quoting Director of Public Prosecutions v JF [2021] VSC 328, [70]-[75] (Hollingworth J).
In your early life, you lived in Bacchus Marsh with your mother, father and younger brother (who is your only sibling). Your experience of primary school was a difficult and very unhappy one, and you regularly faced exclusion, taunting and bullying, as well as physical assaults from your peers. You also found the sensory environment of a classroom overwhelming, and specific sounds and noises particularly distressing.
Your father committed suicide when you were 8 years old. You did not know of the cause of your father’s death for a number of years. You only discovered this when you overheard your mother talking to your younger brother about it a couple of years or so ago.
You were close to your father and, prior to his death, would engage in normal father-son activities such as play-wrestling, bushwalking and riding bikes. You shared an interest in the military. Your father was enlisted in the Australian Army Reserve; you often dressed up in your father’s army uniform.
You do not recall having any identifiable emotional response to your father’s death. However, you witnessed it have a considerable impact on your younger brother. You also believed your father’s death made you grow up a lot faster than you would have otherwise.
In late 2017, you moved back to Melbourne with your mother and brother. You experienced support and care in what could only be described as a loving home.
Although not as negative as your previous experiences, you struggled to make friends at your new school and initially were the subject of bullying by taunting and minor physical assaults. You had a growth spurt towards the end of your primary school years, which resulted in your classmates desisting, but older students still tried to bully you. However, eventually you managed to establish a group of friends who all shared common interests, including in the military. Your closest friends included GR, Friend 1 and Friend 2.
You have been an above average student who has consistently performed well academically. At school, you were mostly polite and conscientious.
Regrettably, like many other children, you suffered as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns imposed in 2020 and 2021. Although you were still able to attend school (as your mother was an essential worker), none of your classmates were permitted to do so and you were unable to maintain meaningful contact with them. Their schooling was conducted online, and you took no part in this interaction.

It was during 2021 that you first thought about committing suicide. Your low mood continued until around mid-2022. It was around this time that you formed the belief that God had stopped you from killing yourself. In August 2022, you self-inflicted superficial wounds by cutting yourself repeatedly. In February 2023, your class teacher observed and reported that your behaviour was occasionally concerning.

E. Your mother’s circumstances

Your mother went out of her way, and made many personal sacrifices, to give you the loving upbringing that you and your brother enjoyed. She was unreservedly a generous and caring mother who looked after you as well as any single parent could. As your counsel acknowledged, you were incredibly fortunate to have been born into your family. Significant efforts were made by your family to enable and support you as best as they could despite the impacts of your autism spectrum disorder. You did not appear to have any animus towards your mother, even at the time you attacked her.
Your mother was in her early 40s when she died. She had many interests in her life. Indeed, she was in the prime of her life. Not only did she have a close connection with you and your brother, but she was in a loving relationship with a partner who lived interstate. Further, she was a well-respected and much loved member of a very tight-knit family; being close with both her parents and her siblings. She also fostered and cherished close and life-long friendships.

F. Sentencing guidelines and considerations

F.1 Governing principles

The only purposes for which a sentence may be imposed are prescribed in the Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic).[15]
[15]Section 5(1).
Those purposes include to punish the offender to an extent and in a manner which is just in all of the circumstances; to deter the offender or other persons from committing offences of the same or a similar character; to establish conditions which may facilitate rehabilitation; to manifest the denunciation of the offending conduct; and to protect the community from the offender.[16]
[16]See also Veen v The Queen (No 2) (1988) 164 CLR 465, 476.8 (Mason CJ, Brennan, Dawson and Toohey JJ).
In sentencing you, I must not impose a sentence that is more severe than that which is necessary to achieve the purpose or purposes for which the sentence is imposed.[17]
[17]Sentencing Act, s 5(3).
I must also have regard to a number of other considerations, including but not limited to the maximum penalty prescribed for the offence; any current sentencing practices; the nature and gravity of the offence; your culpability and degree of responsibility; the impact on victims; and the presence of any aggravating or mitigating factors.[18]
[18]Ibid, s 5(2). See also R v AB(No 2) (2008) 18 VR 391, 405 [45]-[46] (Warren CJ, Maxwell P and Redlich JA). The weight and emphasis to be given to various factors is a discretionary exercise which depends on the facts and circumstances of each case: Director of Public Prosecutions (Victoria) v Dalgliesh (2017) 262 CLR 428, 434 [7] (Kiefel CJ, Bell and Keane JJ), 452 [79] (Gageler and Gordon JJ); Markarian v The Queen (2005) 228 CLR 357, 371 [27] (Gleeson CJ, Gummow, Hayne and Callinan JJ).
Through a process of instinctive synthesis, I must balance these factors, which may point in different and conflicting directions, in order to arrive at a sentence that is just in all the circumstances.[19]
[19]Director of Public Prosecutions (Victoria) v Dalgliesh (2017) 262 CLR 428, 434 [5] (Kiefel CJ, Bell and Keane JJ), 452 [79] (Gageler and Gordon JJ), citing Wong v The Queen (2001) 207 CLR 584, 611 [75] (Gaudron, Gummow and Hayne JJ). See also Markarian v The Queen (2005) 228 CLR 357, 373-375 [37]-[39] (Gleeson CJ, Gummow, Hayne and Callinan JJ).

F.2 Nature and gravity of offence

The court must ensure just punishment. What is just in part depends upon the nature and gravity of the offending. The circumstances of your mother’s murder are shocking. Your mother was in her home and defenceless. Without any provocation, she was struck to the head with a cricket bat and repeatedly stabbed despite screaming out for it to stop and telling you that you were killing her. No fewer than 56 stab wounds (including 11 to her torso) and 42 incised wounds or linear abrasions were inflicted. Your offending was brutal and cold-blooded.

F.3 Prospects of rehabilitation and related matters

You are young and have no prior convictions.
In addition to your autism spectrum disorder, at the time of the offending you were suffering from a rare delusional disorder, known as folie à deux,[20] from which you no longer suffer. This form of shared psychosis may affect 2 or more people with close emotional links, where the inducer (in this case GR) is the only person who suffers from a genuine psychiatric disorder. You experienced this induced delusional disorder from around mid-2022. It was more directly linked to your offending and played a more critical contribution than your autism spectrum disorder. As was reflected by your actions, induced delusions of this kind are usually chronic and may persist for as long as the persons involved remain in close proximity. They give rise to persecutory or paranoid thoughts which may be grandiose in nature.
[20]Meaning madness of 2.
To compound matters, your unique and highly restricted autistic interests increased your vulnerability to developing this disorder. Your conduct with respect to Operation Continuity was aptly described as the taking of fairly rational actions in the pursuit of a very irrational delusional goal.
In the days leading up to your mother’s murder, GR was pressing you to initiate Operation Continuity. He had repeatedly expressed the desire to do so and was becoming agitated with the ongoing delay. That said, you actively engaged in the events of 5 April 2023 and the planning that preceded them.
It is very unlikely you will be afflicted by this delusional disorder again given the highly unusual circumstances that brought it on and also because you will never again experience the same lack of maturity that you did at the time the disorder was operative. In these circumstances, specific deterrence is less significant; and given the rarity of the delusional disorder, general deterrence is also moderated.
Consistent with this assessment, after your separation from GR, you readily had insight into the abnormality and unreasonableness of your delusional plans. This, combined with your young age, motivation to change and willingness to engage positively with mental health services, gives rise to optimism about your prospects for rehabilitation. That said, “a lot more work” needs to be done to build your social skills so that you may form healthy relationships.
In your circumstances, it is appropriate that a significant parole period be ordered. This will ensure that you have the best opportunity for rehabilitation and will better facilitate your assimilation back into society. This is particularly important when you do not have the benefit of support from family members or any other adult contact.

F.4 Impact of imprisonment

There are a number of factors which will make your time in custody more onerous than it otherwise might have been. Your autism spectrum disorder will result in you being more vulnerable to the impacts of disruption and any lack of routine that you may experience from time to time. Further, autistic individuals are known to be more vulnerable to exploitation, abuse, bullying and standovers in correctional settings.
Your autism spectrum disorder means that you are less likely to be able to pick up on non-verbal cues that might otherwise enable you to avoid conflict or violence in custody. Equally, your traits and means of communication may result in retaliatory assaults from those who may object to your tone and communication style as an autistic individual.[21]
[21]As you no longer suffer from folie à deux, this is not a matter to take into account when considering this aspect of your sentence.
Dr David Thomas, a consultant psychiatrist who assessed you in late 2024, expressed the view that custodial sentences are much more onerous for persons with autism spectrum disorder than they are for others.[22]
[22]Dr Thomas is employed by the Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health as a staff specialist psychiatrist. He is experienced in giving expert evidence, including regarding complex criminal cases. He had 2 meetings with you in November 2024 to prepare a report for sentencing purposes.
As has already occurred, you may also be inclined to engage in rule breaking behaviour to force your relocation away from bullying peers. Such an approach will make your time in custody more problematic.
In summary, your sentence will weigh more heavily on you than it would on a child in normal health. There is also a serious risk of imprisonment having a significant adverse effect on your mental health, as has already occurred.[23]
[23]See R v Verdins (2007) 16 VR 269, 276 [32] (Maxwell P, Buchanan and Vincent JJA). See also par 67 below.

F.5 Moral culpability

Your moral culpability must also be viewed through the lens of the 2 disorders you suffered from at the time of your offending. Although you understood what you did was illegal, and committed your crime in the company of another armed with knives and a cricket bat in your mother’s home, at the time of your offending you held the belief that whatever you thought God wanted you to do was the right thing to do. Given the practical effect the delusional disorder had on your ability to properly assess the wrongfulness of Operation Continuity and all that went with it, your moral culpability is significantly reduced. It follows that denunciation of your conduct is also less significant.[24]
[24]Ibid.

F.6 Remorse and guilty plea

I accept that you are remorseful. Your guilty plea and your repeated acceptance of guilt from the outset are consistent with this, but this factor is not entirely straightforward.
Dr Thomas assessed your remorse as only moderate or low. However, as Dr Thomas explained, persons with autism spectrum disorder exhibit very muted, if any, signs of affective change that would ordinarily be demonstrated by a person who is genuinely remorseful. Thus, the absence of a demonstrable response on your part is of little significance and your remorse is more properly assessed by an objective consideration of your more cognitive way of dealing with situations. It is clear you regret what has occurred.
Further, your guilty plea is of significant utilitarian value. It has saved those close to your mother from experiencing even further trauma by imposing the burdens of a trial upon them. Although it cannot be said that you pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity,[25] there has still been a substantial saving of court and other community resources for which you are entitled to a significant discount.
[25]You pleaded guilty on 5 August 2024, immediately before pretrial argument was scheduled to commence; the original indictment was filed on 21 April 2024.

F.7 Impact on victims

A total of 6 victim impact statements were relied upon. All but one of these were read out in court by the victims themselves.
It is not possible to encapsulate in words the obvious trauma suffered by your grandfather and grandmother and the unbearable loss they have experienced in the death of their daughter, your mother, at your hand. Equally, your mother’s sister, your aunt, who now acts as a guardian for your younger brother along with her other children, was a demonstration of immeasurable pain and grief. Indeed, all victim impact statements reflected the devastating and lasting impact that your mother’s death has had on her family and friends, all of whom were known to you.
These statements are relevant as demonstrating the serious effects of your mother’s murder. While your sentence is based on an objective assessment of the facts and the relevant sentencing principles, the pain and suffering you have caused must also be kept in mind. I have taken each of those statements into account in determining the appropriate sentence to impose upon you.

F.8 Delay and accompanying consequences

There has been considerable delay in the prosecution of this matter, none of which has been caused by you. The prosecution accepted a delay of 2 years has weighed heavily over you and is a mitigating factor. Regrettably, during this time you have also been heckled, bullied, threatened, stood over and assaulted in custody. Your experience in custody has resulted in the development of a significant depressive disorder; and a consequential transfer to the mental health unit at Cherry Creek youth justice centre. You have also been prescribed anti-depressant medication.

F.9 Current sentencing practices

Current sentencing practices are a factor, albeit not a controlling factor,[26] to be taken into account as part of the instinctive synthesis.
[26]Director of Public Prosecutions (Victoria) v Dalgliesh (2017) 262 CLR 428, 445 [50]-[52], 447 [56], 448-449 [63], 450 [68] (Kiefel CJ, Bell and Keane JJ), 453-454 [82] (Gageler and Gordon JJ). This is so whether or not an accused pleads guilty: Director of Public Prosecutions (Victoria) v Dalgliesh (2017) 262 CLR 428, 449-450 [64]-[68], 454-455 [85].
The court was referred to a number of comparable cases.[27] I have taken those cases into account. The case referred to with particular emphasis by the parties was R v Chey.[28] That said, the circumstances of this case are truly unique.[29]
[27]The prosecution provided a table of 13 cases involving offenders under 18 years of age sentenced for murder.
[28][2021] VSC 843 (Beale J); and on appeal in Chey v The King [2022] VSCA 262 (Priest and T Forrest JJA and Kidd AJA).
[29]See, for example, R v Basham (Sentence) [2023] VSC 79, [92] (Taylor JA); R v Hemming [2014] VSC 521, [48] (King J).

G. Appropriate form of penalty

It was accepted by your counsel that a term of imprisonment with a non-parole period was the only appropriate penalty to impose.

H. Youth Justice Centre direction

Your counsel raised the possibility that the Adult Parole Board may consider it appropriate that you serve part of your sentence in a youth justice centre.[30] In light of your neurodiversity, the desirability of continuing your education and related activities,[31] and the mental health issues you have recently experienced, it would clearly be in your interests to remain in a youth justice centre for as long as possible.[32]
[30]Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 (Vic), s 471.
[31]These include programs at Cherry Creek, such as the coffee cart and working at a café.
[32]Compare Chey v The King [2022] VSCA 262, [54] (Priest and T Forrest JJA and Kidd AJA).
You are before the court today by video-link so that you will be able to remain at the youth justice centre at Cherry Creek until the Adult Parole Board makes a decision in this regard. Although I am announcing the reasons for your sentence today, your sentence will not be imposed until the Adult Parole Board has considered my reasons for sentence,[33] which is expected to have occurred by next Tuesday, 15 April 2025. Unless the court is advised that the Adult Parole Board has not been able to consider the matter in that timeframe and to schedule a meeting for 16 April 2025, I will then impose the sentence upon you on the morning of Wednesday, 16 April 2025 and the Adult Parole Board may convene that same day to make its decision. This is to ensure that you will not be required to be transferred to adult prison and will instead remain at a youth justice centre until that decision is made.
[33]On 27 March 2025, an email was sent to the Adult Parole Board (copied to the parties) informing it that the likely time and date for your sentencing was 9.30am on 11 April 2025 (with a report from Youth Justice not expected until 7 April 2025). That email provided all the underlying documents relevant to your sentence. It also recorded that the Adult Parole Board had informed the court that it wanted to receive the sentencing remarks 2 clear business days before the sentencing hearing and the court’s unwillingness to accede to this course. The Adult Parole Board was invited to convene a meeting on 11 April 2025 in order to consider a proposed recommendation pursuant to s 471. That email was followed up on 4 April 2025, by which a response was sought to the earlier email. On 7 April 2025, the Adult Parole Board emailed the court stating the chairperson had been consulted and that the upcoming decision was a significant one. The chairperson “directed” that the Adult Parole Board would “require” the sentencing remarks “within 2 clear business days of sentencing”. On 9 April 2025, an email was sent to the Adult Parole Board stating that it was not appropriate to provide draft sentencing remarks to the Adult Parole Board (or anyone else) before they are delivered to the parties in court.

Conviction and sentence

In all the circumstances, in balancing the relevant factors as best as I am able, for the murder of your mother, I will impose upon you next week a sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment. I will fix a period of 10 years as the time you must serve before you become eligible for parole.
I declare that, but for your plea of guilty, if you had been found guilty of murder after pleading not guilty, I would have imposed a sentence of 19 years’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of 15 years.[34]
[34]Sentencing Act, s 6AAA.
I declare that 736 days of imprisonment, not including today, have been served by way of pre-sentence detention. This period, together with the further number of days served until your sentence is ordered will be reckoned as a period of imprisonment already served.[35]
[35]Ibid, ss 18(1) and (4).

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[2025] VSC 188

11 April 2025