DPP v Crossley
[2007] VSC 16
•13 February 2007
| IN THE SUPREME COURT OF VICTORIA | Not Restricted | |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL DIVISION
No. 1567 of 2006
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| ROWENA ALISON CROSSLEY |
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JUDGE: | BELL J | |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 14 December 2006 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 13 February 2007 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Crossley | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2007] VSC 16 | |
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CRIMINAL LAW - 16 charges - armed robbery – attempted armed robbery – obtaining property by deception – attempting to obtain property by deception – vulnerable women selected as soft targets – giving evidence against co-offender – rehabilitation – accused a drug addict suffering from serious personality disorder – denunciation of prevalent crime – totality principle – sentence of imprisonment for six years with a non-parole period of 4 years.
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Director of Public Prosecutions | Mr JD McArdle QC | Ms Angela Cannon, Solicitor for Public Prosecutions |
| For the Accused | Mr T Forrest QC and Ms A Hassan | Slades and Parsons |
HIS HONOUR:
Rowena Alison Crossley, you have pleaded guilty to the following 16 criminal charges:
·Armed robbery: eight charges (counts 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 11 and 14)
·Attempted armed robbery: six charges (counts 5, 8, 10, 13, 15 and 16)
·Obtaining property by deception: one charge (count 7)
·Attempting to obtain property by deception: one charge (count 12)
The maximum penalties for these offences are:
·Armed robbery: imprisonment for 25 years
·Attempted armed robbery: imprisonment for 20 years
·Obtaining property by deception: imprisonment for 10 years
·Attempting to obtain property by deception: imprisonment for 5 years
The circumstances in which you committed these offences were as follows:
Count 1 (armed robbery)
At about 6.30 a.m. on 14 April 2006, while walking in Ormond Road, Elwood, you approached Ai Wei Ng, produced a knife and demanded her bag. The demand was resisted and, after some negotiations, you took $105.00 in cash from Ms Ng and left the scene.
Count 2 (armed robbery)
At approximately 7.15 a.m. on 15 April 2006 Piroska Jozsa, then aged 72 years, was sitting at a bus station in Elwood. You approached her wearing a hooded long jacket. You asked her for her purse. When Ms Jozsa refused, you produced a knife 30 centimetres long, and demanded her purse. When she asked you if $50.00 would do, you took the $50.00 and walked off.
Count 3 (armed robbery)
At approximately 9.30 p.m. on 17 April 2006 while walking along Herbert Street, Elwood, you approached Tiffany Goggin and asked her for her bag. When she asked you what you meant, you produced a knife saying you did not want to hurt her and only wanted the money. The wallet was taken although you said that you would leave it near the van. The statement is not clear on the matter but it would appear the wallet was never recovered. As well as the normal contents of her wallet, Ms Goggin thinks there would have been something in the region of $10.00 in currency in the wallet.
Count 4 (armed robbery)
At approximately 9.30 p.m. on 2 May 2006 Rebecca Webster was walking in Glenhuntly Road. You approached her and said you did not want to hurt her, produced a knife and demanded her bag. Ms Webster refused to give it to you but gave you an amount of cash (in the region of $100.00) and ran away.
Count 5 (attempted armed robbery)
On 15 May 2006 at approximately 5.40 p.m. Maria Caferella, then aged 76 years, was walking in Elwood. You approached her and attempted to grab her bag, demanding money. The attempt was unsuccessful.
Count 6 (armed robbery) and count 7 (obtain property by deception)
At approximately 8.45 p.m. on 16 May 2006 Sharmine Muthu was walking in Westbury Street, East St. Kilda. You crossed the street and stood in front of her, produced a knife and demanded she hand over her bag. You took her wallet, saying you would leave it behind after removing the money. The wallet had approximately $5.00 in it and other items including credit cards. A short time later you used a credit card owned by Ms Muthu to purchase alcohol and cigarettes (totalling $81.79) from the Railway Hotel in Chapel Street, Windsor.
Count 8 (attempted armed robbery)
Samantha Hayes was walking in May Road, Toorak at about 7.00 p.m. on 18 May 2006. You approached her and demanded her purse. When she resisted, you produced a knife and pointed it towards her stomach. Ms Hayes swung a bag at you and started to scream and you walked away.
Count 9 (armed robbery)
Fiona Haig was walking in Osborne Street, South Yarra at approximately 8.00 p.m. on 18 May 2006. You approached her, said you needed her money and produced a knife, saying "I don't want to hurt you." You took approximately $10.00 from Ms Haig's purse. As you left, you said "only carrying $10.00, what a waste of time."
Count 10 (attempted armed robbery)
In the mid afternoon of 22 May 2006 Natalya Maluytina was walking in a street in St. Kilda. You approached her and demanded money. At the time of the demand you had a knife in your left hand. Ms Maluytina screamed and you grabbed her by her jacket. She broke free and ran away.
Count 11 (armed robbery) and count 12 (attempt to obtain property by deception)
At approximately 9.00 p.m. on 23 May 2006 Jackie Wykes was walking in Evelyn Street, St. Kilda. You approached her from behind and said you wanted her bag but did not want to hurt her. You then stood directly in front of her and produced what was described as a large kitchen knife. You allowed Ms Wykes to take a licence from her wallet, then thanked her and ran off. In the wallet there was a credit card which you used in an unsuccessful attempt to purchase two cartons of cigarettes from a Coles Supermarket.
Count 13 (attempted armed robbery)
In the evening of 24 May 2006 Kelly Nugent was walking in York Street, Prahran. You approached her and demanded her purse. At the time you were armed with a knife. Ms Nugent screamed and ran towards her house, and your attempt to rob her of her purse was unsuccessful.
Count 14 (armed robbery)
At about 9.15 p.m. on 24 May 2006 Hazel Hafey, aged 68 years, was walking in Brookville Road, Toorak. You approached her from behind while armed with a knife and apologetically demanded money. Ms Hafey gave you $150.00.
Count 15 (attempted armed robbery)
At approximately 5.20 p.m. on 26 May 2006 Choy Chang Man was walking in Mooltan Avenue, East St. Kilda. She noticed a male and female sitting on a bench near the apartment building in which she lived. You approached her, produced a knife and demanded money. She screamed and you ran away saying "I know you live here." At the time Ms Man was pregnant.
Count 16 (attempted armed robbery)
At about 5.30 p.m. on 26 May 2006 Michelle Pinchin was walking in Sommers Street, East St. Kilda She was pushing her three year old son in a pram. You approached her and demanded her purse. At the time you had a knife in your hand. Ms Pinchin said that she did not have a purse and you ran away.
The 16 offences were committed over a period of 43 days from 14 April to 26 May 2006. On five occasions during in this period you committed two offences on one day. You were arrested on 31 May 2006 at your flat in Elwood and have been in custody ever since.
It is alleged you had a co-accused when you committed the offences. He has elected to stand trial, which is expected to be heard later this year.
It is a matter of high significance that you are assisting the police in the prosecution of the co-accused. You have given a statement with a full account of both your and his involvement in the crimes. During the hearing of your plea on sentence you undertook to give evidence against the co-accused along the lines of what is in your statement. Pursuant to s.5(2AB) of the Sentencing Act 1991, I announce I will be imposing a sentence less severe than would otherwise have been imposed because of your undertaking to assist in the prosecution of the co-accused and I direct that the fact and details of the undertaking be noted in the records of the Court.
The statement you made to the police reveals the offences were all committed in a similar way. Your co-accused – who was your boyfriend at the time – would drive you around in a car looking for potential robbery targets. When you found a female on her own, he would park the car a safe distance away while you would commit the robbery with a kitchen knife as a weapon. You would then both use the money obtained to buy heroin.
Your statement to the police will be indispensable in the prosecution of the co-accused because only in one case is there any evidence, besides yours, of him being even in the vicinity of the place where the offences were committed.
At the time you committed the offences, both you and your boyfriend were in the grip of a severe heroin addiction. Each of the offences was committed to obtain money to feed this addiction.
You have pleaded guilty to the charges brought against you and have made full admissions to the police about the circumstances in which they were committed. The plea of guilty was made at an early stage and – as I have already noted – you have undertaken to give evidence against the co-accused. Therefore you get credit not just for pleading guilty – which is of great benefit to the community – but also for the quality of genuine remorse that the plea and the other circumstances reveal.
You have been dealt with by a court for criminal charges on four previous occasions in relation to relatively minor matters between 1995 and 2005. On the first three of these occasions you were released without conviction on your own undertaking for serious injury and property offences, and on the other occasion you were convicted and fined $500 for resist and assault police offences, all of which were lenient sentences. These previous matters are not of great significance in the present context. But, Ms Crossley, you must realise that the combination of these previous matters and the matters to which you have pleaded guilty before me means that your criminal record is now mounting up and will certainly be of significance if, in the future, you should re-offend.
The offences you have committed are serious – armed robbery and attempted armed robbery, in particular, are crimes of violence carrying maximum penalties of long terms of imprisonment. I acknowledge your crimes lack the aggravating features often associated with crimes of this kind. You threatened your victims with a knife, but did no more. You often apologised to them at the time and were prepared to negotiate to get the money you really wanted without harming them. The amounts of money involved were small, in some cases paltry. The crimes were committed in such a way that detection was ultimately inevitable. Your actions were desperate – even pathetic.
Nonetheless, you robbed vulnerable woman in public places, woman selected because they were soft targets – some of them elderly, pregnant or with young children. You caused them to suffer significant trauma. I was given victim impact statements from Maria Caferella, Ai Wei Ng, Sharmine Muthu, Kelly Nugent, Hazel Hafey and Michelle Pinchin. They tell of women being left in a state of continuing fear of being robbed again, of being threatened by an unknown person with a long knife, of always looking over their shoulder, of not going out after dark, of being afraid to be at home alone and of living a life changed forever. As one victim put it, you took away her freedom, her ability to feel safe and her trust in people. The statements were each read out in full in open court during the hearing of your plea on sentence, so you will appreciate the impact of your crimes upon these defenceless, innocent women.
Your personal circumstances are that you are the elder of two adopted children of a caring, professional family. Your father is a retired judge. You completed a private school education to the end of year 12 and, since then, have worked mostly in the hospitality industry as a chef, hence your choice of weapon. You have had few stable intimate relationships in your life. You began using drugs in your early 20's but, unusually, it was not until your mid 30's that you developed a severe addiction to heroin. You shared that addiction with your boyfriend. It consumed your joint resources and dominated your lives.
Before committing these offences you made various attempts to overcome your addiction to drugs. The most recent attempts are described in the report of your treating doctor, Jodi Gostan. Only 10 days prior to committing the offence in count 1, you attended the South City Clinic for help with your addiction, but did not follow this through. Sadly, in 2005 you made an unsuccessful attempt to end your life.
While in remand for these offences, it is clear you have been trying your hardest to achieve your reform. I see this in the evidence of Patrick Newton, your forensic and treating psychologist, who described you as having a determination to change your lifestyle. I see it in the long letter from Kerry Tucker who, as an incarcerated person herself, is a Lead Peer Educator in the orientation and support program at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre. Ms Tucker eloquently describes the difficulties that someone with your background experiences in prison. I see it in the personal development courses you have completed. I see it in the methadone program you have successfully undertaken in prison to get off heroin. Now you do not need to take that medicine. On 26 September 2006 you undertook urine sample analysis, which revealed you were free of all drugs. You know you will be a recovering addict for the rest of your life, and are committed to staying off drugs. I especially see it in the plea of guilty you have entered and the undertaking you have given.
Mr Newton, provided a detailed report which he supplemented with oral evidence. These are the main points he made:
·You have above average intelligence and do not suffer from any form of depression, psychosis or thought disorder
·You do, however, suffer from a serious and chronic personality disorder, which has plagued you from a young age, disturbs your behaviour and makes you socially dysfunctional
·Your serious poly-substance abuse is the most salient expression of this disturbance and dysfunction
·To treat your condition will require intensive psycho-therapy over a period of at least two years
·He has to be guarded about your prospects of rehabilitation, but your intelligence and other personal qualities give him grounds for hope, if you get the support you need
Your personality disorder has brought great sorrow to the life of you and your family. I believe you have been taking drugs to obtain relief from that sorrow, and committed the offences to obtain money for the drugs. A substantial cause of the offending is therefore the illness, which significantly impairs your capacity for personal judgment and operates to reduce your moral culpability for the crimes. I therefore accept your counsel’s submission that I should moderate your sentence as sensibly as I can.
The number and gravity of the offences you have committed must still weigh heavily in my consideration - eight armed robberies, six attempted armed robberies, one obtaining property by deception and one attempting to obtain property by deception. The armed robberies and attempted armed robberies, committed with a knive, were terrifying crimes for the victims to experience, as the victim impact statements show, and crimes like these are all too prevalent. The crimes are so serious that I must express denunciation, and deterrence of you and others, by imposing an immediate term of imprisonment.
There are many mitigating factors of significance: your early guilty plea, the assistance you are providing in the prosecution of the co-accused, the sincere quality of the remorse you have expressed, the illness from which you are suffering and your prospects of rehabilitation. I will not say anything more about these factors as I have dealt with them already. I will add that I think your prospects of rehabilitation would be best enhanced by a shorter than normal period of minimum sentence. And I take into account your consent to the making of compensation orders in favour of victims.
The total sentence that I am about to impose would be a disproportionate response to the true combined magnitude of the crimes unless the sentences for the individual offences were to be moderated and cumulated, as required by the totality principle. Therefore, after considering the total sentence that I might have imposed, I have decided to impose sentences for each crime that are lower than would otherwise be the case, which will ensure that the total effective sentence and the minimum term represent an appropriate overall response to the totality of your offending.
Ms Crossley, in all of the circumstances, the sentence that I will impose is the following:
·On count 1 for armed robbery, to imprisonment for 15 months, and this will be the base sentence
·On count 2 for armed robbery, to imprisonment for 15 months, 6 months of which will be cumulative
·On count 3 for armed robbery, to imprisonment for 15 months, 6 months of which will be cumulative
·On count 4 for armed robbery, to imprisonment for 15 months, 6 months of which will be cumulative
·On count 5 for attempted armed robbery, to imprisonment for 8 months, 3 months of which will be cumulative
·On count 6 for armed robbery, to imprisonment for 15 months, 6 months of which will be cumulative
·On count 7 for obtaining property by deception, to imprisonment for 1 month
·On count 8 for attempted armed robbery, to imprisonment for 8 months, 3 months of which will be cumulative
·On count 9 for armed robbery, to imprisonment for 15 months, 6 months of which will be cumulative
·On count 10 for attempted armed robbery, to imprisonment for 8 months, 3 months of which will be cumulative
·On count 11 for armed robbery, to imprisonment for 15 months, 6 months of which will be cumulative
·On count 12 for attempting to obtain property by deception, to imprisonment for 14 days
·On count 13 for attempted armed robbery, to imprisonment for 8 months, 3 months of which will be cumulative
·On count 14 for armed robbery, to imprisonment for 15 months, 6 months of which will be cumulative
·On count 15 for attempted armed robbery, to imprisonment for 8 months, 3 months of which will be cumulative
·On count 16 for attempted armed robbery, to imprisonment for 8 months, 3 months of which will be cumulative.
I order that 6 months of the sentences of imprisonment imposed on counts 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 11 and 14, and 3 months of the sentences of imprisonment imposed on counts 5, 8, 10, 13, 15 and 16 be served cumulatively upon the sentences imposed on count 1 and each other. The remaining parts of the sentences of imprisonment imposed on counts 2-6, 8-11 and 13-16, and the whole of the sentences of imprisonment imposed on counts 7 and 12, shall be served concurrently. Accordingly the total effective sentence is imprisonment for 6 years and three months. You will serve a minimum term of 4 years before being eligible for parole.
As prescribed by s.18(4) of the Sentencing Act, the period to be reckoned as already served under the sentence just pronounced is 244 days including today, which should be noted in the records of the Court.
I will make the disposal orders, the forensic examination order and the compensation orders that have been sought.
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