R v Bielecki

[2024] NSWDC 351

District Court

New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation:

R v Bielecki [2024] NSWDC 351

Hearing dates:

9 August 2024

Decision date:

14 August 2024

Jurisdiction:

Criminal

Before:

NOMAN SC DCJ

Decision:

Aggregate sentence of 2 years and 11 months imprisonment imposed, to be served by way of intensive correction order, with 600 hours community service work.

Catchwords:

SENTENCING — Penalties — Intensive correction orders — indecent assault — detain for advantage

Legislation Cited:

ss 23, 61L, 86(1)(b) Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW)

Cases Cited:

R v De Simoni (1981) 147 CLR 383

R v Nahle [2007] NSWCCA 40

Category:

Sentence

Parties:

Rex;
Martin Bielecki

Representation:

Counsel:
Defence: P Godkin

Solicitors:
Crown: S Richards

File Number(s):

2004/54543

Publication restriction:

Statutory non-publication order in relation to the victim and anything that may identify them

JUDGMENT

1. In 2004 the offender, Martin Bielecki, was in an intimate relationship with the victim. I do not name the victim to protect her identity. The relationship had been ongoing for about a year. In 2004 they were both aged 21. The evidence supports there were pre-existing issues in the relationship. I disregard details outlined in the Victim Impact Statement. Those details extend well beyond the circumstances of the offending for sentence and the content of the agreed facts. The hearsay representations of the offender, to the extent the victim is blamed, are also not used to inform the facts for sentence.

2. On the evening of 24 February 2004, the victim collected the offender from a club. From the moment they left the club the victim was scared. The victim drove the offender to his home. The victim locked the car doors. The offender pushed down the glass on the window to talk and broke the glass. This enabled him to unlock the door and he took hold of the victim’s bag from her lap. The victim was scared, and she agreed to go with the offender to his apartment. Once she entered, she sat and commenced to cry. The offender searched her bag and the contents. The offender commenced to accuse the victim of infidelity. He was abusive and confronting in the words used. The offender indicated he could get physical, and he could ‘bash’ the victim. The victim continued to cry.

3. The offender placed his hands between the victim’s knees, he reached up under her skirt and tried to grab her underwear. The victim was protesting by screaming for the offender to stop. The offender picked her up as she was crying, screaming and kicking. He removed her from the lounge room and took her in to his bedroom. He threw her on the bed. On each occasion she attempted to sit up she was pushed down.

4. This is the lead up to the offending. This informs the context in which each offence occurred. I do not accept that taking this context into account offends the De Simoni principle.

5. This background informs the distress the victim was already experiencing.

6. The victim and the offender were…