R v Bierton

[2009] QCA 68

SUPREME COURT OF QUEENSLAND

CITATION:

R v Bierton [2009] QCA 68

PARTIES:

R
v
BIERTON, Guy Jonathon
(applicant)

FILE NO/S:

CA No 15 of 2009
DC No 609 of 2008

DIVISION:

Court of Appeal

PROCEEDING:

Sentence Application

ORIGINATING COURT:

District Court at Beenleigh

DELIVERED EX TEMPORE ON:

24 March 2009

DELIVERED AT:

Brisbane

HEARING DATE:

24 March 2009

JUDGES:

Chesterman JA, Mullins and Douglas JJ
Separate reasons for judgment of each member of the Court, each concurring as to the order made

ORDER:

The application for leave to appeal against sentence is dismissed

CATCHWORDS:

CRIMINAL LAW – APPEAL AND NEW TRIAL – APPEAL AGAINST SENTENCE – GROUNDS FOR INTERFERENCE – SENTENCE MANIFESTLY EXCESSIVE OR INADEQUATE – where the applicant had pleaded guilty to a charge of unlawfully doing grievous bodily harm – where he was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment suspended after nine months for an operative period of three and a half years – whether this sentence is manifestly excessive or appropriate

R v Amituanai[1995] QCA 80, cited
R v Berryman[2005] QCA 471, cited
R v Toohey[2001] QCA 149, cited

R v Walsh[2008] QCA 391, cited

COUNSEL:

P E Nolan for the applicant
G P Cash for the respondent

SOLICITORS:

A W Bale & Sons for the applicant
Director of Public Prosecutions (Queensland) for the respondent

DOUGLAS J:  The applicant for leave to appeal against his sentence pleaded guilty in the District Court to a charge of unlawfully doing grievous bodily harm.  He was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment suspended after nine months for an operative period of three and a half years.

He was an 18 year old who on 16 December 2007 was attending a club with his father and a friend of his father.  They had been drinking alcohol as had another group at the club, which included the complainant, a 21 year old young man.

At about 2.39 a.m. on that Sunday morning there was a confrontation between a member of the complainant's group and the applicant's father.  Versions differ as to what led to the confrontation but there was said to be a heated verbal exchange leading to a brief physical altercation between a man named Sean Baker and the applicant's father's friend and the applicant's father.

Apparently Mr Baker was a large man and on the applicant's case, was assaulting the applicant's father.  The applicant then threw the glass he was holding towards Mr Baker, intending to do that.  It did not hit him, probably because Mr Baker dodged and avoided it.  It did hit the complainant who was seated behind Mr Baker.  In hitting him it caused some very serious injuries as the glass shattered, causing lacerations to his face and eye and leaving four or five fragments of glass lodged in his eye.  He lost the sight in his right eye, having suffered a right penetrating eye injury with prolapsed uveal tissue and total retinal detachment, right lower eyelid avulsion, a small laceration…