R v Bristow

[2002] VSC 59

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF VICTORIA Not Restricted

AT WANGARATTA

CRIMINAL DIVISION

No. 1482 of 2001

THE QUEEN

v

JANINE BRISTOW

---

JUDGE:	Teague J
WHERE HELD:	Wangaratta
DATE OF HEARING:	5-13 March 2002
DATE OF SENTENCE:	14 March 2002
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	R v Janine Bristow
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2002] VSC 59

---

Criminal Law - Sentence – Manslaughter – Single stab wound to a previously violent partner – Multiple mitigating circumstances – 4 years prison – 1 year 4 months non-parole period.

---

APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Crown	Mr B. Morgan-Payler Q.C.	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Mr M. Bourke	Victoria Legal Aid

HIS HONOUR:

1. Janine Bristow.  You have been found guilty by a jury of the crime of manslaughter.  You killed Peter McCormack at Porepunkah on 1 December 2000.  You met Peter McCormack in 1998 at a hotel in Myrtleford.  For some months in 1999 and into January 2000, the two of you lived together in Myrtleford and in Bright.  He was a man with a propensity to violence, particularly when he had been drinking alcohol to excess.  You were the victim of his violence on more than one occasion.  He seems to have had for you a peculiar attractiveness.  The dynamics of the relationship were such that he appears to have had a form of power over you.  For months you chose to stick with him despite the violence.  After yet another violent episode in January 2000, when he beat you, the police were called.  The two of you then stopped living together.  To keep him at bay, you obtained an intervention order from the court.  During the year 2000, he worked on farms in the Porepunkah area.  You came into limited contact with him as you looked around for work.  You knew where he was living at the end of November 2000.  It was in a pickers’ hut on the Gallo farm out of Porepunkah, where he was then working.

1. During the afternoon of 30 November, you went out to the Gallo farm looking for work.  Before speaking with Maria Gallo about the work situation, you spoke with Peter McCormack.  After you spoke with her, you went to the pickers’ hut.  There, you talked with Peter McCormack and a mutual friend, Peter Finger.  After a while, the three of you went to the Porepunkah Hotel for an hour or so.  Peter Finger bought a slab of beer.  You all then went back to the pickers’ hut.  You sat around and talked further.  Peter Finger went to bed and slept.  You and Peter McCormack sat around talking.  He was intoxicated.  You were sober.  You talked for about three hours.

1. You talked about aspects of your relationship.  You also talked about your problems with anxiety and allied problems.  You had been troubled with psychiatric problems for many years.  The problems seem to have become apparent after you learned that you had been adopted and then found that your natural mother wanted nothing to do with you.  Shortly after that, in 1994 and again in 1997, you were admitted to psychiatric hospitals.  You suffering from a combination of depression and anxiety, with mood disturbances.  At times, there were manic phases and psychotic symptoms.  You had continued to receive attention for psychiatric problems into and through the year 2000.  There was a decline in your condition in that year.  Indeed you had an appointment to see the local psychiatry team on 2 December.  In that pickers’ hut, you potentially could have benefited from a deep and meaningful discussion.  But not with a person who had the kind of power over you that Peter McCormack had.

1. Over the three hours or thereabouts that you talked with Peter McCormack in that pickers’ hut, certain events took place beyond the talking.  I accept that your recollection of those events is impaired.  The events appear to have included that after you had talked for a long time, Peter McCormack persuaded you to go into the bedroom with him.  There, he said to you words to the effect that if he could not be with you he might as well be dead.  He seems to have been planning to exercise that power he had over you.  He got a knife from the kitchen.  He lay on the bed on his back undressed.  He held the point of the knife on his chest.  He invited you to push the knife in, and to do it quickly.  At that crucial time, he assumed his power over you would prevail.  Instead, you pushed the knife in.  The knife penetrated his heart and he was dead within minutes.  He should not have suggested that you had no choice but to have him back or to kill him.  You should have chosen to walk away.  On the other hand, I am satisfied that, if it had not been for the abnormal dynamics of your relationship, and if you had not been so psychiatrically unwell, you would not have had to make any choice at all.  I say that given your otherwise good character.

1. Before I turn to your personal background, I note that I have read the statutory declaration made last year by the mother of the deceased.  Her son’s death has clearly had significant adverse effects on her.

1. You are 46 years of age, having been born in August 1955.  After leaving home, you trained to become a state enrolled nurse.  You later worked in that capacity for many years, mainly with the aged.  You have been married twice.  You had a son and daughter by the first marriage, and a daughter by the second.

1. There are many mitigating factors that I must have regard to.  I have already referred to your psychiatric problems.  You have got to the age of 46 without any convictions.  I accept that you have genuine remorse for killing the deceased.  You can reasonably expect to receive a high level of support from your brother and other family members.

1. It has been submitted by Mr Bourke that a bond would be an appropriate disposition.  I cannot agree.  I am satisfied that a prison sentence must be imposed.  You chose to commit a clearly unlawful and dangerous act that caused the death of a man when you could have walked away.  However, given the low level of moral culpability, and the high level of mitigating circumstances, I propose to fix a relatively low non-parole period.  I declare that the period to be reckoned as already served under the sentence is 469 days.  I direct that be noted in the records of the court.

1. I sentence you to be imprisoned for a period of 4 years.  I fix a non-parole period of one year and 4 months.