R v Cheney
[2009] VSC 154
•22 April 2009
| IN THE SUPREME COURT OF VICTORIA | Not Restricted | |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL DIVISION
No. 1641 of 2008
| THE QUEEN |
| v |
| SARAH CHENEY |
---
JUDGE: | KING J | |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne | |
DATES OF HEARING: | 25, 26 September 2008 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 22 April 2009 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | R v Cheney | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2009] VSC 154 | |
---
Attempted Murder – serious psychiatric issues – sentence 8 years, non-parole 4 years 6 months – protection of the community - R v Tsiaras [1996] 1 VR 398 and R v Verdins (2007) 16 VR 269
---
APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Crown | Ms C Barbagallo | The Office of Public Prosecution |
| For the Accused | Mr G Georgiou | Victoria Legal Aid |
HER HONOUR:
Sarah Cheney you have pleaded guilty to one count of attempted murder on May 8, 2007 at the La Trobe University Bundoora.
You are now aged 25 having been born on the 29 November 1983. You were 23 years of age at the time of the commission of the offence.
The maximum penalty for this offence is 25 years imprisonment.
The circumstances of your offending were outlined in a detailed summary by the Prosecutor which is Exhibit 1 on the plea and whilst I will not repeat all of the matters referred to in that summary I will take all of those matters into account when determining the appropriate sentence to be imposed.
At the time you committed the offence, you were in your second year of a double science degree. You were performing particularly well at your studies achieving an A average and being on the Dean’s Honours list in 2006.
The offence itself whilst simple enough in terms of reciting the facts of what actions you performed to commit the offence, is a matter that is much more complicated in terms of your motivation.
Factually what you did was, that on that morning you made your mind up that this was the day that you were going to kill people, and before leaving home that morning, you packed your backpack with the items that you intended to use on this day including four steak knives, a pair of leather gloves and a mask.
At approximately 11.00am, you went to the toilets on the third floor of the library building of La Trobe University in Bundoora, went into the last cubicle and prepared yourself for an attack. You got out the knife, the gloves and the mask from your backpack, put the mask and gloves on and you stood there for a short time, about five or 10 minutes, with the knife in your hand trying, as you described it to the police, to build up the courage to go through with it.
You kept a watch over what was going on in the toilets by peering through the gap in the toilet door. A number of people came and went from the toilet area. And you described to the police that you were just trying to time it right.
You were able to see through the gap in the toilet door and you noticed a female, who was in fact Ms Jemma Clancy, standing at the basin occupied with washing her hands or adjusting her clothing. For some reason you decided that the time was right. You then unlocked the toilet cubicle door, walked out of the cubicle and lunged towards Ms Clancy, stabbing her in the back at least twice.
Ms Clancy had just taken a couple of steps in the direction of the doorway away from the washbasin, intending to leave the toilet area, when she was stabbed by you in the back. There were two other people in the toilet area at the time of the stabbing. You pushed either one or both of these people and told them to get out of the toilet which, not surprisingly, they did. Ms Clancy has also rushed out of the toilet area at this time, but not before you stabbed her. She has left at approximately the same time as one or two of the other women.
Ms Clancy, the young woman whom you stabbed, was unknown to you, you had never even met her. She was a random victim that you chose, it was her most unfortunate fate to be in that toilet at that time, when you finally acted upon the matters you had been contemplating for a long time. As you made clear to the police in your record of interview with the police you intended to kill the victim Ms Jemma Clancy, and others, at that time – in what could be described as a killing spree – by stabbing her and then stabbing others in the same manner.
After you had stabbed Ms Clancy and she had fled the toilet area, you removed the mask and the gloves and left the third floor toilet area, proceeded to the basement area of the library and sat and waited for the police to arrive.
You made full and complete admissions to the police, to which I shall refer shortly.
The victim in this case, Ms Jemma Clancy, after being stabbed ran from the toilet area to the front desk area of the library where help was sought. She was bleeding quite profusely, an ambulance was called and she was taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital for further medical attention. She had two stab wounds to the left posterior back and a left upper quadrant haematoma. She was hospitalised for five days and underwent a number of medical investigations and interventions including the insertion of an intercostal catheter into the left chest to drain the haemothorax. In layman’s terms she had a collapsed lung.
There is no doubt that this was a savage attack upon a young woman who was doing no more than going about her university studies. She did not know you, you had no motive to hurt her, as I said you did not even know her. Ms Clancy was studying behavioural sciences at the university and is now aged 28. Undoubtedly this will leave much more than physical scars upon Ms Clancy.
I noted that Ms Clancy was present in court during the plea conducted on your behalf and being an intelligent young woman, will hopefully recognise that this was entirely random and that there is a tragic background to you that in some ways has been beyond your control. I want to assure Ms Clancy that one of my main concerns is to ensure that no one else should go through the ordeal that she has gone through, and the sentence I am imposing is attempting to address your future and controls over your behaviour for that reason.
You have a previous criminal history consisting of two separate and distinct criminal offences in which you have been involved in similar, but not identical, violent behaviour.
The first was dealt with on September 8, 2000, when you appeared in the Children’s Court at Preston and pleaded guilty to a charge of “Causing Injury Intentionally” – the offence having been committed on May 1, 2000. You were placed on a 12 month good behaviour bond with special condition to attend counselling and treatment as directed. You were aged 16 at this time.
The circumstances of that offending have been detailed to the court by the provision of a number of documents relating to that offence including the summary of charges, the result report, the statement of the victim and a statement of Dr Forbes McGain, who treated the victim.
The circumstances of the offending were that on 1 May 2000 you were driven to school by your mother, you left school and returned home, obtained a pocket knife belonging to your brother and caught a tram to the city. You wandered around the city most of the day. At approximately 10.00 pm you returned to Mill Park by tram and then started walking. The victim was walking along the street towards you and as you crossed paths you stabbed him once in the lower back, and then proceeded to run off. You confirmed that he had not said or done anything to threaten or intimidate you, the victim gave chase and caught you. The victim was taken to hospital where he was treated, and required stitches to the wound. You, and he, were fortunate in that you narrowly missed his spinal cord, and he made a complete recovery from your attack. You made full admissions to the police in respect of your offending, but when asked your motivation you were unable to say why you had stabbed this complete stranger.
The second relevant prior conviction was on July 11, 2002, when you pleaded guilty to two charges – one charge of recklessly causing injury and one charge of recklessly threatening serious injury – the offences having been committed on May 5, 2001. You were sentenced to a community based order for a period of 12 months with special conditions. You were 17 years old at this time, the victim was a 15 year old fellow student. The circumstances were that you encountered the girl at school and she was rude to you, which resulted in the two of you becoming engaged in punching and kicking, with you being the aggressor.
After being separated by a teacher, you went to your locker some three metres away and around a corner and returned almost immediately with a steak knife approximately 21cm in length. You walked to the girl and said “I am going to kill you, you fucking bitch”. A teacher restrained you, and ultimately the police were brought into the matter by the victim’s parents. You made admissions and said that you had been bullied by the victim and her friends for the last month. When asked what you intended to do with the knife you stated that you intended to “stab her”. She suffered a graze injury from the fight.
That is some of the relevant background to this offending.
This was without doubt a totally terrifying ordeal for the victim in this case and she has provided a victim impact statement to the court, which I would describe as restrained. It does detail however the fact that she is subject to significant ongoing fears and anxiety, which is making it extremely difficult for her to obtain and retain employment. I have no doubt that she may well have ongoing problems for some time. Having taken the time to come to court to hear the plea put on your behalf, I am hopeful that she has a better understanding that this action on your behalf was totally random and absolutely out of the norm for behaviour of members of our community. You clearly have a significant mental health issue, which is of real significance in terms of your offending and your motivation for offending.
Professor James Ogloff, Director of Psychological Services at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health, known as Forensicare, is a clinical forensic psychologist with many years of experience in his field, and he provided a report to the court and gave evidence in this matter. For the preparation of his report, Professor Ogloff conducted two interviews with you; he had the summaries prepared by Dr Jennifer McGrail who is the senior psychologist at Marrmak Unit at Dame Phyllis Frost prison for women; the discharge summary prepared by Dr Russell Scott, consultant psychiatrist at the Barossa Unit, Thomas Embling Hospital; a report prepared by Mr Conrad Hauser; discussions with Dr Douglas Bell; he reviewed your medical file contained at Forensicare and the on-going files maintained at Marrmak Unit, together with the review of the management plan that has been developed for you; he also had access to results of psychological testing conducted with you in the past predominantly in March, August and September of 2007 and on-going samples of your writing and diary entries during the period of February and March 2008.
As Professor Ogloff was able to ascertain it, you were the subject of a normal birth but first presented difficulties in articulation at the age of three and you attended a speech pathologist for a year. You had indicated that your parents were unsupportive to your emotional needs and reported frequent conflict between your parents and yourself over money and alcohol. During these verbal arguments you would state that you felt unsafe and would go to your bedroom, fearing your father may hit you although he had never been physically violent towards you in your life.
At the end of Year 7 there was difficulty at school and your mother was asked to attend the school to console you. It was described by your parents as about Year 10 when you became not at all outgoing and not very sociable. From your late high school years you spent increasing amounts of time either studying, using the play station or being involved with the computer and internet in the bedroom on your own. You had no outdoor or social activities and maintained a very solitary life.
You told Professor Ogloff that you had not had many friends during your primary schooling and that at about the age of 10 when your friend’s interests changed to things such as music and boys you did not have that interest and accordingly did not have the social skills to fit in with your friends. You ceased being included in the social groups and you became socially very isolated. During high school you withdrew further and further. You reported to Professor Ogloff that you had only ever had three semi-close relationships with peers and each had ended when either you or your friend had moved away. You described using your imagination to fantasise about getting back at those who had hurt you or isolated you and that you found imagining bad things gave you a strong sense of satisfaction and control.
You reported having spent hours in your room watching horror films, reading macabre teen fantasy books and playing very violent computer games. At university your only social contact was with your lab partners which were focussed only on work and changed persons from class to class. You have absolutely no history of non-platonic or intimate relationships, you have no substance abuse history.
Your father is a retired shift-worker, a technician for an airline. He took a voluntary redundancy in 2002 and described himself as having a history of depression for which he was untreated. Your mother completed a librarian technicians course in approximately 2002 and she works as a librarian at a university. Both of your parents reported frequent verbal disputes and regular consumption of alcohol. Your paternal grandfather, who also had a history of heavy alcohol consumption, committed suicide when your father was aged 1. Your brother, who is three years older than you, had suicidal ideation when younger. Your brother had one brush with the law when he was 17, relating to dishonesty. He was never incarcerated. He has had no contact with you since you have been in prison or hospital.
You have a relatively extensive psychiatric history. You were admitted to the adolescent unit of the Austin Hospital following your offending relating to obtaining of a knife and threatening your fellow student in April 2001 when you were 17. You remained there for some 22 days. You remained socially isolated whilst in that unit and together with another member of the unit absconded and went to the local TAFE college where you armed yourself with a plank with protruding nails. You and the other patient went to a cemetery where you apparently lit a fire. Upon your return to the ward, staff members were required to forcibly disarm you, administer a tranquiliser and seclude you.
Professor Ogloff found in relation to the discharge notes that the formulation indicated a diagnosis of schizoid personality disorder with narcissistic traits and it was noted that the personality traits made it difficult for you to experience sympathy. The level of communication in your family was considered a problem and suggestions for follow-up treatment included family therapy to address that issue.
In April 2006 you self-presented to emergency at St Vincent’s Hospital saying that you had thoughts of wanting to stab others. You described an incident which had occurred three weeks previously when you had gone into the city with the intention of stabbing totally random victims. Although that did not occur, you found you were gratified by the thought of it.
You described to Professor Ogloff that in the ensuing weeks you became more concerned with the thoughts and ultimately decided to attend hospital to get help. During the three week period after you had gone into the city and attended the hospital you said that those thoughts increased in intensity and frequency and you experienced left-sided headaches which made you feel anxious, sweaty, tremulous and detached. You were admitted into hospital for 12 days. You had uneventful day leave, on both days of the weekend and you were discharged two days later. The discharge diagnosis was psychosis low level with a schizoid personality trait. You were commenced on 1 milligram of Risperidone. You were discharged to a private psychiatrist, a Dr Mack, but you discontinued treatment a number of weeks later.
You attended Dr Mack and talked to her about some of the issues of rejection, your playing of violent computer games and your solitary nature. Dr Mack encouraged you to use alternative non-violent games and continue taking the Risperidone.
When you next presented at interview you appeared more relaxed and less guarded and it was agreed by Dr Mack that you would elect whether or not to attend any further sessions. You chose not to. Dr Mack saw no evidence of psychosis and formed the impression that your presentation was consistent with schizoid personality disorder.
On 8 May 2007 you stabbed your fellow student at La Trobe University. You were remanded into custody and first admitted to the Thomas Embling Hospital from 29 May through till 27 June 2007, then again from 2 July 2007 to 24 September 2007. Professor Ogloff described you as responsive to intensive intervention from the clinical team. Despite those efforts, however, you continued to demonstrate intermittent self-harm by cutting and self strangulation. You made repeated serious attempts to harm yourself, including damaging your eyes. You described suicidal ideation and related to a sense of helplessness and hopelessness about your current circumstances.
Prior to incarceration there appeared to be no recorded history of self-harm. You openly admitted to Professor Ogloff that you sometimes use self-harm for manipulative purposes. Professor Ogloff stated that there was, from speaking to the staff, at least for some time in 2007, a belief that you may have experienced psychotic symptoms in the form of delusional thinking, including statements that God speaks to you throughout the day and that you must sacrifice your sight to move to the next reality and be close to God.
In relation to your diagnosis, Professor Ogloff said that there was consistent evidence that you suffer from a longstanding and profound personality disorder. The disorder is particularly debilitating and contributes significantly to your expressions of anger and self-harm. On testing, it was found that you exhibit serious disturbance of personality. Your disorder arises primarily from cluster A which is the odd eccentric cluster but you also exhibit symptoms from cluster B which is dramatic emotional cluster and cluster C which is anxious fearful personality disorders. In particular, you clearly meet the criteria for a diagnosis of schizoid personality disorder. You prefer to do things alone, you have no close friends or confidents, you are content without sexual intimacy and you are hedonistic. Professor Ogoloff describes that, within cluster B, you display some traits consistent with borderline personality disorder, including experiencing chronic feelings of emptiness, inappropriate and intense feelings of anger, recurrent suicidal behaviour, self-mutilating behaviour, distress regarding imagined abandonment and effective instability. And in respect of cluster C, you have limited traits associated with avoidant personality disorder, which is preoccupation with being criticised or rejected in social situations, showing restraint within relationships for fear of being ridiculed or shamed and avoiding jobs that involve significant interpersonal contact and being inhibited in new interpersonal situations because of feelings of inadequacy.
Professor Ogloff says that you displayed limited insight into your functioning and personality disorder. You know that you are different from others, that you don’t fit into groups and you express concern that you may not be able to change or control your behaviour but, as he noted, you have not yet developed an awareness of the relationship between your thoughts, feelings and behaviour.
He described you as not delusional but nonetheless experiencing particularly troubling thoughts and fantasies. You do not appear to have any capacity to control the fantasies or thoughts. If you are distressed, angry or even bored, you often begin to experience thoughts of harming others because these thoughts are empowering and serve to reduce the stress and frustration that you feel. You indicated to Professor Ogloff that you felt safe on the Marrmak Unit and were generally settled but expressed concerns about whether you could maintain an acceptable degree of control over your own behaviour, including harm to yourself and others.
During your time at the Thomas Embling Hospital and also at Marrmak you have engaged in a number of attempted and completed assaults of nursing staff as well as a consultant psychiatrist and reporting violent fantasies about a particular psychiatrist at the unit. You had developed an infatuation with the psychiatrist and you were angry when you learned the psychiatrist was leaving the unit without having told you why. You also set fire to the Marrmak Unit at the end of December 2007 and when asked why you had done it you stated that you set the fire because you wanted attention “nothing else works”.
In his report which was tended to the court, Professor Ogloff under the category of “Risk of Harm to Self and Others” among other things stated in the final two paragraphs:
Taken together Ms Cheney has a history characterised by frequent violent thoughts and actions that have increased in severity and frequency. She has been unable to control her behaviour while in prison or hospitalised. The dynamic or short term and changeable risk factors in her case also suggest that she is at high risk for on-going violence. No feasible plan is yet possible to ensure that she can and will control her violent fantasies and behaviour such that she would not present a risk of harm where she to be returned to the mainstream prison let alone to the community.
Beyond the violent fantasies and aggression, Ms Cheney has also developed an increasing array of self-harmful gestures and behaviours. Although she acknowledges that such behaviours or often aimed at manipulating the system so that she can get what she wants or needs, such acts can lead to her harming herself. As her levels of frustration increase her risk for serious self-harm and suicide will also increase. Thus she must be considered a risk of self-harm as well, at least for the foreseeable future.
Professor Ogloff indicated that fortunately presentations such as yours are exceedingly rare among women and are more commonly recognised in males. Indeed under the heading “Opinion Treatment and Management Recommendations” Professor Ogloff stated:
Ms Cheney’s presentation is rare in my experience. Whilst it is not uncommon to see young male prisoners and forensic psychiatric patients who have developed rich and disturbing fantasies of violence upon which they have acted, it is rare to see this in young women. The violent fantasies and urges which Ms Cheney has experienced for more than half of her life have doubtless been related to her serious disturbance of personality. Although any formulation is always tentative Ms Cheney’s violent fantasies and her aggression and violent behaviour may be explained by a long term self-reinforcing reaction to her personality traits and the ill-fit she has with others. It would appear that around the on-set of puberty, when one’s sense of identity and self is being cemented, Ms Cheney felt like an outsider and a misfit. This is likely due to the schizoid personality characteristics she possessed. This time is difficult for anyone but for one who is socially detached, inadequate and ineffectual, it is particularly debilitating. These feelings have been exacerbated for Ms Cheney, who was bright and has developed bitterness from believing she is better than many of those who have treated her with contempt or even failed to notice her.
…
For one who feels so inadequate considerable comfort can be drawn from contemplating how easy it would be to maim others. The thoughts initially fleeting and minor grew more intense and vivid over time. They are inherently self-reinforcing. For most people even thoughts of similar strength though fleeting can be drawn from such fantasies, the social mores and compassion for others halts the movement forward from thought to action. For Ms Cheney, though, who is profoundly schizoid there is essentially no social connection, and virtually no inhibiting factors. She is unable, simply stated, to put herself in the shoes of others. She lacks the full capacity for empathy. In fact as she noted when discussing the effect of her violent attacks on others, she has not even contemplated that she is harming a human being who will react with feelings and emotions.
Professor Ogloff in his report talked about plans that may be of some assistance to you Ms Cheney. In his view you have great difficulty long term in respect of treatment and the only thing that appears to give him any comfort is the fact that you are exceedingly intelligent and not a user of illicit drugs or alcohol, without that intelligence he believes there would be virtually no hope for progress in your case. He is, not surprisingly, extremely guarded in terms of his prognosis for your future rehabilitation or successful treatment.
In a very well presented plea on your behalf, your counsel submitted that you are a young intelligent woman who has battled through a life marked by a profound psychological disturbance and social isolation. There is no doubt that is a correct summation of your situation. He submitted that after you had stabbed Ms Clancy, it was like you had come to your senses and you pushed the others out of the toilet area, and desisted, and then went downstairs to await the arrival of the police.
You spoke to the police and made what could be described as full and frank admissions, including admissions as to what your feelings and thought processes were including this answer to a question:
just kind of thinking you know, what have I done? And I went back into the toilet cubicle just trying to think what to do next. I kind of knew I wouldn’t attack anyone else. I don’t know why, maybe I was in shock or something, I just couldn’t believe I’d actually done it after thinking about it for so long.
It is clear that you have had these thoughts for a very long time, telling the police officers that you had been contemplating and fantasising about attacking someone since you were at least 14 years of age.
In a series of questions and answers in your record of interview you referred to the incident when you voluntarily admitted yourself to St. Vincent’s hospital the year before this incident occurred, and were placed on Risperidone.
Question: And what was that for?
Answer: To help with these thoughts and violent impulses.
Question: Can you tell me, you said you were on it for a short period of time last year, your circumstances around how you came to be taking those drugs. What happened?
Answer: I’d been thinking about going on a killing spree and I’d come close to it. I had the knife and I wandered around with it and I didn’t do anything and then after that I thought I should get help – some help for this if I can, so I went into the city and went to St. Vincent’s emergency department and I told them that I was having these thoughts and I voluntarily went into their psychiatric ward and I stayed there for I think two weeks and they put me on medication while I was in there. And then I left and I saw a psychiatrist a couple of times after that, and that was it, and then she took me off the drugs and that was that.
Question: Apart from speaking a psychiatrist and the medication was there any other treatment you received?
Answer : No
Question: And how did you feel during and after the treatment?
Answer: I felt that I hadn’t won. My psychiatrist basically said to me there was nothing wrong with me and I just felt let down and I didn’t know what to do anymore. I knew that if I ever got to this stage again, there was no point going to try and get help for it because they don’t know if there is a problem so I’m not going to get any help for it.
Question: Do you think you’ve got a problem?
Answer: I would say yes.
Question: What would you hope might come out of what’s happened today?
Answer: Maybe I might finally get some help, I don’t know. I don’t think anyone realised the extent of the problem. It’s not until you actually go out and do something that they finally take notice.
The situation with your family has improved and your parents have been visiting you at the prison. I am not going to refer to your family situation any further or your past history as the significant matters have already been referred to earlier in this sentence.
You are a truly significant sentencing problem, and it is imperative for both you and society in general that you continue to receive the treatments and assistance that you require to enable you to try to learn to cope with your severe schizoid problem. You are currently a significant danger to the community as well as to yourself. Your condition seems to have worsened whilst you have been in custody and you have been involved in very significant episodes of self harm, which features were not present prior to your incarceration, and you also continuing episodes of attempting to harm both medical and correctional staff.
The consequences of this are that you are a serious management issue. There is, at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, a new psychiatric unit, called Marrmak, into which you have been placed at times, however when you become a management issue, which is the times that attack nursing or prison staff or your self harming recommences you are placed in what is referred to as a ‘wet cell’, which is a small confined cell in which there is a single bed, a toilet, a sink, and occasionally a television encased in plastic. The cell is monitored by a camera, and you are kept in your cell for 23 hours a day, you are not provided with any computer facilities, writing or reading material, once again to prevent self harm. From this stage you may, as you improve, be moved to a modified cell, which is slightly larger and has a shower, once again with no materials available other than the television encased in plastic, but you are allowed out into the common area for three hours on average, but not when any other prisoners are present.
These conditions whilst understandable on the part of correction authorities, who have an obligation to protect the staff, other prisoners and you, could only be described as horrific circumstances of imprisonment. It involves total deprivation of normal human contact, which is particularly tragic for an intelligent person who suffers already from social isolation and needs to learn how to mix and interact with other human beings.
The whole of the circumstances of this case are indeed tragic. No government or correctional facility wants to incarcerate any one under these types of conditions, but your mental problems are such that they are given no real choice, particularly as your problems intensify rather than abate. Professor Ogoloff is hopeful that once your situation is stabilised you may be able to return to Maarmak and become more involved in a therapeutic environment which will eventually help you to gain the ability to cope with these very difficult mental health issues that beset you.
The submission of your counsel was that the court ought to impose a longer than normal period of potential parole, to ensure that you continue when you are released into the community to receive the treatment and assistance that you so obviously need. The prosecutor agreed that would be appropriate in your situation and I have to say that is also my view.
There are really two issues that are of major concern in this case, the first being the protection of the community and the second being the overall long term interests of the community in you being as well as you are capable of becoming.
The principles outlined in R v Tsiaras[1] and R v Verdins[2] have serious application in your case, and the sentence relating to both specific and general deterrence must be modified accordingly. Whilst that must occur, your circumstances are such that I must also bear in mind your significant prospects of re-offending in a similar manner and therefore must bear in mind that one of the sentencing principles applicable in your case involves the protection of the community.
[1][1996] 1 VR 398.
[2](2007) 16 VR 269.
You are entitled to and will receive a sentence that reflects your plea of guilty, which although not entered at the earliest time, was entered after proper consultation as to your fitness to plead and the examination of a defence of mental impairment by appropriate medical authorities. You will receive the benefit of that plea, and I am of the view that the stage at which you entered the plea is not particularly relevant, in view of your full and frank admissions to the police.
There are other factors which I take into account in sentencing you, including the conditions in which you have been held, and unless there is a major improvement in your condition, may continue to be held, although Professor Ogoloff is optimistic that you may be capable of being transferred back to the Maarmak unit, relatively soon, your still reasonably young age, your intelligence and your lack of substance abuse, which will assist you and those treating you in learning to deal with the problems with which you present. I also have to take into account the offence itself and the consequences of the offence upon Ms Clancy and the need to impose a just and appropriate sentence, to mention just some of the factors involved.
As I indicated you present a true sentencing dilemma for any court, but trying to balance all of the factors to which I have referred you are convicted of the offence of attempted murder and I sentence you to be imprisoned for a period of 8 years. In accord with what I stated earlier I intend to impose a longer than normal potential parole period, and I direct that you are not to be eligible for parole for a period of 4 years and six months.
That does not mean, and no one should take it to mean, that you will automatically be granted parole on that date, that will be dependent on your treatment, and your behaviour in custody. One can only hope for your sake and the sake of the community at large that you are capable of receiving and benefiting from the treatment that will be available to you in the Maarmak unit at Dame Phyllis Frost centre.
These sentencing remarks, a transcript of the plea and all of the reports tendered in this hearing will be forwarded to the parole board so that they are fully informed of your situation.
I declare that you have spent 715 days in pre-sentence detention.
I declare that but for your plea of guilty, but not taking into account any of the other matters to which I have referred, I would have imposed a sentence of 9 years and 6 months imprisonment.
I make the order pursuant to section 464ZF (2).
---
3